Mean Girls: Meet "The Plastics"

20-somethings Rachel McAdams, Lacey Chabert and Amanda Seyfried are really sweet...honest. You wouldn't think so most of the time while watching them as Lindsay Lohan's torture squad "The Plastics" in the new comedy Mean Girls.

When we chatted, the girls were not wearing their Mean Girls uniforms of short, short skirts and tight sweaters but were decked out in casual jeans, heels and tank tops or blouses that were flattering but not Plastic-correct. Usually blonde Canadian Rachel McAdams now has dark hair for an upcoming role. She was The Hot Chick in the comedy film with Rob Schneider. Dark-haired Lacey was in Daddy Day Care and was the youngest daughter in the space epic Lost In Space. Blonde Amanda is far from the wacky brain-dead pop girl she plays in the film and was a soap opera star on "As the World Turns" and "All My Children". We got the girls to spill all about their characters and their own Mean Girls high school experiences. We learned that even movie star girls were picked on at school.

TeenHollywood: Rachel, you came from Canada to do The Hot Chick?

Rachel: Yeah, and I lived in El Segundo. 'Let's put the little Canadian girl in El Segundo. She'll never know the difference'. And I didn't until I'd been there for four months. (note: El Segundo is full of oil refineries and well, isn't exactly a glam California beach town).

TeenHollywood: When you girls play characters like this, do you try to play the role off screen to a degree, so that you can get into the part?

Lacey: No, I think we tried not to play the roles off screen. They weren't the nicest roles.

Amanda: I was a little spacey back in the early days of high school. My friends treated me like everybody treats (my character) Karen to a certain degree, which is kind of strange. But, I'm not playing myself.

TeenHollywood: Were any of you ever the object of meanness when you were in high school? Or, fess up...were you ever a mean girl?

Lacey: I didn't go to high school, I was tutored on the set, but amongst my friends I was kind of somewhat like Gretchen, (her character) kind of insecure and trying to figure out who I was, and feeling a little isolated especially because I was just kind of different than other teenagers because of what I do. There were a lot of things in the script where I thought, 'Wow, I can't believe that happened. I'm so thankful I wasn't in high school'.

Amanda: I was mean in 6th grade; I did three way calls. I brought my friends over, or I drove to somebody else's house, we did do three way calling. We all huddled together and called one person we hadn't invited, if we were mad at them or something, it was really evil.

Rachel: I gossiped when I was given a chance because I wasn't popular so the few times someone would invite you into the group to have a conversation it was usually about someone else and you just joined in because it was great to be a part of something. That I feel bad for. But it came out of this place of wanting to belong, and I think that's so much of what gossiping is, unless you're the instigator. If you're the follower, usually you just want some sort of approval.

TeenHollywood: Rachel, was your high school as bad as the one depicted here?

Rachel: Maybe not dealing with the same things, I don't think I ever saw anyone wear these clothes, even in the entire town, let alone high school. Maybe at the Catholic girls' high school, which is really funny, that they were the most risqué; those Catholic girls wow! But I joined the student council in my last year of school, just so I had a place to go at lunch, which is sort of pathetic. I ate in the school office and it wound up being quite a crutch to pull away from the lunch hour with everyone else because the cafeteria was a lot like the cafeteria in the film. Everyone stuck to their own table and you'd never sit down at a table where you didn't belong. It was just unheard of. That dreaded walk was like the death march through the cafeteria. So I just stopped doing it altogether.

TeenHollywood: You're in your mid-20's so was it harder to relate to your high school experiences?

Rachel: I felt like I'd been out long enough that I had sort of let go of any grudges, so that I could have a fresh perspective. I don't remember people's names that were mean to me anymore, so I have that distance, which helps me to have a fresh start. But, at the same time, I needed to be refreshed on what was hip and cool now. And I wasn't the popular girl, so I definitely needed to do some research in terms of talking to girls that are going through it now, because it's different.

TeenHollywood: Did you discuss your characters with screenwriter/actress Tina Fey?

Lacey: It was right in the script, you could just tell who the characters were.

