Here's Why Lizzy Caplan Thinks Janis Ian Was The Real Villain Of Mean Girls
We may have always thought that the Plastics were what made the Mean Girls mean. Regina George, Gretchen Wieners, and Karen Smith were the polished teen queens of North Shore High School who set the rules of cool, so it may come as no surprise that they're petty. We're not just talking petty. We're talking "evil takes a human form in Regina George" level of mean.
It's been 15 years since the iconic movie about the jungle that is high school first came out, spawned a direct-to-TV sequel and a musical. And it's also taken many of us that long to work out that the Plastics' pink polish, lip gloss, and perfect hair may have kept us from identifying the real villain of the movie — Janis Ian, played by Lizzy Caplan, who is the first to reach out to newcomer Cady Heron played by Lindsay Lohan.
In an interview with BuzzFeed, actress Lizzy Caplan agreed Janis Ian was actually a mean girl "but she was way craftier than the other mean girls. She was a mean girl with spy plans — with purpose!" Knowing Caplan knew Janis Ian was a mean girl with spy plans is a game changer. The Plastics may have been petty — but Janis brought mean to a whole new level.
Janis Ian was a whole new level of mean
Okay, so Lizzy Caplan was a bit shocked to find out that the Twitterverse plotted out all the ways Janis stood out as mean back in 2017; a whole thread was created with a blow-by-blow on why Janis may have had us fooled. Janis not only put the snark in snarky, she took it to a whole new level. Who else but Janis could have mapped out the high school cafeteria with labels that highlight racial segregation and generalize characteristics like study and eating habits?
Twitter user James PottARGGGHH!! devotes a considerable amount of time dissecting Janis' questionable behavior by reminding us that it was Janis who "uses an innocent [Cady] as her pawn to help rip apart a friendship group, destroy a romantic relationship and make a body conscious girl gain weight (who is then COMPLETELY unable to stop it?) in the hopes that she will be utterly destroyed" (via Twitter).
Well, at least Lizzy Caplan knew what Janis was all about, because it took us a bit of time to work her out.