'The Office' Alum Joins 'Mean Girls' Musical Movie

The Office star Jenna Fischer will take a break from Office Ladies to work on Paramount's upcoming Mean Girls musical movie. Fischer was cast as Betsy Heron, Cady's mother, reports Deadline. Fischer is best known for playing Pam Beesley on The Office and now co-hosts the hit Office Ladies podcast with Angela Kinsey.

The new movie is based on the 2017 Mean Girls stage musical with music by Jeff Richmond, lyrics by Nell Benjamin, and a book by Tina Fey, which in turn was based on the 2004 film Fey wrote. Mean Girls was inspired by Rosalind Wiseman's book Queen Bees and Wannabes. SNL veteran Ana Gasteyer played Betsy in the 2004 movie.

Mean Girls the musical is being directed by Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr. Angourie Rice is playing Cady, while Auli'i Cravalho plays Janis Ian. Renee Rapp plays Regina George, Avantika plays Karen Smith, and Bebe Wood plays Gretchen Wieners. Fey will reprise her 2004 role as teacher Ms. Norbury, while Tim Meadows is back as Principal Duval. Jaquel Spivey is playing Damian Hubbard. Lorne Michaels and Fey are producing with Eric Giuan and Richmond for Little Stranger, and Erin David, Caroline Maroney, and Micah Frank for Broadway Video.

Lindsay Lohan, Rachel McAdams, Lacey Chabert, and Amanda Seyfried were all reportedly interested in taking different roles in the Mean Girls musical movie. However, sources told Page Six on Feb. 22 that talks stalled when Paramount made a lowball offer for their salaries. "All four girls were willing to come back, but Paramount has not been respectful of what they are worth," a source claimed.

Fischer earned an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for The Office in 2007. She also won two Screen Actors Guild Awards as a member of the cast. Since The Office ended, Fischer starred in The Grinder, The Mysteries of Laura, The Guest Book, Splitting Up Together, and You, Me and the Apocalypse. She also had a part in Clint Eastwood's The 5:17 to Paris.

In 2019, Fischer and Kinsey launched the Office Ladies podcast, in which they go ever every episode of The Office. They occasionally bring in other cast members and crew to reminisce about the making of the beloved series. They put their stories and pictures into a book, The Office BFFs: Tales of The Office from Two Best Friends Who Were There, which was published in May 2022.