Mean Girls Star Auli’i Cravalho on Making Janis Outwardly Queer, 20 Years Later

Courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Though she’s played fantastical characters from nearly every corner of the imagination, Auli’i Cravalho says playing Janis ‘Imi’ike, a new take on the iconic Mean Girls character, was one of her most challenging roles.

“I ask this question of myself all the time, of like, am I playing a character or am I playing a version of myself?” Cravalho tells Teen Vogue. “I tend to lose track of that line. I think that she’s an equal balance of the two, but I’m not really sure.”

Auli’i Cravalho stars in the 2024 version of the classic 2004 coming-of-age comedy alongside a stacked ensemble cast for a new generation, including Reneé Rapp, Angourie Rice, Jaquel Spivey, Avantika, Bebe Wood, and Christoper Briney. In the film adaptation of the Broadway musical of the same name, Cravalho steps into the paint-splattered combat boots of Janis, Cady Heron’s trusted confidant and Regina George’s somewhat arch nemesis — and the mastermind behind Cady’s infiltration of the Plastics and Regina’s subsequent destruction.

But Cravalho’s Janis isn’t as biting as Lizzy Caplan’s, or as thunderous as Barrett Wilbert Weed’s, the two actresses who preceded her in their portrayals of the queer coded art freak. Janis ‘Imi’ike is someone entirely new: expressive, disruptive, and explicitly queer.

“I avoided rewatching the ’04 film because I was afraid of doing an exact line reading. What I knew to be true to Janis was that her best friend is Damian. She loves Damian because he sees her for who she is. She doesn’t like Regina George because she has too much power, no one should have that much power,” says Cravalho. “Janis also realizes high school is really not the be-all end-all. We’re all getting out of high school at some point, and so all the people that are worshipping Regina George now, ridiculous. It doesn’t make sense. With those three pinnacles in mind, I was just encouraged to play. Tina Fey [and our directors] encouraged us to take what we knew of the original film, what we also knew from the Broadway show, and then let it all go. Otherwise, this would be a remake, and it’s not a remake. It’s a reimagination.”

Below, Auli’i Cravalho praises the “underrated” power of musicals, divulges what it was like to be funny in front of Tina Fey, explains how she built an out-and-proud version of a historically Lebanese-not-lesbian character, confesses that she is a reformed Regina George, and reveals what the Plastics would’ve written about her in the Burn Book when she was in high school.

Auli’i Cravalho: I love your pink.

Teen Vogue: Oh, thank you. It was kind of coincidental, but nothing is ever really an accident. I’m so excited to speak with you again — the last time we talked was for Crush and so much has changed since then. How did you become a part of the 2024 version of Mean Girls?

AC: I auditioned for this, so I remember receiving the script. I remember also hearing it on the wind, though. I live in Los Angeles and I know a lot of the young talent that is based out there, and there were whispers that Mean Girls was getting a reimagining, and I went, “Somebody give me an audition!” And luckily I got one.

I auditioned with the confrontation when Janis learns that Cady had thrown a party but didn’t invite her and the [scene at the] very beginning of their friendship. I tried my best at it. I remember I made a choice not to rewatch the original ’04 film so that I didn’t have Lizzy Caplan’s performance in my head, as much as I respect it. I am a fan first before I am a reimagination of this character. I just went in there and I did my best. It was a self tape. I also sang “I’d Rather Be Me,” and then I got to meet the directors, Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez, and they told me, “Okay, you need to learn how to play guitar. There will be choreography. There will be live takes of singing on set. Are you up for it?” And I said, “Sign me up.”

Jaquel Spivey as Damian, Angourie Rice as Cady Heron, and Auli’i Cravalho as Janis in *Mean Girls* (2024)

JOJO WHILDEN

TV: You had to learn how to play guitar for your role as Janis? How long did that take you, and did you also have to learn how to needlepoint for the film, or did you already know how?

