Tina Fey is set to reprise her original “Mean Girls” role in the upcoming movie musical adaptation, which she’s also writing and producing.
The writer-comedian wrote the original 2004 film, in which she also co-starred alongside Lindsay Lohan and Rachel McAdams as Ms. Norbury. She then went on to write the book for the Tony-nominated Broadway musical adaptation and the script for the upcoming movie based on that musical.
During a Thursday appearance on “Late Night With Seth Meyers,” Fey also revealed that Tim Meadows, who originated the role of Principal Duvall, is also returning for the Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr.–directed film.
“We have an amazing cast, I’m super excited about this cast,” she told Meyers, a fellow “SNL” alum. She shouted out previously announced cast members Renée Rapp, who will play Regina George; Angourie Rice as Cady Heron; Auli’i Cravalho as Janis Ian; and Jaquel Spivey as Damian Hubbard. The cast also includes Christopher Briney as Aaron Samuels, Avantika as Karen Smith and Bebe Wood as Gretchen Wieners.
“I do want to give you credit, you and Tim had parts in the original film that you couldn’t age out of,” Meyers joked.
“Couldn’t age out of – teachers work forever. I want it to be like when Gilligan from ‘Gilligan’s Island’ was at a trade show and he looks so old in his little hat,” she said.
She also dished on the “fascinating process” of adapting the musical’s songs (music by Jeff Richmond and lyrics by Nell Benjamin) for the film.
“The songs are sounding more kind of pop,” she said. “In Broadway, everything has to play to the back of the house, and in movies you can kind of come back in and things can play really intimately.”
Production begins March 6, Fey announced.
Watch the interview segment in the video above.
