Evan Rachel Wood Reveals Why She Turned Down Starring In ‘Mean Girls’

It may be impossible to imagine anyone else playing the iconic ladies of Mean Girls now, but the hit 2004 comedy was almost a very different movie. During a sit-down on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon last night, Westworld star Evan Rachel Wood revealed that she came very close to starring in the Tina Fey-penned flick. At the beginning of her interview, Wood and Fallon gushed about Fey, who was also a guest that evening to promote the new Mean Girls musical. It turns out that Wood boasts more than a love of Mean Girls – she was almost in it.

“Is this true – did you audition for Mean Girls?” Fallon asked. “No, it’s even worse!” Wood admitted. “I turned it down… But listen, there’s a good reason! The only reason is because I was already supposed to do a film called Pretty Persuasion that was set in a high school, that was very Heathers-esque, and it was very similar.”

Wood indeed played a mean girl in Marcos Siega’s 2005 film, but it never quite took off the same way Mean Girls did. “Tina, if you’re here, I’m so sorry we got off on the wrong foot,” Wood shouted. “As long as the next movie you’re doing is not about a robot uprising, I will happily, happily [do it]!”

Westworld returns for its second season on HBO Sunday, April 22.