It's one of the most talked-about titles on the 2024 movie schedule, so it's not a surprise that the stars of the new Mean Girls musical movie were nervous about remaking the beloved 2004 teen comedy. That included Damian actor Jaquel Spivey, and he recently opened up about joining the project, as well as the importance of queer representation in the OG film and this musical adaptation of it.
During an EW roundtable to discuss the upcoming adaptation, Mean Girls cast member Jaquel Spivey—who plays Janis' gay BFF Damian in the movie musical, a role that Daniel Franzese made famous in the original—talked about how he came to be cast:
Spivey also revealed that he had "a fear of joining" the musical, but because the original Mean Girls movie and Franzese's Damian gave him so much in terms of "chubby gay" representation onscreen, he wanted to offer up the same for another generation of viewers. he said:
Fey added that Damian's on-stage shoe throw and his "I want my pink shirt back!" were actually improvised by Franzese while filming the original movie, which inspired Spivey in his own performance, as he explained:
Castmate Reneé Rapp, who portrays The Plastics villainess Regina George in the movie musical, praised Spivey for his own improvisations on set, including a hilariously pointed fan clack that the latter was surprised to learn made it into the film.
The actor also detailed which of Damian's fan-favorite quotes he was most excited to perform in the role and how he worked to make them his own, explaining:
The O.G. Mean Girls cast has been publicly supportive of the young performers starring in the upcoming reimagining, including Franzese, who personally reached out to Spivey to metaphorically pass the torch. Spivey explained his interaction with the original Damian actor, telling ET:
Mean Girls is far from the first time Spivey has offered up some much-welcome representation through his performances. The theater actor notably received a Tony nomination for his stunning work as Usher, "a Black queer man writing a musical about a Black queer man writing a musical," in Broadway's A Strange Loop.
The performer told Playbill about how "meaningful" it is for him to provide representation for LGBTQIA+ and Black folks:
You'll soon be able to catch Jaquel Spivey on an even bigger stage—the silver screen— when Mean Girls hits theaters on Friday, January 12, 2024. In the meantime, you can watch where it all started with Regina George & Co. in 2004’s Mean Girls, available to stream with a Paramount+ subscription.