Lindsay Lohan's Lost 2004 'Mean Girls' Interview Just Surfaced-and Her Real-Life Celebrity Roommate Will Shock You (Exclusive)
In the spring of 2004, the world was on the precipice of a massive pop-culture shift. Mean Girls was filming in Toronto, and none of us quite realized just how legendary the teen comedy would become. Or that it would turn then 17-year-old Lindsay Lohan into a worldwide superstar.
At the time, I was an entertainment editor for CosmoGIRL!, deeply embedded in the Y2K teen Hollywood ecosystem. I was about to publish an unauthorized biography tracking Lindsay's meteoric rise, Lindsay Lohan: The It Girl Next Door. So, when the invite arrived to visit the Mean Girls set, I packed my bags.
We spent hours waiting inside a makeshift classroom, watching crew members orchestrate total chaos in the hallways as "Burn Book" pages fluttered through the air. After interviewing the rest of the soon-to-be-iconic cast, the door swung open, and a 17-year-old Lindsay Lohan walked in. It wasn't Wednesday, but she was indeed dressed in pink. She was also radiant, freckle-faced, and refreshingly candid.
While snippets of that afternoon made it into print 22 years ago, the most fascinating parts of our conversation were left on the cutting-room floor. Today, in partnership with my Substack, TheTeen Mag Time Machine, I'm opening the vault.
The biggest surprise from that afternoon in the fall of 2003? Lindsay wasn't hanging out with "Plastics" off-camera. She was busy preparing to move in with another major teen icon: Raven-Symoné.
Here are the most fascinating glimpses inside the mind of a 17-year-old, on-the-verge Lindsay Lohan from this unreleased transcript from the set of Mean Girls.
Related: 'Mean Girls' Cast: Where Are They Now?
How do you relax and unwind when you aren't working?
Lindsay Lohan: I don't think at 17 you want to relax and unwind, I am always constantly doing something. When I flew into New York last weekend to see my family, I was home for two hours before I had to go to the city for work. My little sister Ally said, "I don't consider you my sister anymore! You are not here!" She's nine and that killed me.
My mom's going through that withdrawal phase because I just got an apartment in LA with my friend. She's like, ‘That's it! You're going to move out and leave us and never talk to me again-I can't deal with this!' and hung up the phone. I was like, ‘MOM! NOOO! I'm always going to come back and forth!' I want to be with my friends too, so it's hard. In LA, I'm moving in with a really good friend of mine and she's in the business too. We're both going to do our own things and it'll be a fun experience.
Who is your roommate?
Lindsay: It was really random that we moved in with each other because I actually met her-Raven-Symoné-at the Vanity Fair photo shoot [for the "It's Totally Raining Teens" cover]. We started talking and hanging out when I was in LA. I mentioned I was looking for an apartment and like a week later she was like, 'I found a place! I go there everyday to sit in it and look at it. We have to get it.'
What kind of roommate do you think you'll be?
Lindsay: I'm pretty organized and color coordinated. I mean, I do throw my stuff around. Raven's been handling everything. I haven't even been to the apartment yet. Raven said, 'I'm going to look for stuff. We need to get the paint and get the bedroom set and do this and that.' She's very ahead of herself. She's been very mature about everything. I'm excited. I picked baby pink for my room and we picked baby blue for both bathrooms.
Tell us about your look on set today?
Lindsay: Today I'm a 'Plastic.' When I'm a 'Plastic,' my hair is more curly and I wear more makeup and stuff. When I was in high school I felt like you always had to wear makeup. I was never comfortable in my skin, I hated my freckles, I couldn't go out without a base on my face. I've gotten so much more comfortable with myself from being on sets. It's so much easier to just wear no makeup.
Related: 50 Mean Girls Quotes That Are So Fetch
What is it like being number one on the call sheet for the first time with Mean Girls?
Lindsay: With Freaky Friday, Jamie Lee Curtis always referred to herself as being "number one on the call sheet" and threw that in my face. So I actually framed this call sheet and sent it to her! I had a talk with Mark Waters [director of Freaky Friday and Mean Girls] and he was like, "You know, there's no Jamie [Lee Curtis] on this set. You have to hold your own, be the responsible one and let people look up to you."
That kind of scared me a little bit because if I mess up here and there, I don't want people to think I'm immature. But when I'm on set, it's always professional. This is work for me.
Editor's Note: Want to hear about the wild story of what happened when Lauren ended up at Lindsay's family home for a Seventeen Magazine cover story stakeout in 2006? Head over to The Teen Mag Time Machine, for the complete vault and more unfiltered pop culture nostalgia!
Next, check out the funniest Mean Girls memes.
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This story was originally published June 18, 2026 at 6:04 AM.