'Mean Girls' cast members honor the film's 10th anniversary

NEW YORK, April 30 (UPI) -- Several Mean Girls cast and crew members have shared their memories to honor the movie's 10th anniversary.

Director Mark Waters, writer Tina Fey, and actors Rachel McAdams (Regina), Lacey Chabert (Gretchen), Lizzy Caplan (Janis) and Daniel Franzese (Damian) all spoke to the New York Times to mark the occasion. The teen comedy debuted in theaters April 30, 2004, and remains a popular cult favorite to this day.

Fey, who wrote the screenplay and appeared as Ms. Norbury in the film, says she intended the movie to have a "positive core" despite its cliquey, backstabbing teenage subjects.

"I revisited high school behaviors of my own," the actress says of the script. "Futile, poisonous bitter behaviors that served no purpose."

"I related to the part in the movie where girls are cutting themselves down," Chabert acknowledges. "I was never the cool kid. I wore Minnie Mouse stuff. And growing up in Hollywood, I always felt under a microscope."

Caplan suggests that like the teenage characters in the movie, "all girls that age are looking for their 'thing.'"

"I was fairly angsty in high school," she relates. "I had my hair dyed black and was into Charles Bukowski. For the movie, I wanted to wear tons of layers and dark eye makeup... Honestly, I had zero idea that people wouldn't find my look in that movie very cool and kinda sexy."

Mean Girls was a box office success that grossed over $129 million worldwide. The movie remains popular among fans, and continues to reach new audiences via the Internet and reruns on cable television.

"When you're making something, you kind of have no concept of it," McAdams says of the movie's success. "Tina hit a nerve about girl politics, but in a nonconfrontational way."

"My older daughter knew about Mean Girls before she knew I directed it," Waters recalls. "We let our daughters watch it...[and] my 11-year-old's first comment was, 'Who's Danny DeVito?' My 7-year-old's was, 'What's a wide-set vagina?' That's when I knew we made a mistake."

As for the future, Fey reveals that Mean Girls is "early in the process" for a musical.

"We've been enjoying trying to write," she says. "I wish so badly we could have had it done in some form for the 10th anniversary, but hopefully before the 15th."