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Of the many exciting entries on the 2024 movie schedule is the highly anticipated musical remake of 2004’s Mean Girls. The film features a brand-new cast, who will be adapting the 2018 Broadway musical from Tina Fey. With that, The Summer I Turned Pretty’s Christopher Briney will soon be the latest actor to embody the iconic role of Aaron Samuels on the big screen. The OG movie’s original heartthrob, Jonathan Bennett, imparted some perfect advice to his successor, and I couldn’t agree with it more.
Jonathan Bennett had some relatively simple — but important — thoughts to impart to Christopher Briney ahead of the new Mean Girls movie hitting theaters in January. In Bennett’s words, there’s one specific aspect of the performance that must be perfect:
He must nail the word grool.
I couldn’t have said it better myself. When it comes to this teen comedy, it’s essential that the stars nail all of those endlessly quotable lines and, as the veteran actor told People, it’s very important that Christopher Briney make the audience believe in “grool” again. The word is, of course, a mix of the words “great” and “cool” which Cady Heron trips up while getting lost in her crush’s eyes, but it ultimately brings them together. It’s a beloved moment from the original movie, and, hopefully, the new Aaron actor took care in bringing new life to the lines “grool” as well as other famous quotes.
Briney’s Cady Heron will be played by Angourie Rice of the Tom Holland-led Spider-Man movies. Other notable actors within the Mean Girls cast include Moana’s Auli’i Cravalho as Janis Ian, Jaquel Spivey as Damien Franzese and Renée Rapp as Regina George. Jonathan Bennett and his husband Jaymes Vaughan saw Rapp when she played the role on Broadway. The original Mean Girls star applauded her stage performance, saying that “her voice is insane.” Bennett also shared his thoughts on the remake’s direction:
I’m super excited for the movie musical. I love that this movie has transcended multiple generations because of the writing of Tina Fey. I think the new musical movie is gonna be fantastic, and I hope that the new Aaron makes the character his own because it’s his time to interpret the character.
Tina Fey wrote the Broadway musical’s book after penning the 2004 movie itself, and the SNL alum also took on writing duties for the screenplay of the 2024 film. Additionally, Fey will reprise her role as Ms. Norbury alongside Tim Meadows, who once again plays the role of Principal Duvall. You can check out the Mean Girls trailer below:
Since the trailer came out, the Mean Girls movie has started some online discourse, between the questionable choice to not include music from the musical in its marketing and original fans feeling personally victimized by a tagline in the trailer: “This Isn’t Your Mother’s Mean Girls”. This movie and its cast certainly have some big shoes to fill, but it’s wonderful that an alum like Jonathan Bennett is supportive of the production. Audiences can look forward to Christopher Briney’s Aaron Samuels alongside the rest of the cast when the movie hits theaters on January 12.