Did you know that Tina Fey—who wrote the screenplay for Mean Girls—took inspiration from her own high school experience for the film? And no, she was not the one being personally victimized… she was Regina George.
“I was [the Mean Girl], I admit it openly. That was a disease that had to be conquered,” Fey opens up in an interview with Net-a-Porter.
It’s hard to even imagine Fey being anything but her funny, sarcastic, witty, talented self. She described being mean as sort of a coping mechanism that she felt she needed to do in order to “level the playing field.” There was a time when everyone felt less than everyone else at some point in high school, as Fey puts it, and that there will be times when teens will not be part of the “cool group.” She adds, “Saying something terrible about someone else does not actually level the playing field.”
Today, she makes it her mission to be the complete opposite of what she was in high school. She makes sure that her daughters, Alice and Penelope, see the real side to things and not the superficial, fake, plastic side. She mentions that when Alice was small she would bring her to the 30 Rock set so she would see that being famous just comes with being an actor, but it will never define who a person is.
“This society is raising children who want to be famous for nothing, to just have followers,” Fey says.
That would explain why Ms. Norberry is always trying to lecture Cady, saying that it’s not all about sitting with the cool kids. What’s more important is being yourself.