The role Amanda Seyfried wants to be remembered for: “I hope they quote it on my grave”
Amanda Seyfried has donned way too many characters with ease over the years, whether it was Lilly Kane in Veronica Mars, Elizabeth Holmes in The Dropout, Sophie Sheridan in Mamma Mia!, or Anita in Jennifer’s Body. She has gained acclaim for every part she’s played, immortalising the fictional character in the real world, and yet, there is only one role she wants to be remembered for, even in death.
Unsurprisingly, it’s Karen Smith in Mean Girls. At the time of its release, Mean Girls was majorly renowned for transforming Lindsay Lohan’s Disney stardom into Hollywood fame. Of course, it is also known for mapping the limitlessness of Rachel McAdams’ skills as an actor as 2004 saw her turn vengeful Regina in the teen comedy as well as the kind, compassionate Allie madly in love with Noah in The Notebook. It would be an understatement to say that the brilliance of the other actors in the film was mostly sidelined.
But beyond its box office fame, Mean Girls and its relatably flawed characters gained cult status, ensuring that Regina, Karen, and Gretchen remain in the spotlight even after Lohan’s Cady won the game. It is one of the few gems that transcended its era, ensuring that the decades since its making won’t tamper the fondness with which every generation relates to it. Happy Sad Confused podcast’s Josh Horowitz highlighted the same when Seyfried sat down for a chat with him, prompting the actor to agree that the film and its characters are, and will remain, immortal.
She still remembers the “unadulterated fun” while shooting the film at 17. Evidently, it left as much a mark on her as it had (and will) on the past, present, and future fans of Mean Girls as Seyfried wishes to be as closely associated with the film as possible.
“I hope they quote it on my grave,” said Seyfried. “That’s an organic moment. It was, in many ways, a perfect movie, and people relate to it, still. It connected us, and it continues to. I will always be excited to talk about it,” she explained, adding, “Any day, I’ll honour that movie for what it did for me as a person.”
The actor’s love for the film doesn’t stem from the millions she cashed at the box office, but rather from the fact that Mean Girls was her first film. For her, it is a core memory defined by new experiences as, until then, her career was made up of recurring roles in television dramas.
“I truly think the experience of making it has nothing to do with how well it did, for sure,” she shared. “I think the experience for me is very specific because I’d never been in a movie before. I’d never been on a set like that before. And I was working with people who had. So, for me, it was just, everything was new.”
Given the success of the film, attempts were made to cash in on its fame. It started with the 2011 made-for-television sequel of the same name. After it crashed and burned, talks of making a direct sequel to the 2004 film picked up but never reached fruition even after the cast, including Seyfried, agreed to reprise their roles. A musical based on a Broadway play based on the film hit theatres in 2024 and did well financially but failed to surpass or even meet the popularity and success of the original.
