'Mean Girls' Musical Movie Adds Jenna Fischer And Busy Philipps

These aren't just regular moms, they're movie character moms. And that's pretty cool. Jenna Fischer and Busy Philipps have joined the cast of Mean Girls, the movie adaptation of the Tony-nominated Broadway musical based on the beloved 2004 film starring Lindsay Lohan. The film will be released straight to Paramount+. Essentially, Mean Girls is following the path of Hairspray, starting as a non-musical, adapted into one for Broadway, which debuted there in 2018, and then that musical gets a film adaptation

Fischer, best known as Pam Beesly on The Office for all nine seasons from 2005 to 2013, in fact, her rewatch podcast with co-star Angela Kinsey, Office Ladies, just released a two-parter on "Goodbye Michael". She will be playing Ms. Heron, the mother of Cady Heron (played by Honor Society's Angourie Rice). Mama Heron's first name in the original film was Betsy and was played by Ana Gasteyer. Philipps, best known for her roles in Freaks and Geeks, Cougar Town, and her current series Girls5Eva, is also playing a role originated by a Saturday Night Live alum. She has been cast as Regina George's mother (first name June in the original film), the role originated by Amy Poehler. Mrs. George was the tryhard mom trying to keep up with what's cool with her daughter, leader of the popular girls' clique The Plastics.

In the stage productions, both roles were played by the same actress, who would also play Ms. Norbury. In the new film, Tina Fey, who wrote the original film and the musical's book (the equivalent of the screenplay) will reprise the role as she played in the 2004 film. She is also writing this version. The cast also includes Tim Meadows reprising from the film as Principal Duvall, Reneé Rapp reprising Regina George from the Broadway production, and the newly-involved Auli’i Cravalho as Janis Ian, Jaquel Spivey as Damian, Avantika, Christopher Briney and Bebe Wood. Arturo Perez and Samantha Jayne are the directors as principal photography begins Monday in New Jersey.