Rachel McAdams says audiences literally cheered when she got hit by a bus in iconic film

From “is butter a carb?” to “stop trying to make fetch happen!”, Rachel McAdams gave us plenty of iconic quotes when she first donned her tank top and mini skirt to stepped into the polished pink pumps of Mean Girls’ Regina George.

In fact, it’s easy to forget that Regina is actually the villain of the hit teen comedy, and that viewers might not love-to-hate her but just straight-up loathe her.

But that’s something McAdams experienced first hand. Appearing on The Graham Norton Show, the 47-year-old star admitted that she had been taken aback by just how reviled Regina was.

“I didn’t know how hated she would be and for how long,” she said.

Of course, anyone who knows Tina Fey’s cult film knows that Regina does meet her comeuppance in the end and is hit by a bus after inciting a riot at her high school. The moment is shocking, but only makes you root for Regina even more.

Yet at her first screening for the 2004 movie, McAdams saw first hand the lengths audiences would go to to celebrate Regina’s demise.

“The first time I saw the film with an audience, I was with my best friend,” she told Norton. “Everyone cheered when Regina was hit by a bus, but my friend stood up and screamed, ‘Nooooo!’”

Mean Girls was a total pop culture phenomenon, spawning a Broadway and West End musical and (slightly questionable) movie remake.

While the 2024 Mean Girls film, which also featured original songs, had heaps of Noughties nostalgia and nods to the original film, one joke didn’t make the cut after its original star Lindsay Lohan was left “very hurt and disappointed” by its inclusion.

In a scene that was later given the chop, rapper Megan Thee Stallion appears in a social media montage, where she comments on Cady’s Christmas-themed talent show outfit. “Hot girls, we are going back red. Y2K fire crotch is back,” she said.

The term “fire crotch” is a reference to a comment made by billionaire heir and music manager Brandon Davis, who infamously called Lohan the term in a 2006 paparazzi video.

A representative for Lohan told The Independent that “Lindsay was very hurt and disappointed by the reference in the film” at the time, before it was cut from the movie.

Lohan’s father, Michael was reportedly “p***ed” at the filmmakers for making a “disgusting” joke at the expense of his daughter.