Amanda: I thought her voice was so strong in the script, she wrote characters that were already so well defined and different from each other that the lines were never really blurred, It was never 'what's my job in this script'? We focused on being real but being as funny as possible, which is a such a great combination.

TeenHollywood: Lacey, you'd never been a mean girl before?

Lacey: No, but it was really fun. Gretchen wasn't like evil but she struck me as very gossipy and always wanted to get people in trouble. I couldn't relate to that part. I hope that I couldn't relate to that part. But I guess her biggest problem was just feeling insecure, a victim at 15 or 16, you're trying to find your identity, and trying to be your own leader and not having the ability to do that, she's searching for those qualities in other people. That was really Gretchen, she idolized Regina (Rachel's character) and was terrified of her at the same time.

TeenHollywood: Do you think we can feel sympathy for these characters?

Rachel: I think it's easy to tell why mean girls do the things they do. It's because they're insecure. For Regina, the interesting challenge for me was to go further. She's sort of like a machine, she hurts people because she can, and for some reason it feels good and she has an obsession with it, and I really wanted to go to that extreme. She's almost animal-like, lacking that little trigger that says, 'Wait a second, this is wrong. There are kids out there now that just hurt because they can, and I think they are in a league of their own.

TeenHollywood: Rachel, you were a champion figure skater. Were you a perfectionist?

Rachel: Yes, and eventually it came to a point where I couldn't mentally handle the nerves anymore. It wasn't fun, because my personality would start to change. Three weeks before competition my mother would say, 'What is wrong with you?' And I had no idea that I was putting too much pressure on myself.

TeenHollywood: Amanda, weren't you going to college when you got this part?

Amanda: I was enrolled at Fordham and then in a week I got Mean Girls.In the future I will be enrolled. It looks like I'll be busy this next year too. I'm working on an HBO pilot called "Big Love". It's about Mormons. Bill Paxton is my father, and he has three wives, and I'm his first daughter, and I'm about four years younger than his last wife. It's about the controversy between the wives.

TeenHollywood: Lacey, what about your college expectations?

Lacey: I started taking classes about two years ago. I go at night and on the weekends. It's a long journey. Like one semester I was able to take ten units, then another semester I took 9, and last semester I took three. It's a real slow process, but it's just really interesting because I've been out of school for so long, and tutored for so long, that I really like the school experience. I just want an education. I've worked really hard. Right now I'm just doing general education, kind of fun classes and basic classes, but I take a lot of psychology and writing, because those are the two subjects that interest me most.

TeenHollywood: Are you working now?

Lacey: Yes, I just did a movie called Dirty Deeds. It takes place at a high school. I play the character of a girl who's really bored and over it all and just wants to graduate. It's different from all the characters I've played.

TeenHollywood: What would you say to a teenager who might be going through this in school now?

Amanda: They should know first of all that it's not worth fighting, it's not worth trying to be their friend, the mean girls. No matter where it puts you at, no matter how far up on the scale you'd end up being.

Rachel: Mean girls are always going to exist, and you can't fight them, like you said. Don't lose yourself in going along with them just to hide, because you won't feel good about that either. But you can find people, and it might be outside of high school, but there are people like you out there, trust me. When I was in school I felt like I was the only one and I got to university and a whole new world opened up for me, and I've never ever felt that way again. I did theatre outside of school, and I think that was my salvation as well. I found people that had the same interests that respected each other. It exists, and keep trying to find it, because it's worth it to not succumb.

Lacey: I just think girls become so wrapped up in superficial issues that don't really matter, such as hair and make up and clothes and cars, all the things that are represented in the movie, and while those things can be fun and interesting, I think girls need to be taught and encouraged that other creative qualities are more important and finding who you are creatively as a person, and what your interests are, is definitely more important.

TeenHollywood: Would you guys want to wear this kind of stuff (showing them the press kit cover on which the trio wears very short skirts, very high heels and sweaters)?

Lacey: I like that sweater.

Rachel: I just can't walk very well in those heels. Other than that –

Amanda: The skirts a little longer would have been a little better. More coverage. All the skirts were hiked up two inches higher!

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Lynn Barker is a Hollywood-based entertainment journalist and produced screenwriter.