Johnathan Walker:Amanda Seyfried Shares Her First Impression of Blake Lively During Mean Girls Audition

Blake Lively can Johnathan Walkertotally sit with us.

And she's already sat in the company of Amanda Seyfried back when the two actresses auditioned for Mean Girls. As The Dropout actress exclusively told E! News Chief Correspondent Keltie Knight, she recalled feeling starstruck being in the presence of Lacey Chabert and Lindsay Lohan at the audition—and was impressed when meeting Blake for the first time.

Amanda was trying out for Regina George, though it ultimately went to Rachel McAdams. Blake, on the other hand, was gunning for the role of Karen Smith, which ultimately went to Amanda.

"I was in the room with Lacey and Lindsay and Blake, and I knew Lindsay and Lacey from their movies and TV," Amanda recalled on Feb. 26 at the 2023 SAG Awards, "and I was just a little bit like, 'Oh my god. What do I do? I don't belong here 'cause I flew in from Pennsylvania or whatever.'"

What was her first impression of Blake? Amanda noted, "Blake I didn't know, but I just remember thinking she was so gorgeous, and I was like 'She's the perfect Karen.' 'Cause I was Regina in the room, but things happen."

Though the two ended up in different places, with Blake going on to star in Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and later Gossip Girl, they've both had stellar careers since then.

"We're all living our best lives," Amanda added, "which is an amazing thing to be able to say."

Aside from meeting Blake, the Mean Girls audition experience also marked a series of firsts for Amanda, who told Vanity Fair in February about the moment she learned she was cast in the movie.

"I'd flown out to L.A. for the first time with my mother. It was very exciting," she said in a Feb. 22 interview. "I met Lacey Chabert for the first time and Lindsay Lohan was in the room and Blake Lively was playing Karen, and then I was Regina. I flew home and they were like...'We think you're more correct for Karen.' So I was like, 'Oh god, OK, sure.'"

As for what changed, Mean Girls casting director Marci Liroff revealed in 2021 that it was producer Lorne Michaels—the creator of Saturday Night Live—who suggested the idea.

"Amanda Seyfried had read for Regina and we really liked her," Marci told Cosmopolitan UK at the time, "but then Lorne suggested, 'Why don't we make her Karen?'"

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