Lindsay Lohan wanted to play Regina George in Mean Girls because she was a “pretty, normal girl”

With Lindsay Lohan entering the film scene once more, the actor is taking time to look back on her previous roles, including the 2004 classic film Mean Girls.

In Mean Girls, Lohan plays Cady Heron, a clueless transfer student who finds herself the target of the popular girl group called The Plastics (played by Rachel McAdams, Amanda Seyfried, and Lacey Chabert). It’s already well-known information that Lohan originally auditioned for the role of queen bee Regina George, but now the actor’s opened up about why, calling George a “pretty, normal girl.”

“The story behind me playing Cady in Mean Girls is really unknown by a lot of people. I wanted to play Regina,” Lohan tells Vogue in a recent interview. “Because I had just come off of Freaky Friday, and I really wanted to play like a pretty, normal girl now and I wanted to have a different kind of role than just the damaged teenager again.”

Now, McAdams’ Regina George may be pretty, but normal? If being a narcissistic, manipulative, conniving girl is considered “normal,” then sure. Prior to Mean Girls, Lohan had picked up roles in Freaky Friday and Confessions Of A Teenage Drama Queen, which both feature her as a moody, unpopular, teenage girl. Lohan no longer wanted to be the outcast in the social jungle that is high school. However, director Mark Waters and screenwriter Tina Fey were not having it.

“Mark Waters, the director, was insistent that I played Cady and so was Tina [Fey],” Lohan continues. “They were like, ‘No, no, no you’re the lovable one, you have to play Cady.’ So I was so eager to get into the transitional part of, ‘OK, let’s get to the pretty part of Cady.’”

Lohan is set to star in three upcoming Netflix features, as they decided to solely drive the Lohanissance parade float. The first of these projects is a rom-com titled Falling For Christmas.