1st Assistant Director Andrew Shea, Production Designer Britt Doughty (Mean Girls Trainee Assistant Art Director), and Location Manager Tristan Plant (Mean Girls Production Assistant) share how it felt to make this iconic film in Ontario with Ontario crews. From kissing the infamous Burn Book to walking into the chaos of the mall set, join us on a trip down memory lane as we revisit the making of Mean Girls and why it’s still so relevant today.
Original crew list from Mean Girls, 2004
“Lindsay was amazing to work with because she is so personable, and her delivery and performance were great. She’s playing a homeschooled girl who’s lived in Africa for nine years, and that was not Lindsay Lohan’s life at all. But she looks completely natural playing the role.
-1st AD Andrew Shea
I don’t think Amanda Seyfried had done a big movie before, but Rachel McAdams was more established, and she was in her mid-20s when she played Regina. The other girls were in awe of her, in reality as well as in the movie. But they were all great, and I would work with any of them again.”
What do you most remember about working on this film?
Andrew Shea: I don’t remember things from my own life, let alone movies from 20 years ago, but it was a memorable experience. As a young person who grew up watching Saturday Night Live, to have Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, and Lorne Michales in our world was very cool. It wasn’t a huge budget film, more of a medium budget, but it had lots of up-and-coming young actors and Lindsay Lohan was becoming a name. Lindsay’s guardian at the time was maybe a few years older than her so they just hung out and had fun like young people do, but she was always very professional. She was amazing to work with because she is so personable, and her delivery and performance were great. She’s playing a homeschooled girl who’s lived in Africa for nine years, and that was not Lindsay Lohan’s life at all. But she looks completely natural playing the role.
I don’t think Amanda Seyfried had done a big movie before, but Rachel McAdams was more established, and she was in her mid-20s when she played Regina. The other girls were in awe of her, in reality as well as in the movie. But they were all great, and I would work with any of them again. In fact, I did work with Amanda again, about five years ago on the movie Anon, so probably 15 years after Mean Girls. I didn’t think she’d remember me because it was such a long time ago. But as soon as she showed up, she was immediately like, “Oh, hi Andrew, how are you?” She even remembered Sarah Campbell, my 2nd AD on both of those productions. I asked her how she could remember us after all those years, and she told us that it was the first job she ever had, so of course she remembered every person’s name on Mean Girls. It’s nice to see that she turned out to be such an awesome person with quite a career going on. The guy who played Kevin Gnapoor, Rajiv Surendra, called me years later to talk because he was writing a book about his acting experiences and his background. It was good to hear from him again because I thought he was one of the funniest things about the movie.
Britt Doughty: I think what I remember most about working on Mean Girls was the overall experience itself – it was a blast! However, the memory of packaging the Kälteen Bars in the middle of the Art Department will always make me laugh.
Tristan Plant: I spent more than a few days making sure that we didn’t destroy the marble bathroom of the place we used as Regina George’s house and cause any damage we couldn’t afford to replace. It ended up being very interesting, though because I got to spend time close to the cast and Director and actually see the process. My memory was that filmmaking, in general, was more complex, but also less complex, if that makes sense. A little more analogue would be the better way to describe it. But I didn’t know any of that at the time. I was just there to make sure we didn’t crack the marble. [laughs] It seemed a whole lot simpler to a much younger version of myself.
Another time, we were filming at the external location outside Etobicoke Collegiate, and it was the Thanksgiving weekend in October. The grass was wet, and the cast for that scene was sitting on the grass and Lindsay Lohan didn’t want to get cold. So in between takes, I stood there with a propane heater that was lit to heat up the grass and dry it out. I didn’t really think anything of it. I was just like, “Whatever you need me to do, I’ll do it.” It’s one of the sillier things I did from a long list of fairly silly things, but that one memory sticks out. I was just happy to be there and help in any way I could.
How did you first get involved with Mean Girls?
