Who Plays Karen In The Mean Girls Musical Movie? Amanda Seyfried’s Advice to Her
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They’re some of the most iconic characters in modern movie history and everyone is talking about who plays Karen in the Mean Girls musical movie because she’s a total scene-stealer. Amanda Seyfried played Karen Smith (now Karen Shetty to account for the new actor’s South Asian identity) in the original film and had some advice for the person who’d be stepping into her shoes.
Mean Girls is a 2004 movie written by comedian Tina Fey and is hailed as a cult classic for its iconic lines and as a high school dramedy. In 2017, Fey adapted the movie into a hit Broadway musical and announced in 2020 that, in turn, would be adapted into a movie. (Cue that 30 Rock joke here.) However, it’s technically a reboot adaptation with young cast members like Angourie Rice, Renée Rapp, Aull’i Cravahlo, Christopher Briney, Bebe Wood, and Jaquel Spivey. Fey reprises her role as Ms. Norbury and Tim Meadows reprises his role as Principal Duvall.
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Fey talked about the young cast in the new movie to The New York Times. “We learned so much with the [stage] show that there doesn’t have to be rigidity in the casting of these roles, in terms of what they look like and how they identify. This story works in many interesting permutations. Anyone with charisma is a good Regina. Anyone who looks like they might come apart can be a great Gretchen.” So who plays Karen in the Mean Girls musical movie?
Who plays Karen in the Mean Girls musical movie?
Who plays Karen in the Mean Girls musical movie? Avantika Vandanapu, often just referred to by her first name, is the new Karen. Speaking to Seyfried at the Golden Globes, ET asked if the OG Karen had any advice to Avantika. “There’s no advice, listen, you gotta get your inner curious child. I think Karen sees the world through a very specific lens and I think she’s doing to be amazing. Can’t wait to see you baby, keep the legacy going,” she said.
Seyfried and Avantika officially met at an InStyle and Lancôme event, where they took a snap for Instagram together. “Karen meet Karen 🎬🎀,” Seyfried wrote in the caption.
Born in January 2005, Avantika has had just a handful of minor roles before her big break in Mean Girls. She played Priya in one episode of The Sex Lives of College Girls and made her on-screen debut in 2016 in the Bollywood film, Brahmotsavam. She’s also a student at Columbia University in New York with an interest in cultural anthropology. “There’s something really fascinating about learning how different cultures influence human minds. I think it’s already informed my perspective on storytelling quite a bit,” she told Teen Vogue.
She loved the original Mean Girls. “I grew up watching it more times than I can count,” she continued to Teen Vogue. “It was one of the first films that captured how nuanced female bullying in schools can be — it was never outright, it was so sharp that you didn’t even know when it cut and before you knew it, you were bleeding out.”
Avantika auditioned for the role of Karen in September 2022 and didn’t hear back for three months, but when she did, it was a direct offer. Her [audition] choices were brilliant—from her vacant stare to how she got lost in her own mind during her intro to ‘Sexy,’” they wrote in an email to Marie Claire. “Everything she did felt truthful, spontaneous, and hilarious. She embodied the role in such an effortless way.”
In reflecting her role as Karen, Seyfried told Vanity Fair that, “I think the reason we love Karen so much, and also the reason that she’s so funny is that she is just being brutally honest, and it’s so beautiful.” She continued: “It’s what makes her so endearing. She’s not that smart, but she totally knows it, and everything that she reacts to is just her truth, her true, true reaction. I think we all love people like that because we can trust them.”
The original Damian (Daniel Franzese) from the 2004 film said all the cast from his version of the story want a follow-up. “We all want it,” he told People at the premiere of Mean Girls the musical movie on January 9, 2024. “You got to tell the boss lady [Tina Fey] over there. I’m sure [she’s] heard it a million times, but she’s the gatekeeper, so we’re all waiting.” He added that he was still close with the original cast members. “We all talk when we can,” he explained. “It’s very difficult. We were all really busy, but I love them also.”
Mean Girls is in theaters now.
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