13 Movie Villains You Didn't Know Almost Played The Hero

9. Rachel McAdams Was Almost Cady Heron Before She Was Plastic

Though it seems inconceivable to imagine the Queen of the Mean Girls as anything other than a haughty, perpetually disgusted pantomime villain, there is little else in her CV that suggests why she would have flourished in the role. Indeed, somewhat perversely, the actress was ultimately chosen by Tina Fey because of her "kind and polite" demeanour; an odd revelation that now looks inspired given how well McAdams was able to segue from sugar sweet to toxic.

Unsurprisingly, McAdams originally auditioned to play Cady Heron (with both Lindsay Lohan and Amanda Seyfried originally reading for George) but missed out when Lohan's Freaky Friday did well, and Paramount insisted that she had to play the lead. McAdams was also ruled out because of her age (a very un-high school-like 25), which helped her land the villain role thanks to the way the intimidated Lohan reacted to her when they acted together.