AC: It took me a long time to learn a two minute song on the guitar, which was “A Cautionary Tale.” I carried my guitar around for about two months. I was doing some traveling, and I traveled to Aotearoa, New Zealand for vacation with that guitar. Then I also went to New York City, where I did a show of Sunset Boulevard, and then I traveled that same guitar to New Jersey, so that I could practice before filming. So my guitar has the miles on it. And as far as needlepoint, I did not learn needlepoint for this film. I am simply a good actor. I lied. I don’t do needlepoint.

TV: Who were you most excited to work with once you did join the project? What were you most looking forward to?

AC: I’ll be honest, I’ve been friends with Avantika for a while, but I’ve never worked with her. It’s kind of like a game of telephone. Avantika has worked within Angourie [Rice], so I’ve heard wonderful things about her. I have a friend of mine who’s worked with Reneé Rapp and I know that she’s a powerhouse, I couldn’t wait to hear her sing. I’ve somewhat known all of these people through the grapevine and I was just really excited to also just be a part of an ensemble cast again. It’s been a while. There’s no energy like that of eight 20 some-odd-year-olds playing teens. It was really fun. I love every single one of them, honestly.

Related: Internet Mean Girls Came After Avantika. She Continues to Laugh.

TV: I think it’s really interesting that you made the choice before auditioning to not rewatch the original movie. So once you did get the role of Janis ‘Imi’ike, what did you take from Janis Ian, if anything? What choices did you make to evolve Janis?

AC: I wanted to maintain the powerful friendship that we see in the ’04 film, that art freak energy of eating ham in the lunchroom or having turkey face masks. That is so funny and I wanted to take that kind of comedic timing that came so naturally to Lizzy Caplan. I haven’t worked in a comedy film too often, so that was a little bit of a source of anxiety for me. And then Barrett Weed, who played Janis in the Broadway musical, she does such a fantastic job as a narrator and adding gravity to the story… so I listened to Barrett’s voice a lot.

Then when I got on set, Tina Fey looked me in the eye and said, “Just play. Throw everything else away. Ad-lib. Play with your fellow actors and don’t worry about it.” What you read in the script, what you film, and then what ends up edited, cut, and stitched together, those are three different films. So she was like, “You have the chops. We’ll make it all great.” And I was like, “Okay. Thanks, Tina Fey. I love you.”

TV: I feel like it could possibly be encouraging, but also kind of intimidating having Tina Fey say to you, “Just play.”

AC: Yes.

TV: Were you in your head every time you delivered comedic dialogue, like, “Is this funny?”

AC: I was kind of in my head about it, but what helped [the most] was actually Jaquel Spivey, who is the Damian to my Janis. He comes from this Broadway world that is about being big and being bold and making choices, and his physical humor is so good. He also has these crazy riffs that he’ll just throw in, and I’m like, “That’s hilarious and beautiful. Fantastic.” We were a great pairing. I felt really safe with him.

Another thing about Tina Fey is that she actually speaks really softly on set — people have to lean in or quiet the work to listen to her. With her, Samantha Jayne, one of our directors, as well Mary-Mitchell Campbell on the music side, we had a lot of powerful women in the room, so I could ask them questions at any time. Having Tina on set nearly every day really helped to ease my anxiety because she would then throw out suggestions, like, “How does that really make you feel?” Queuing questions in me, whereas I’m like, “Am I funny? Does everyone think I’m funny?” And Tina grounded it back down for me.

Related: Jaquel Spivey Says Mean Girls’ Damian Is “Truly That B*tch”

Jaquel Spivey as Damian, Angourie Rice as Cady Heron, and Auli’i Cravalho as Janis in *Mean Girls* (2024)

JOJO WHILDEN

TV: You guys are reimagining one of the most seminal pop culture artifacts of our time. Were you in your head about that, too? Did that feel like pressure on the cast?

AC: I think I speak for every single one of the cast members when I say that we are fans first, so I think we all felt varying degrees of nerves of reimagining these characters, but this is also Mean Girls 20 years later. So what does a mean girl look like now? Or what does the school look like when social media is involved? The Burn Book was bad enough, but now you’re going to get blasted over socials, too. That’s a crazy thing to imagine.