Production Designer Britt Doughty: Mean Girls was one of the first shows I did with the DGC. During my interview with the Art Director, Brandt Gordan, we flipped through my portfolio – one of those big physical ones! At the end of my portfolio, I had some pages of my travel photography. One of the photos was from Namibia. “What a coincidence. The main character in our story, Cady, is from Namibia.” Hours after my interview, Brandt called and offered me the job. Some of my personal photos of Namibia were dressed into Cady’s bedroom set which I was very proud of.
Location Manager Tristan Plant: I met the Location Manager and the Assistant Location Manager for an interview while they were shooting at Sherway Gardens Mall. I was about 20 at the time, and I didn’t know what to expect. I think just by virtue of the fact that I showed up, they said, “Okay, great. We’re gonna need some help on all of our big background days, and the various high schools and University of Toronto Convocation Hall days. See you tomorrow morning at 5am.”
Twenty years ago, the Locations department didn’t really exist in the way it does now, so I started as a general PA. We were just there to help set up tables and chairs and tents and change garbage cans and clean up after the hundreds of teenage extras. I had zero creative impact on the production, but I was there to support them, and that felt good. I think the crew for Mean Girls, maybe on a big day with all the background performers, would have been around 200 people. Now, that’s an average day on location on a TV show.
1st Assistant Director Andrew Shea: There were a lot of comedies being made at that time, and I had worked on a bunch for Paramount. I had been a 3 AD years earlier and a 2 AD for a very brief period. I was a 2 AD on Moonstruck. It’s a hard job. But I eventually segued into 1st ADing, so I had been “firsting” for a while by the time Mean Girls came around. Goodwill Hunting and American Psycho are probably two bigger films I worked on prior to Mean Girls, and I did Half Baked as well. I was a total rookie on those, but by the time Mean Girls rolled around, I had learned a few things and had experiences with difficult or mercurial actors. When I first started in the industry, I thought, “Oh, my God, people in this business really get crazy sometimes.” But then it became no biggie.
Can you describe any specific locations or landmarks in Toronto that were creatively transformed to fit the narrative of Mean Girls?
Britt Doughty:I think the Montclair High location for the high school set was one of my favorites. It was exciting to see all the handmade posters I had made, dressed into the classrooms and hallways. Regina George’s bedroom was also an amazing transformation and so perfectly suited for her character.
Andrew Shea: The famous scene in the food court at Sherway Gardens Mall, when the kids are all acting like animals, was an interesting one to shoot. When I read the scene on the page, I was like, “What the hell is this?” Mark Waters, the Director, started working with the kids and with a choreographer to work out the movement. We shot that around Sherway Gardens, near the Body Shop (RIP) where Lizzy Kaplan’s character works. I had a great 3rd AD at the time, Joel Hay, who is now a 1st AD in his own right and has done work as a 2nd AD all over all over the world on big movies. Joel was a real workhorse, and he really saved my bacon a lot. We had tons of kids everywhere – party scenes, the hallways and classrooms scenes, assemblies, the Sherway Gardens scene. But he did an incredible job.
Tristan Plant: I didn’t get to work on the Sherway Gardens scenes, but we filmed a lot at Convocation Hall at the University of Toronto, and I was still a student there at the time. My residence was at Trinity College, so I could literally cross the street and walk to the 5 AM call time. I just remember the set being a big busy whirlwind. Back then I couldn’t fathom how a person would go about arranging for all that. We shot in a couple of different schools, a few of which don’t exist today and some pretty interesting houses. The last movie I worked on, Doin’ It, we specifically shot the exterior of the Etobicoke Collegiate Institute because that was the Mean Girls school, and that film kept coming up as a reference in pre production.
Britt, you were involved in creating Mean Girls’ infamous “Burn Book”. Can you tell us about that experience?
