“Mean Girls,” the musical version, is here, with its comic view of high school as a hellscape of cliques and paranoia intact.
For Boston-based Bebe Wood, it’s a career changer playing Gretchen Wieners whose life revolves around pleasing school Queen Bee Regina (Renee Rapp). That translates as having no allegiance to anyone else, especially fresh-from-Kenya Cady Heron (Angourie Rice in the role immortalized by Lindsay Lohan).
As to why Gretchen is so obsessed with Regina, that’s simple, Wood, 22, said this week on a publicity stop in Boston. “Regina is so fabulous! As a teenage girl it is easy to compare yourself to people and have these idols. Sometimes these idols are someone in pop culture. Sometimes your friends can be these people you idolize and also kind of fear. Gretchen loves Regina because she’s aspirational. She’s all of these things that Gretchen really values, some of which may be totally superficial.
“She’ll discover later in life that these things don’t matter. But everyone has insecurities in high school and it’s really easy to be like, ‘Oh my God! Look at this person. They’re so perfect. They don’t have any insecurities.’
“I think you just start idolizing them because you’re like, ‘I wish I didn’t have these insecurities.’ But of course you find out in our movie that everyone has insecurities, including Regina. And not everyone is perfect.”
As to why Gretchen has “her little sort of” breakdown, “Fans can discover the reason when they watch the film, but it’s really cool in a way,” Wood said. “I like Gretchen’s journey. She is this prominent member of Regina’s clique the Plastics, and her breakdown in a weird way enables Gretchen to discover more of herself.”
While Wood is not yet a household name, she’s been a successful working actor for the last decade. There’s a bit of serendipity in her being in “Mean Girls” which again has Tina Fey as writer, actor and producer.
Gretchen was the last major role to be cast. “I got an email. Like, ‘What are you doing tomorrow? The directors of ‘Mean Girls’ want to meet you.’ And when I logged on the very first face I saw was Tina.
“Obviously Tina Fey is an icon and I’d worked with her 10 or 11 years prior. She was my very first scene partner as a professional actor for ’30 Rock.’ I hadn’t seen her since and in so many ways that literally kicked off my entire career.
“So it felt very surreal, a very beautiful full circle moment. It was an honor to perform for her in that audition room.
“Two days later, I got the call from my agent saying I booked the part.”
“Mean Girls” is in theaters now