As exemplified in her wickedly funny and often acerbic writing style. “Saturday Night Live” head writer Tina Fey has long been fascinated by social dynamics and ——thought that the phenomenon of Girl World nastiness bore further investigation. To that end, she got in touch with Rosalind Wiseman, co-founder of the Empower Program, a nonprofit organization that works to empower girls and boys and stop adolescent violence. Wiseman’s book Oueen Bees and
Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques. Gossip, Boyfriends and Other Realities of Adolescence impressed Fey with its insight into how girls navigate through the cliques and hierarchies of adolescence, and she was convinced that the material could provide the spark for a very funny and very topical movie.
“I think that girls are ingenious in how they find ways to sabotage one another in these invisible, unseen, hurtful ways.” says Fey. “What struck me most were the anecdotes of the girls that were interviewed for the book. Rosalind, rightfully, takes them very seriously, but in my opinion, they’re also very funny. I mean the way girls mess with each other is so clever and intricate, and probably very instinctive.”
"SNL” creator and executive producer Lorne Michaels loved Fey’s idea to turn the book into a film. "This is very rich subject matter, and very relevant at the moment. I knew that Tina would have a smart take on it,” says Michaels, who has been launching the theatrical debuts of “SNL” cast members since 1986. “She’s somebody who considers what she does very carefully, and I had every confidence it her ability to spin this book into a great film.”
While adapting a book to a screenplay can be complex at best, the task was made that much more difficult because Fey was turning nonfiction into fiction. Using the concepts and anecdotes in Wiseman’s book as a springboard, and pulling material from interviews with teenage girls and her own experiences in high school, Fey created a very funny screenplay that drew topnotch talent, including director Mark Waters.
Hot off the success of "Freaky Friday,” one of last summer’s biggest hit comedies, Waters says Fey’s script is one of the best he’s read in years.
"Lt was witty and funny and full of humor yet still had a kind of humanity to it that you could connect to,” Waters recalls It wasn’t your average cookie-cutter high school script. Tina has created a universe of tieshed out characters that you really care about, and the minute I read her screenplay I knew I had to do it.”
With Waters on board, the filmmakers set out to find the right actress to play the pivotal lead role of Cady, a critical choice made easy once Lindsay Lohan, one of the most talented young actresses working in Hollywood today, agreed to bring the character to life.
Having worked with Waters on “Freaky Friday,” Lohan embraced the chance to be a part of the film, not only because of its director but also because of the script’s humor, style and characters.
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