The directors of the latest Mean Girls reboot have revealed that they considered asking Harry Styles to play a key role in the new film.
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Directed by Arturo Perez Jr. and Samantha Jayne, and written by Tina Fey, the revamped musical version of Mean Girls was released in UK cinemas on Friday (January 12).
The new film is an adaptation of the 2018 Broadway musical, which itself is based on the original 2004 movie that is also written by Fey. Using the same plot, it follows socially naive teenager Cady Heron who, after moving back to the US from Africa, joins a new public school and soon becomes entangled with a “mean” group of girls known as the ‘Plastics’.
In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the directors said they’d considered asking Styles to play the iconic role of Glen Coco in the film.
Jayne explained: “There’s certain comedy that that flew and was funny 20 years ago, that just doesn’t fly today. We all knew that. But there are certain iconic lines where we would joke that there would be riots in the streets if it wasn’t in there. Like ‘You go, Glen Coco!’ Give the people what they want. Give me what I want! But when we were like, ‘Who’s Glen Coco?’
Perez Jr. then explained: “Who can it be? I remember us going, could we ask, like Harry Styles?”
Jayne continued: “We were like Harry Styles could be Glen Coco! Then we were like, hold on, we love to break the fourth wall: What if we are all Glen Coco? So, after 20 years, we can all feel like Glen Coco.”
It’s unclear whether or not Styles was formally asked to play the part; NME has reached out to representatives of Styles for comment.
The new Mean Girls movie has been described as a “lively musical update” by critics, although reviews have generally been mixed.
Reneé Rapp, who played Regina Geogrge in the stage adaptation, reprises her role for the film, starring alongside Angourie Rice as Cady, and Auli’i Cravalho as Janis Ian. Fey also reprises her role as Ms. Norbury from the original film.
In a four-star review of the film, Empire described it as “sharp, funny and strongest when it stands on its own two perfectly manicured feet,” adding: “This snappy musical successfully updates the original Mean Girls template for a fresh audience.”
The Hollywood Reporter meanwhile described the “regurgitated musical” as a “tuneless mess”. They wrote in their review: “All the effervescence and fun have been drained out of the material in this laboured reincarnation, a movie musical made by people who appear to have zero understanding of movie-musical vernacular.”
You can read more reviews of the film, which is out in cinemas now, here.
