Although Karen Smith could have been a run-of-the-mill ditz in Mean Girls, Amanda Seyfried flourished in the role while borrowing the persona of one of the most iconic actors of all time. As a result, we were introduced to a versatile screen talent who would go on to gather acclaim in both TV and movies.
And it all started with lifting a famous voice straight from the 1950s.
Amanda Seyfried originally auditioned for a different ‘Mean Girls’ role
Seyfried’s future was very much up in the air as she headed to her first class at Fordham University in New York City in 2003. But according to an interview with Self, Seyfried never made it.
Already late from doing a screen test for Mean Girls, Amanda Seyfried bailed on the class (and Fordham) altogether. After ditching class, she headed to Los Angeles to audition for the movie after the screen test proved successful.
When she got there, her chameleon-like ability was on full display. Per Vulture, director Mark Waters was very impressed with Seyfried’s version of Regina George, the tyrannical queen bee of the Plastics clique. Waters called Seyfried “kind of brilliant” and seriously considered casting her before ultimately bringing on Rachel McAdams. Instead, producer Lorne Michaels suggested Seyfried try out the skin of Karen Smith, Regina’s hilariously scatter-brained sidekick.
Though she had already appeared on As the World Turns and All My Children, Seyfried felt completely out of place looking around at Lindsay Lohan and Lacey Chabert. From E! News, Seyfried said at the 2023 SAG Awards that she “didn’t belong” and was dealing with some imposter syndrome. But Seyfried pulled it together and nailed the audition, beating out Blake Lively for the role. The result would change the trajectory of Seyfried’s career.
For ‘Mean Girls,’ Amanda Seyfried borrowed Marilyn Monroe’s voice
In need of inspiration to add to the character, Seyfried went back more than a half-century to learn from one of the most famous blondes of them all.
Marilyn Monroe’s performance as Sugar Kane in Some Like It Hot capped a decade on top for the Hollywood superstar. In the Billy Wilder classic, Monroe plays a ukulele player and singer caught up in the shenanigans of Joe and Jerry (Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon). To complete Karen’s persona, Seyfried borrowed Monroe’s famously wispy voice and aura. She also got a few tips from Waters along the way to get it just right.
But Seyfried also clearly saw Monroe as more than just a sex symbol as she created a foundation for Karen. “I think the reason we love Karen so much, and the reason she’s so funny,” Seyfried said to Vanity Fair, “is that she’s just being brutally honest.” For Seyfried, the forthright vulnerability of both Monroe’s character and Karen was what made her so endearing (and funny).
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That adorable earnestness ensured Karen was too likable to be an average screwball ditz, making her every bit as important to the story as Cady and Regina.
But Seyfried has complicated feelings about the breakthrough role. Although she insists it’s the best work of her career, she didn’t think she was as good as Karen at the time. “Really, I thought I was doing a terrible job,” she told IndieWire while praising everyone around her.
Instead of taking the credit, Seyfried insisted it was really the direction of Waters and the pen of screenwriter Tina Fey that made her performance pop.
Karen was a springboard for Seyfried
With her multi-character Mean Girls audition and strong performance, Seyfried proved she had plenty of all-around ability.
Her next big break was landing a central role on Big Love, HBO’s popular TV drama about modern-day polygamists. Seyfried was a standout on the show as Bill Paxton’s lovable daughter Sarah, who was almost the exact opposite of ditzy disaster Karen. Since Big Love, Seyfried has continued to talk fondly about Mean Girls while becoming one of today’s go-to lead actors.
Monroe was even back on Seyfried’s mind as she prepared for one of the most audacious roles of her career. In January 2012, only a month after being cast as the lead in Lovelace, Seyfried told Her World that her blonde mole was her best physical attribute. “When make-up artists darken it,” she gushed, “I feel like Marilyn Monroe.”
But Seyfried has channeled Monroe in other ways as well. Like Monroe in Some Like It Hot, Seyfried has shown plenty of singing ability throughout her career, from the popular Mamma Mia musicals to the 2012 version of Les Misérables.
Even with a thriving career, however, Seyfried still feels a strong connection to Mean Girls and is itching to get the Plastics back together. With Paramount+ putting together a film version of the Mean Girls Broadway musical, Seyfried said she definitely wanted in on the action — possibly in a cameo role.
“It’s not it’s not really up to us, is it?” she said to ET this past February. “All four of us are 100% into it.”
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