I also love the representation in our film. I am of native Hawaiian descent. Tina came up to me and was like, “How do you feel about changing the last name of Janis to one that is of Hawaiian descent?” And I said, “Thank you so much for asking me. That would be great.” We have so many people of color. We have so many queer actors. Janis in this film is also outwardly queer instead of queer coded like in ’04. We have music from the Broadway show. We have a really fresh take on this classic film… but it’s so special because we’re not trying to change what was already so great. It is sacred text. The original film does not need to be changed in any way, and that’s not what we’re doing. We have Tina’s blessing to make something completely new.

Related: All the Times Reneé Rapp Was Hilariously Chaotic on the Mean Girls Press Tour

TV: Earlier you mentioned preserving the friendship between Janis and Damian. How did you and Jaquel bond together off-screen to make your on-screen friendship feel more real?

AC: I think we’re both just good people. We bonded over how difficult this shoot was. There are so many elements to it. He comes from eight shows a week, and I was so tired after singing all day and dancing and learning choreography, and I would look at him, I’d be like, “How are you standing? I’m exhausted.” And he’s like, “Eight shows a week, baby. Welcome.” Then I would also be able to explain to him what a martini means — which, it’s a shot before the last shot of filming — and explaining what the second AD does, set lingo and [the importance of] advocating for your hour lunch. I’m like, “No, this is principle. This is in your contract. Did you ask for this?”

We just swapped horror stories of how difficult it is to work in one industry versus the other. We also came together for the love of art, the love of singing. We are both such musical theater heads, theater kids inside and out. We would come to work every single day, going to the same Catholic high school that we overtook [for the shoot], and it kind of felt like we were back in high school and we just fell into our roles, I guess.

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TV: What was it like recording this soundtrack? You were recording the vocals live on set, right?

AC: It depends on who you talk to, only some of us did live recordings on set. But we all did for the soundtrack, at least, then did additional recordings in the booth. This was such a quick month and a half shoot that we had to figure out who our characters were, fast. What’s their style? What do they sound like? And then after filming these particular portions of this singing, then how does that change the inflection of what’s going to go on the soundtrack? One had to kind of inform the other, and then we had to go back and re-record. It was a lot. It was so much. But I really appreciate that we have music in this film because we love these characters so much, and it’s only through that music that you get to have a deeper understanding of their thoughts. We’re singing our feelings, and the inner theater kid in me was just screaming with excitement.

TV: How would you compare filming a movie musical to being in a stage musical or even an animated musical film? How have those three experiences differed but shared space in your universe?

AC: We’ll start with voiceover. I worked on Moana, I’ve also worked on a few other series that are animation-based that have music in them. You are alone in the booth, you can manipulate your voice any which way you want. I’ve played characters before that are singing in this really high pitched voice… and it’s tiring on the vocal chords, but you only have to do it for six to eight hours, and then you maybe have to perform it live, but they’re few and far between.

Then you have onstage, which to me is the hardest. Nerves will affect your voice, it [matters] if you have slept well that day. Have you drank enough water? Remembering choreography at the same time can be really difficult. That stage fright obviously plays a part in how well you’re going to sing, but it’s also like it’s one and done, right? You sing the song. If you flub, you just get through it and then the show ends in the evening. You put it away and then you pick it up again tomorrow.

For a movie musical, thank you for asking, it’s like the best and the worst parts just smashed together — because it’s live vocals, but you’re singing it like 20 to 40 times. Then you also have to do the choreography. You also have to act on top of that, which is not something that you have to do for voiceover. I didn’t have to worry what my face was doing. It’s a lot, but the payoff is worth it because now we’re in Mean Girls, the movie, the musical reimagined, and no one’s done that before.

TV: Which of those experiences do you prefer as an artist?

