The late ‘90s and early 2000s saw the rise of the classic teenage, high school-esque storylines in film. Movies like “10 Things I Hate About You” and “Clueless” became instant classics among young film fans, but undoubtedly, Tina Fey’s “Mean Girls” takes the crown as one of the most iconic films of its kind.
A combination of the film’s premise, quotability and its sort of self-awareness of the cliche nature of the movie’s genre makes “Mean Girls” stand out in the crowd. Now, over 20 years after the movie’s original release, a new generation of viewers will get to see a new version of the movie: one that includes direct LGBTQ+ representation, a queer-coded Regina George played by a North Carolina native and Tony award-winning music from the Broadway musical of the same name.
“Mean Girls” (2024) follows the same plot as the original movie — the plot centers around 16-year-old Cady Heron, who moved back to the United States from Kenya with her mom. She attends high school for the first time, where she discovers the “hellscape” that is cliques and social hierarchies within the student body. She befriends two now openly queer characters, Janis ‘Imi’ike and Damian Hubbard, who help Cady navigate life in the teenage nightmare of their high school.
Cady is introduced to the “Plastics,” a trio of preppy girls: Gretchen Wieners, Karen Shetty and ‘queen bee’ Regina George, who is played by Renee Rapp, an openly bisexual singer and actress from Huntersville. Janis convinces Cady to infiltrate the popular friend group, and from there, chaos ensues.
The 2024 adaptation of Mean Girls provides a fresh, fun take on the well-received plot, but it also played more with the queer subtext of the original film.
Meet North Carolina’s queer Regina George
Everyone’s favorite “mean girl” Regina George was originally played by Rachel McAdams, who practically invented the preppy, blonde mean girl stereotype through her performance as Regina. McAdams’ Regina was cold and ruthless, masking her mean comments with a sweet voice, which made the audience cheer for her downfall.
However, the new Regina George is different from the original cold and callused character, and it’s all because of North Carolina native Renee Rapp.
Rapp, who is openly bisexual, was born and raised in Huntersville, just outside of Charlotte. She attended high school at Hopewell High School for three years before transferring to Northwest School of the Arts. Rapp won the Best Actress award at the Blumey Awards, Charlotte’s premiere musical theater awards, which led to her winning the “Best Performance by an Actress” award at the 10th Jimmy Awards in New York City.
She then participated in regional theater until she took over the role of Regina George in 2019, which Rapp said was a breakthrough moment.
“I was doing [the Broadway show], I was stepping into a mold of what multiple people had done already,” Rapp told them.us in a recent interview. “As much as I was making it my own, I also had to make sure that it was conducive to a stage and that it would read.”
The 24 year-old-singer and actress came out over nine years ago as a teenager, and her identity has played a crucial role in Rapp’s music and acting. Rapp admitted in an interview with the Independent that she was scared when her sexuality came to light.
“I’m a bisexual white woman so I don’t think I’m the pinnacle of queerness,” she told the publication. “However, I am fortunate to be part of a community that I love very deeply … I was speaking to my girlfriend this morning, being like, ‘Oh my God, I talk about being gay so much,’ and beating myself up for it.
“But then I’m like, ‘What am I beating myself up for? What are these internalized homophobic remarks I’m saying to myself?’”
Rapp opened up about her journey through finding herself and learning to find joy in her identity at a time when people have become hostile toward LGBTQ+ people.
“[Coming out] has improved my quality of life beyond belief,” Rapp explained. “I’m so fortunate in this regard because I don’t deal with a ton of homophobic s**t compared to my other friends who are very visibly queer. People can be so f**king mean.”
A new approach to queerness
The original “Mean Girls” film approached queerness in a way many people would consider to have not aged well. However, some believe the potential homophobic undertones present in some of the jokes in the original movie play a part in a bigger picture regarding queerness and its representation.
One of the plot points in the original movie is that Regina George and Janis Ian had a friendship in the past. However, at some point in their friendship, Regina started spreading rumors about Janis, calling her a lesbian, which resulted in Janis becoming an outcast.
In the 2024 adaptation, Janis confides in Regina that she is a lesbian, and Regina outs her to the entire school, which resulted in a massive fallout between the two. It was after Janis broke off the friendship that Regina began to become the mean girl personality audiences recognize.
More and more queer fans of the franchise have begun to think Regina George is an example of the closeted popular mean girl trope, similar characters in this trope include Santana from “Glee” and the demon in “Jennifer’s Body.” Supporters of this theory cite the friendship breakup with Janis and oddly queer scenes like Regina George jumping onto a pile of women after winning a field hockey game.
One of the supporters of that theory is Rapp herself, so she tapped into her own queerness when stepping into the shoes of Regina George.
There was a scene in “Mean Girls” (2024) that went viral on Tik Tok, and it’s where Regina George tells Cady to get in her car, saying “Get in, loser.” Rapp’s delivery of the iconic line was laced with flirtatious undertones, which she has since said was intentional.
“When I was younger, I remember always being fascinated by what seemed to be a really hot, popular straight girl,” Rapp explained. “She was always much older than me, and I always had a huge crush on her. And it was everything. I’m not necessarily sure why.
“It’s almost like, you see that sense of security in someone else that you think they’re experiencing and you’re like, “Oh, that’s amazing.” And it’s also someone that you’re wildly attracted to. It’s very confusing.”
Rapp said she always saw Regina George as closeted, especially as she started to look more into how she wanted to portray the character for the 2024 film. She said for her and her friends, Regina represents so much of the internalized feelings LGBTQ+ identifying people have, and in that, there’s a sense of representation.
“I think that I was absolutely going into the movie with that in mind,” Rapp told them.us. “To me [and my friends], that was always a conversation around the film: ‘Oh, she’s, like… This is coming from a [queer] place. Come on, now.’
“That was always my interpretation of it, still is my interpretation of it. It might not be other people’s, and I truly don’t care. It’s mine, and that’s how I feel.”