When Jonathan Bennett booked the role of teen hunk Aaron Samuels, he had been out of high school for nearly five years and was playing a character who was pretty much his alter ego. "I grew up a theater nerd and a drama club nerd, and here I am getting to play, like, what I always wanted to be, which is like the cool jock guy," he admitted on the Today show.
Not only was it his very first movie, but Bennett was starring alongside teen icon Lindsay Lohan and famed comedic writers Tina Fey and Lorne Michaels. It was a lot of pressure, naturally. "You're just always nervous that you're not good enough," Bennett explained. Obviously, though, he was grool enough. The movie made his career.
Bennett never dreamed that Mean Girls was going to be as successful as it was when it first hit theaters in 2004. "I remember my manager at the time saw a [preview] screening and said, 'Just so you know, come opening weekend, your life's gonna be different for the rest of your life,'" the actor told Entertainment Weekly. "I didn't really believe him, but sure enough, he was right."