AC: It’s so hard. Voiceover is easiest for me because I don’t have to worry about what my face is doing. I’m locked in this little dark booth, where I have the script right in front of me. I don’t have to memorize anything, and I just turn into this little gremlin, right? I am putting on character voices. I’m making weird faces. If the character on-screen is eating a banana, I’ll chew on my finger to make it sound like I’m eating something. It just gets wacky in there. I find that easiest.

I find live theater to be the most difficult. That stamina that it takes to do a two-day show is no joke. You have to take care of yourself. There is a commitment there that is admirable. And I also really do get stage fright — I have to stress poop before every show. It’s a lot.

Jaquel Spivey as Damian, Angourie Rice as Cady Heron, and Auli’i Cravalho as Janis in *Mean Girls* (2024)

JOJO WHILDEN

Then for film, it’s fun because you get to play with everyone. I become friends with my ADs on set. I’ve become friends with the people at crafty. It feels like we’re all on this two-month field trip where we’re like, “All right, we’re trudging through. We’ll get to the end of this.” You create lifelong friendships in these two months, and then you get to have something that lives forever, which is really, really special. But seeing my face on-screen and being like, “Why did I do that with my hands?” I haven’t worked through that yet. I still feel that way. I think voiceover is easiest, live theater is hardest, and film work continues to challenge me.

TV: What are some of your favorite memories from filming, if you could pick? And who did you spend the most time with that you’re excited to spend more time with in the future?

AC: That’s a great question. I am so grateful. I’m 23. I started working in film… I was cast in Moana when I was 14, but Moana came out when I was 16, so I’ve been doing this for a minute and a half. But what excites me is that I keep working with young, talented people who are good people, and I’m like, “Oh, there are more of us in this industry!” So often you’re like, “Oh, do you want to hang out?” And then you’ll never hear from this person again. But with these girls in particular, I know that I can lean on them and I’ll get to watch them grow just as I grow throughout this industry, and I hope to work with them again.

I also hope to work with Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez again. I love that they have created this completely new retelling of Mean Girls. I think they took risks, and that is incredibly applaudable. This is their directorial debut. I love that Tina Fey is taking chances on new directors, and I hope that opens the door wide for more people to tell stories and more people to also include musicals.

I think musicals are underrated. They bring such joy to the screen. And for me, growing up on a small island, theater [didn’t] really get to me there. So to have musicals on-screen, to have that adapted to the screen means that it’s just more accessible for people. I have a lot of hopes and dreams, and I hope to work with a lot of people. But as I have gotten older, I’ve become a lot more present and able to see this is something really special. With each new film, I’m meeting more people. I’m really grateful.

TV: Musical are really underrated. I feel exactly the same way.

AC: Thank you!

TV: I’m curious — if there’s one musical that you could be in that you haven’t been in yet, what would it be and who would you play?

AC: I made my West End debut in 2023, and I played Eva Peron in Evita. I would do that again in a heartbeat. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my entire life. I felt like a runaway bride. It was so hard. If my feet could move, I would’ve run out of the theater, but I didn’t. I lived. Did you know that if you forget your line onstage and you miss an entrance, you don’t die? Because it feels like you’re going to die.

What other musical would I do? I want In the Heights to come back. I would also play one of the Schuyler sisters [from Hamilton] in a heartbeat. Angelica would be my dream role, if I’m honest. There’s Waitress. There are so many musicals that I’d love to tip my hat to. Live theater is the most challenging, but it’s also the most rewarding because you get to have the live crowd in front of you. It makes my stomach drop thinking about it, but I can’t wait to do it again.

TV: I want to talk a little bit now about the queerness of the movie, because we do have many amazing queer folks in this film and two bicons as leads, you and Reneé. Was Janis being explicitly queer in this version something that was established before you joined the project or something that came about through collaboration?

