Blake Lively Almost Played Amanda Seyfried’s Best Role
Blake Lively auditioned for the role of Karen in Mean Girls, losing out to Amanda Seyfried despite reading the character's lines in Seyfried's audition.
Blake Lively spent years on The CW in Gossip Girl, but as revealed by The Hollywood Reporter, she was almost a Mean Girl, too. Amanda Seyfried played the lovable and oblivious Karen Smith in the 2004 hit Mean Girls, but Blake Lively was a top contender for the part and even read the character’s lines during Seyfried’s audition to be the Plastics ringleader, Regina George.
Seyfried described the experience of flying to Los Angeles with her mother to do the Mean Girls audition. When she arrived, she met her co-stars Lindsay Lohan and Lacey Chambert, who were in the roles of Cady and Gretchen. While Seyfried read for the part of Regina, Blake Lively read as Karen, but neither actress received the part they thought they would.
As the casting process progressed, Rachel McAdams won the role of Regina. Mean Girls casting director Marci Liroff said Blake Lively was in the running, but the team eventually decided to look elsewhere for their Karen. Then the film’s producer, Lorne Michaels, suggested that Amanda Seyfried take the role.
Seyfried was shocked when the call asked her to play a part she didn’t audition for. But she took on the role and made Karen one of the most lovable characters in the cult classic film. Seyfried said though Karen isn’t too bright, she knows it; the character represents pure truth, and her unbridled honesty endears the audience to her.
Blake Lively was rejected from Mean Girls, but the actress found success shortly after with her breakout hit, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. In 2007, things heated up for Lively with the start of The CW’s Gossip Girl, which ran on the network for six beloved seasons. Since then, Lively has made a name for herself as a movie star in films like The Town, The Age of Adaline, and The Shallows.
Blake Lively also starred in DC’s much-maligned Green Lantern film, which starred Ryan Reynolds as the ring-wielding space cop. Though little good came of the film (unless you count jokes and memes), the film did unite Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively, who have been married for over a decade and have three children together.
Despite missing out on the Mean Girls fun, Blake Lively has fashioned a successful acting career for herself. And since taking on the role of Karen, Amanda Seyfried has done the same. Seyfried has starred in various film and TV projects, including Veronica Mars, Mamma Mia!, Jennifer’s Body, Letters to Juliet, Twin Peaks, and Hulu’s recent award-winning drama The Dropout.
Amanda Seyfried will next appear in the Tom Holland series The Crowded Room. Blake Lively is set to star in the sci-fi thriller Proxy and the romance film The Making Of. The pair have yet to star together since the auditions for Mean Girls, but a reunion may be in order for the once-competing actresses.
Seyfried has downplayed rumors of a Mean Girls sequel, but the legacy of Mean Girls and the ditsy but endearing Karen live on as love for the film, and its behind-the-scenes mythos continues. The film marked a pivotal moment in the lives of Amanda Seyfried and Blake Lively, and ever since, the actresses have been totally fetch.
