Cady Heron
Cady Heron | |
---|---|
Homeschooled North Shore High | |
Residence | Africa (exact location unknown) Evanston, Illinois, United States |
Cady Heron /keɪdiː/ is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the 2004 film Mean Girls and its musical counterpart. She is portrayed by Lindsay Lohan in the original 2004 film, Erika Henningsen in its Broadway musical version and by Angourie Rice in its 2024 musical film.[1][2]
Biography
Cady is the only child of Chip and Betsy Heron. Her family moved to
Personality
When she is introduced, Cady is a naive fish out of water, who has little knowledge of social norms in high school and is very behind on pop culture, however she is depicted as very sweet and kind despite her naivety. She is a strong mathematician, being rather smart and somewhat nerdy. However, over the course of the film her personality changes, as she is influenced by The Plastics. She becomes more shallow and vain and drastically changes her fashion choices. She ditches her fondness for math to become more like the other Plastics. She remains to have a good heart but is heavily influenced by peer pressure throughout the story and longs to fit in,[3] which leads her to become spiteful and plot revenge against Regina George. However, she is shown to regret this revenge later on and eventually chooses to abolish the cliques at her school and ends the film returning to her original kind and sweet personality, though she is slightly less naive.
Concept and creation
Cady was created by Tina Fey for the purposes of the movie. Fey got the name for the character from a college roommate.
Lindsay Lohan was advised to audition for the role of Cady after auditioning for the character of Regina George, gaining the role. Inversely, Rachel McAdams, who went on to play Regina, initially auditioned for the role of Cady, but was deemed too old.[4]
Role in Mean Girls
After Cady's mother accepts a job at Northwestern University, Cady moves to North Shore High, a public high school in
One day at Regina's house, Cady is shown "The Burn Book", a book which has insults about all the other students in the school written inside. Cady develops a crush on a boy in her
Cady throws a party at her house, without inviting Damien or Janis, which gets out of control as she accidentally vomits on Aaron after revealing to him that she had lied about her intelligence. After Aaron storms out, Damien and Janis arrive and Janis chastises Cady for her personality change and for becoming a bad person before leaving. Later that night, Regina creates an entry in the Burn Book criticising herself with the goal being to frame Cady for it. The next day at school Cady is seen by the principal about the Burn Book, but while this happens a riot breaks out as the girls all see their entries and begin accusing each other of badmouthing them. The girls are shortly after taken to the gym for a team-building exercise, led by Miss Norbury, where they have to apologize to each other for all the hurtful things said. Regina storms out due to being humiliated and Cady follows her, only for Regina to be hit by an oncoming bus.
Cady decides to take the fall for the Burn Book, refusing to say who else wrote it and being grounded. She also joins the
Cady finishes the school year dating Aaron, and being friends with Damien, Karen and Janis, North Shore now having less cliques dividing the student body.
Mean Girls on Broadway
The character was revived for the Broadway counterpart of the film where she is introduced in the musical number "It Roars". Her role in the musical is similar to that of the original movie.
Cady is featured in a total of twelve songs: "It Roars", "Where Do You Belong?", "Meet the Plastics", "Stupid with Love", "Apex Predator", "Revenge Party", "Fearless", "Whose House Is This?", "More Is Better", "Someone Gets Hurt (Reprise)", "Do This Thing", and "I See Stars".[5]
Other appearances
- In 2018, Elizabeth Gillies portrayed the character in Ariana Grande's music video for "Thank U, Next" as an homage to the 2004 film.[6]
- In 2023, Lohan reprised the character in a guidance counselor at North Shore High.[7]
- In 2024, Lohan makes a cameo appearance in the 2024 musical film adaptation as the unnamed mathletes moderator but acknowledges the existence of her original character.[8][9]
Reception
Lohan won two
References
- ^ McCormick, Colin (June 7, 2023). "Mean Girls Cast & Character Guide". Screen Rant. Retrieved October 18, 2023.
- ^ Wickes, Hannah (January 10, 2024). "All the Details: So Fetch! 'Mean Girls' Musical Movie: Cast, Release Date, Tina Fey, More". J-14. Retrieved February 28, 2024.
- ^ "Cady Heron character analysis". CharacTour. Retrieved October 18, 2023.
- ^ Welsh, Daniel (April 2, 2021). "Film Makes Netflix Return". StageAgent. Retrieved October 18, 2023.
- ^ "Mean Girls Musical - Song List". StageAgent. Retrieved October 18, 2023.
- ^ Ahlgrim, Callie (January 8, 2019). "Lindsay Lohan explains why she thinks she wasn't asked to be in Ariana Grande's 'Thank U, Next' video". Insider. Retrieved October 18, 2023.
- People. Retrieved November 1, 2023.
- ^ Highfill, Samantha (January 13, 2024). "Tina Fey on whether both Mean Girls movies share a universe". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved February 28, 2024.
- ^ Sharpe, Lynn (January 17, 2024). "Does Mean Girls 2024 Exist In The Same Universe As The Original Movie?". Screen Rant. Retrieved February 28, 2024.
- Buzzfeed. Retrieved September 17, 2023.
- ^ Kubincanek, Emily (February 10, 2023). "30 of the best narrated movies of all time". Stacker.com. Retrieved September 17, 2023.
- ^ Marron, Emily (November 12, 2022). "10 Memorable Movies Made Better By A Great Narrator". Collider. Retrieved September 17, 2023.
- ^ Grossman, Samantha (October 3, 2014). "It's October 3rd: 19 Ways to Celebrate Mean Girls Day". Time. Archived from the original on October 7, 2014. Retrieved October 9, 2014.
- ^ Tsintziras, Aya (Sep 19, 2020). "Mean Girls: Every Main Character, Ranked By Likability". Screen Rant. Retrieved Oct 18, 2023.
- ^ Brody, Richard (March 6, 2021). "The Best Movie Performances of the Century So Far". The New Yorker. Retrieved September 17, 2023.