Harry Styles Was Almost Cast in the New ‘Mean Girls’ for This Iconic Role

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Image Credit: Jojo Whilden/Paramount © 2023 Paramount Pictures/Shutterstock

The new Mean Girls could have been even more fetch, as directors Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr., revealed in a recent interview that they wanted to cast Harry Styles for one specific role. However, fans who are assuming that it was to play Aaron Samuels are wrong — the crew was considering him for none other than Glen Coco. 

“There’s certain comedy that that flew and was funny 20 years ago, that just doesn’t fly today,” Samantha explained to The Hollywood Reporter. “We all knew that. But there are certain iconic lines where we would joke that there would be riots in the streets if it wasn’t in there. Like ‘You go, Glen Coco!’ Give the people what they want. Give me what I want! But when we were like, ‘Who’s Glen Coco?’”

the directors of the new mean girls saying their only choice for glen coco was harry styles….the scream i would've scrumpt if he was actually cast lmfao😭 pic.twitter.com/USc1TZwXgY

— kelly kim kardashian (@skooks12) January 16, 2024

Arturo replied, “Who can it be? I remember us going, ‘Could we ask, like Harry Styles?’” to which Samantha recalled, “We were like ‘Harry Styles could be Glen Coco!’ Then we were like, ‘Hold on, we love to break the fourth wall: What if we are all Glen Coco?’ So, after 20 years, we can all feel like Glen Coco.” (In the new film, the line “You go, Glen Coco” is delivered to the camera rather than to an actor in the scene) 

Even though the “As It Was” artist, 29, was not cast in the movie, the 2024 Mean Girls has created a whole new wave of pink since Barbie came out in July 2023. Instead of a remake, the film is based on the Broadway musical that was inspired by the original 2004 cult classic that starred Lindsay Lohan, Rachel McAdams, Amanda Seyfried, Lacey Chabert, Tina Fey and many more. 

The new movie hit theaters on January 12 and stars Angourie Rice, Reneé Rapp, Avantika Vandanapu and Bebe Wood as the Plastics, in addition to Tina — who reprised her original role as Ms. Norbury — Allison Winn as Caroline Krafft, Christopher Briney as Aaron Samuels, Auli’i Cravalho as Janis, Jaques Spivey as Damian and Tim Meadows as his original character, Principal Duvall. 

One month before the film premiered, Allison exclusively spoke with Hollywood Life about playing her own version of the Marymount student Caroline Krafft and what it was like for the new cast and crew to join the Mean Girls universe. 

“This is such a legendary movie at this point. So, we were all just buzzing being there. And the actors I got to work with were amazing,” Allison told Hollywood Life. 

While the movie has received positive reviews, Lindsay was apparently not happy about one particular line from the film. At one point, Megan Thee Stallion shows up in social media clips and comments about Angourie’s Cady Heron’s Santa outfit by saying, “Y2K fire crotch is back.” The line was a reference to a 2006 paparazzi video of Brandon Davis calling Lindsay a “fire crotch.” 

As a result, Lindsay’s rep told multiple outlets this week that she “was very hurt and disappointed by the reference in the film.”