Amanda Seyfried says her iconic 'Mean Girls' role almost went to Blake Lively

• "Mean Girls" star Amanda Seyfried recalled that her role as Karen nearly went to Blake Lively.
• Seyfried recently explained that she originally auditioned for Regina before she was cast as Karen.

"Mean Girls" is arguably one of the best teen comedies of the early 2000s, and helped propel a number of young actors to stardom, like Rachel McAdams, Amanda Seyfried, Lizzy Caplan, and Lacey Chabert.

The Mark Waters-directed movie follows Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan) who moves back to the United States after living in Africa with her parents for 12 years. But she quickly finds herself at odds with queen bee Regina George (Rachel McAdams), and her two friends, Gretchen Wieners (Lacey Chabert) and Karen Smith (Amanda Seyfried).

Karen actor Amanda Seyfried recalled that her role nearly went to Blake Lively in a new interview with Vanity Fair.

Seyfried explained that she had "flown out to LA for the first time with my mother. It was very exciting."

The actor said she originally auditioned to play Regina, while Lively was reading for Karen.

She said: "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."

The "Mamma Mia" and "Jennifer's Body" star went on to say that it wasn't until she got home that the producers told her they wanted her to play Karen instead.

Seyfried added: "I flew home and they were like, 'We think you're more correct for Karen.' So I was like, 'Oh god, OK, sure.'"

"Mean Girls" was Seyfried's breakout performance, but it's hard not to imagine what Lively's version of Karen would've looked like, especially since this was several years before "Gossip Girl."

Back in 2021, casting director Marci Liroff told Cosmopolitan UK that Lively made it to the final screen tests, but some of the producers wanted to "keep looking."

She said: "We wanted Blake Lively, who hadn't done 'The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants' yet, for Karen. She came down to the final tests but, at some point, some of the filmmakers said to keep looking."