10 Actors Cast In Different Movie Roles Than They Wanted

10. Rachel McAdams - Mean Girls

In what eventually turned out to be a breakthrough year for the ages, the fantastic Rachel McAdams starred in both The Notebook and Mean Girls back in 2004. And it was her tremendous work as the ridiculously quotable leader of the Plastics, Regina George, that still arguably sits as the actor's most iconic performance to date.

However, that wasn't actually the role she had her eyes on back when McAdams was auditioning for a part in director Mark Waters' movie.

As Waters himself would explain (via Cosmopolitan) years on from the eventual teen hit's release, despite McAdams being "incredible" during her audition for the part of Cady Heron - the innocent 16-year-old who transfers to the Plastics' high school - the director felt the 25-year-old star was just a bit "too old" for that ingenue character.

The team behind the movie originally felt Lindsay Lohan would have made for a great Regina, too, at one point. But after swapping those roles around during the testing process, Waters noticed how Lohan got a little nervous around the older and experienced McAdams. After that it soon became clear that the older actor was "the better choice" for Regina, and the rest was captivating history.