AC: That’s a good one. Janis is such a fantastic character. I feel very lucky that in my career I’ve been able to play young women who aren’t afraid of speaking their minds, who aren’t afraid of standing up for what they believe in, who aren’t afraid of going beyond the reef. Janis is no different. She raises her “right finger” — her middle finger — and solemnly swears that whatever people say about her, she doesn’t care. I loved even just asking myself that moral question of who I would be if I didn’t care what people thought of me.

In this 2024 version, she is openly queer. In the ’04 classic, that joke of Lebanese, lesbian, hilarious. But lesbian was also used kind of in a derogatory way, and now I’m reclaiming that. When people call Janis a “pyro lez,” that just means that you’re calling her a hot lesbian! Slay. I think it’s really important that we show high school for what it is today, in as many colors, in as many forms, with as much glitter.

All of these [diversity and representation] milestones [in this new version] make a difference. The people that we see in films make us more empathetic. It shapes how we treat each other. And even in a film like Mean Girls, which some people could think like, “Oh, it’s catty. It’s very frivolous. It doesn’t mean anything.” This is pop culture. You can talk to anyone and they’ll say, “Oh, Mean Girls. Of course, I’ve watched that.” I was born in 2000. This film came out in 2004. I couldn’t tell you the first time I truly watched the film, but I have always known the catchphrase, “That’s so fetch.” I have always known, “You go, Glen Coco.” What you grow up with shapes your reality, and I think it’s more and more important that we see representation in film in every sense of the word.

TV: One of my favorite aspects of this new version of Janis is her self-expression through beauty — her eye makeup, her clothes, her hair. Did you collaborate on that with the costume designers and makeup artists?

AC: Every day, unless the scene was already established and I had already figured out the outfit, I was given two racks full of clothes, a pair of scissors, a sewing kit, and a PA on deck ready to get me safety pins, buttons, more belts, more accessories, anything. I also brought on my own accessories: my own rings, my own necklaces, my own belts, and my Pinterest boards. I just wanted Janis to feel like she was lived in. I didn’t want her to feel like a caricature of an art freak. I didn’t want her to feel a caricature of a young queer woman.

I drew on my pants often, that’s even in a lot of the posters. You can notice there are these drippy marks on one of the pockets — I drew that. On that same pair of pants that are in most of the posters, I wrote “xylocarp,” which is a little Easter egg to our ’04 film. That’s the word that is in the spelling bee, so for eagle-eyed fans, that’s also in there. I worked hand in hand with George, who was this incredible makeup artist. She helped me achieve these eye looks. Every morning I would come in and draw on my own eyeliner. I had to remember not to drink coffee first thing in the morning, otherwise the eyeliner was going to be shaky that day. We played with color, and we played with texture.

TV: What was your favorite look as Janis?

AC: The “Revenge Party” look. My hair is put up into three really tight buns on the top of my head. I’m wearing some fantastically sharp eyeliner, and that is paying homage to Regina George. Everyone in this film avoids the sharp eyeliner because that’s Regina George’s thing. And in “Revenge Party,” I was like, “I want to have sharp black eyeliner. I want to fight Regina George in small and big ways.” For the outfit, I tied a shirt on top of a dress, cut slits into the dress, made a belt of belts with safety pins, and then I had to pin it to my bra so that it would actually stay up. They just let me run wild in my dressing room, and I think that I looked great.

TV: Last question for you, it’s a double-header: Who is your favorite character from the original film that you think high school Auli’i was most like, and what do you think the Plastics would’ve written about you in the Burn Book when you were in high school?

AC: Oh wow. I think that high school Auli’i was most like Regina George, in that I wanted everyone to like me. I knew that I had a great singing voice. No one could tell me sh*t about that. I was really smart. I also had a problem with authority, this is true. I flipped off the Christian Ed teacher. I was not about to listen to anybody. I learned the hard way that people don’t want to be friends with b*tches, so either learn from Mean Girls as a cautionary tale, or you learn the hard way.

And oh, Lord, what would people have written about young Auli’i in the Burn Book? “She probably thinks she’s going to be on American Idol or something.”

TV: And look at that.

AC: Period.

Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue

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