Lizzy Caplan Almost Lost Her Mean Girls Role To This Celebrity

Lizzy Caplan opened up about how she landed one of her most iconic roles: Janis Ian in Mean Girls. According to the Fleishman Is in Trouble actor, she almost lost her part in the 2004 film to another big name. During a Nov. 20 episode of the Podcrushed podcast, Caplan explained how she “fought so hard” for the role after a “very, very long” audition process, where she was up against Kelly Osbourne.

“It was just the funniest script I had ever read,” she told Podcrushed host Penn Badgley. “I wanted to be in it so bad. I fought so hard, and then it worked out. Everybody had to audition, I think, for one of the two main [roles]: Cady, the Lindsay Lohan part, or the Rachel McAdams part.”

“I went in and they were resistant to casting me. Somebody reminded me of this recently: the studio wanted Kelly Osbourne to play that role,” she added.

Caplan asked a hairstylist for help in crafting a look for Janis. “We went to Hollywood Boulevard and put on dark wigs and just anything to send them screen grabs of me looking like a goth kid,” she said. “I don’t remember how long the process was, but I remember getting the phone call and where I was when I got the phone call that I got the part.”

“How many times has that really happened to you in your career: that you just want to celebrate and it’s nothing but exciting? There are no caveats,” she said. “As you get older, you know, [that happens] two or three times maybe. There [are] a few jobs that, if you're lucky, you get to really go out and and celebrate them. And that was one of them. And it was it was a blast. I I loved making that movie.”

Other big names auditioned for the film, too. In 2024, Ashley Tisdale revealed on Watch What Happens Live! that she auditioned for Karen Smith, and that she and Blake Lively “screen-tested” together.