Britt Doughty: I worked closely with the amazing Production Designer of Mean Girls, Cary White, on making the Burn Book. As it was such hero prop, there were several made. I was in charge of writing out and assembling the scripted Burn Book pages inside. But the real claim I have was from the bright red lipstick marks on the front covers which I personally installed!
Was working on Mean Girls a formative experience for you?
Britt Doughty: I learned a lot working on Mean Girls. There were not many of us in the Art Department which meant I got a fair bit of experience, mainly creating graphics. Everyone in the Department was very supportive and willing to teach a newer Member like myself. These days, I spend as much time as I can guiding newer Members of the Art Department.
Tristan Plant: Definitely. It was integral in helping me to decide that this was a career that I wanted to pursue and here we are 20 years later. The business was different 20 years ago, but it was still a fun experience even though I was just doing stuff like dealing with garbage. I always tell my staff, if it’s not dangerous, you shouldn’t say no, even if you feel a little silly doing it. If it goes wrong, it’ll help you determine how to make sure that nothing like this ever happens again, and if it goes right, you’ll be very happy to be that close to the actual action. As you mature in the industry, youstart to understand all the moving parts better, and at the end of the day, those details are important. Maybe they got that day done faster or the performance was a little bit better because the AC or the heater was working properly. It does sound silly, but I think it’s something that people new to the industry should think about.
Was it surreal for you to see a film you worked on blow up so much?
Tristan Plant: People still ask me about it. When somebody looks up my IMDB it’s probably the first production that shows up. I encounter people all the time, when we’re scouting or through the permitting process, who look at me and say, “I can’t believe you worked on Mean Girls!” But at the time, when I was 20, it was just another job. This could make me sound like a very old man, but internet buzz wasn’t really a thing 20 years ago. We didn’t even really have smartphones. So, at the time, even though I watched it and enjoyed it, I didn’t really see the buzz around it. I just moved on to the next project. But I have younger sisters, and they both loved it. They talked about it all the time, and they still do today.
Andrew Shea: A lot of comedies were coming out at the time, and we didn’t really know if this one was going to be set apart, except for the fact that Lindsay Lohan was a known commodity, and Tina Fey and Amy Poehler were big deals. Plus, the fact that Lorne Michaels took a very personal interest made it seem like Mean Girls might be something more. It’s interesting to look at it 20 years later and see how quotable it is – I didn’t know how quotable it would be at the time, but I see young people, including my kids and especially girls, can quote Mean Girls up and down. I love that it got recognized, not just for its box office, but for its social impact. It was empowering to a lot of young women at the time, and to the gay community as well. It overall had a positive spirit, even though somebody gets hit by a bus in the end. [laughs]
Mean Girls is in the zeitgeist again as its musical movie adaptation hit theatres earlier this year, and October 3rd is unofficial “Mean Girls Day”. Why do you think audiences are still so obsessed with this story?
Andrew Shea: You see these genres keep on being staged and re-staged, so Mean Girls totally has lasting power, and still holds up 20 years later. Mark Waters, the Director, his brother Daniel wrote the movie Heathers. So Mark and Daniel Waters have this sensibility to their comedy and way of thinking that lends itself to these classic teen movies. It’s not saccharine, so people relate to it on a real level.
Britt Doughty: Aside from the incredibly funny lines, the main messages in Mean Girls are still so relatable and relevant. Also, I don’t know anyone who can’t quote a line from this movie!
Tristan Plant: I think it came out at the right time. We were out of the 20th century, and the world was starting to change, heading towards the way that it is now. In hindsight, now that I have kids in school, the film tackles some pretty serious subject matter even though it’s a comedy. But they approached it the right way. The creative team did a great job, and having all those comedians around was obviously entertaining to watch. They had a great cast. I think all those things together really made it what it became.
Mean Girls is one of the few projects I’ve worked on where basically everyone I’ve ever met has seen the movie, or at least knows what it is. Even though I just helped to support the making of it, I’m still proud to say that I was part of it. It was a great way to start my career.
