One Mean Girls Actor Learned About His Casting In The Funniest Way Ever

It’s true that all movies start as words on a page, but this gets you maybe a tenth of the way down the road to a completed film — and even if you embark on this journey with a brilliantly crafted screenplay, there are still a myriad of opportunities to make an absolute dog along the way. That’s because filmmaking is a highly collaborative art form. Everyone, from the director to the cinematographer to the editor to the production and costume designers needs to be dedicated to properly serving that terrific screenplay (it’s not enough to be on the same page, because there are lots of movies where incredibly talented craftspeople were united in wrecking a promising script).

One of the most important stages in film production is, of course, casting. There is an art to great casting (which is why it now has its own Oscar), particularly when it comes to piecing together a comedy. Again, it’s not just a matter of bringing together some of the funniest people on the planet. You need look no further than mirthless atrocities like Harold Ramis’ “Club Paradise,” Nora Ephron’s “Mixed Nuts,” and Akiva Schaffer’s “The Watch” for evidence of comedic geniuses failing time and again to get in sync. Chemistry is key, and it’s up to the casting director to bring in the right group of actors to find those ideal fits.

For an example of spot-on comedy casting, you can do no better than Mark Waters’ “Mean Girls” (and perhaps no worse than the “Mean Girls” movie musical). Even though he was armed with a diabolically funny screenplay by Tina Fey, Waters was faced with the challenge of finding a collection of young, mostly unknown actors who could bounce off star Lindsay Lohan in unpredictably hilarious ways. They hit the jackpot with the likes of Rachel McAdams, Amanda Seyfried, Lacey Chabert, Lizzy Caplan, and Daniel Franzese, but they almost missed the mark on the role of Aaron Samuels. As Cady Heron’s love interest (and Regina George’s ex-boyfriend), Aaron had to be an likably goofy object of desire. Jonathan Bennett wound up killing the part, but him initially losing the role almost killed a crucial element of the movie.

At a recent Hallmark Channel panel, Jonathan Bennett spilled the tea on the “Mean Girls” casting process. He was not the first choice to play Aaron Samuels. Actually, he was, but some executive meddling nearly cost him a major opportunity.

According to Bennett, he nailed his audition by making Lindsay Lohan blush on camera. “[Mark Waters] looks at me and goes, ‘Hey kid, you just made my lead actor blush. You’re gonna get the part,” said Bennett. “I’m like, ‘Yay, I got it!'”

So Bennett was surprised when, upon returning home from his triumphant audition, he received a call informing him the production was going with someone else — someone who, in the actor’s telling of the story, possessed the blonde hair and blue eyes look that was popular at the time (he cites Paul Walker and Brad Pitt as examples). Alas, Bennett was back to folding sweaters at Abercrombie & Fitch.

Little did Bennett know that the actor cast as Aaron was about to get himself fired by bombing the first table read.

If you’re wondering how Bennett suddenly went from, in his view, the frontrunner for Aaron to an also-ran, it all came down to an executive decision from the then-head of Paramount, Sherry Lansing, who wanted to go with the Paul Walker lookalike (whose identity is a mystery). Per Bennett, “I knew that I was Lorne Michaels’ choice, I knew that I was the director’s choice, I knew that I was Tina Fey’s choice, I knew that I was Lindsay’s choice, but the president of Paramount kind of … goes over everyone’s head and says, ‘It’s him.'”

Then came the disastrous table read. Though Bennett was not there, this is how he understands the whole fiasco went down:

“[The actor] goes to the table read in Canada, walks in, he’s wearing baggy sweatpants, a baggy hoodie, a hat. He’s, like, mumbling. He goes up to Tim Meadows and goes, ‘Hey man, who are you?’ And Tim Meadows is like, ‘I’m Tim Meadows, who are you?’ It was just super-awkward, right? He’s just saying all the wrong things. When he was reading he was mumbling. And Lorne Michaels from ‘Saturday Night Live’ is used to the table read being on point … so they were like, ‘Hey, make sure you deliver.'”

The flaky actor was fired immediately after the table read, which wasn’t a big deal because everyone not named Sherry Lansing wanted Bennett in the first place. It was, however, kind of befuddling for Bennett, who was shirtless in the middle of a shift at Abercrombie & Fitch when his agent called to give him the good news. Though he was understandably enthused, the young actor’s focus was on his job at hand, so he told his agent he’d call him back after his shift. His agent wasn’t amused. “You don’t have a shift,” he replied. “Quit.” 

And just like that, Bennett was on a plane to Canada to make one of the most beloved comedies of the 2000s that totally made “fetch” happen.