What’s the story behind Lizzy Caplan landing Janis Ian? 'Mean Girls' star dishes on near-miss casting choices

Before Janis Ian (inarguably Lizzy Caplan's most famous role) became the fan-favorite sarcastic misfit in Mean Girls, she almost had a very different face. Caplan immortalized the role in the 2004 cult hit, recently revealed that her journey in playing Janis was anything but easy.

In her conversation with Penn Badgley on Podcrushed, the artist confessed that the auditions for the goth character took a "very, very long" time before it was finalized, sharing:

"It was just the funniest script I had ever read. I wanted to be in it so bad. I fought so hard and then it worked out."

The actress, 43, said that she also auditioned for a different character to secure a spot in the Tina Fey-penned movie. She added that the casting team organized the hopefuls into various groups for callbacks.

"Everybody had to audition, I think, for one of the two main [roles]: Cady, the Lindsay Lohan part, or the Rachel McAdams part. I went in and they were resistant to casting me."

At the time, Lizzy Caplan also mentioned that a Canadian hairstylist helped provide a clearer vision of what the goth Janis Ian would look like.

"We went to Hollywood Boulevard and put on dark wigs and just anything to send them screen grabs of me looking like a goth kid."

However, the Masters of Sex actress admitted that she almost missed the role to someone else.

"Somebody reminded me of this recently: the studio wanted Kelly Osbourne to play that role."

Ultimately, Lizzy Caplan clinched the role, and she was overjoyed when her participation in the movie was final.

"I don't remember how long the process was, but I remember getting the phone call and where I was when I got the phone call that I got the part. How many times has that really happened to you in your career: that you just want to celebrate and it's nothing but exciting?"

The teen-oriented comedy classic Mean Girls, released in 2004, was also top-billed by Rachel McAdams, who played the famous character Regina George, Lindsay Lohan as the mathlete and transfer student Cady Heron, Amanda Seyfried as Karen Smith, and Lacey Chabert as Gretchen Wieners.

Other notable stars who appeared in the film are Daniel Franzese, who played the role of Damian Leigh, Janis Ian's best friend; Jonathan Bennett, who acted as Aaron Samuels, Regina's ex and Cady's love interest; and Tina Fey as Ms. Norbury, a math teacher who discovered Cady's knowledge in the subject.

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Lizzy Caplan reveals more Mean Girls behind-the-scenes stories: "Felt like such a big deal to me"

Meanwhile, in her latest podcast interview, Lizzy Caplan also spoke about the living arrangements back when they were filming Mean Girls.

"The whole thing was in Toronto for probably three months. We lived in the hotel and it felt like a dorm, which, looking back, was a really important thing for me."

At the time, Lizzy Caplan confessed that she felt a little envious of her friends who were attending college while she was overseas pursuing an acting career.

"All of my friends, I would go visit them in college and they were having these really exciting new experiences. I was in Los Angeles, going to the supermarket at three in the morning, hoping that anything would happen to me, like I would meet anybody and anything would happen."

Nevertheless, her Mean Girls experience was memorable, also citing that she became friends with Leigh and Bennett.

"We had the greatest time, just bombing around Toronto. Just being in a movie felt like such a big deal to me at the time."

Lizzy Caplan starred in the third installment, Now You See Me: Now You Don't, which premiered on Nov. 20 in the U.S.

She also headlines The Commuter, a podcast series created by Aaron Tracy and James Patterson. It tells the story of former FBI agent Amy Nichols, who overhears a murder plot on her train commute and becomes involved in the investigation.