Ross Mathews Reveals a Never-Before-Told Secret About His ‘Mean Girls’ Audition
If you caught The Drew Barrymore Show on April 1, you witnessed one of those delicious celebrity confessions that makes daytime TV absolutely worth it.
Ross Mathews — beloved RuPaul’s Drag Race judge and all-around national treasure — dropped a bombshell nobody saw coming: he once auditioned to play Damian in the 2004 classic Mean Girls.
And according to Ross himself, he’s “never told anyone this” before.
The Big Reveal That No One Saw Coming
The confession came during a game of Moss or Ross with guest Elizabeth Moss, where Drew Barrymore was given a fact and had to guess whether it applied to Ross or Moss.
The clue read, “I auditioned to be in Mean Girls,” and Barrymore guessed Moss.
She, of course, was wrong. And that’s when Ross launched into the story with his signature charm and candor.
Mathews told Barrymore, “Back in 2002-ish, 2003? I was just on The Tonight Show and I got a call saying, ‘Will you audition for this movie for a kid in high school?’ And I was like, ‘I’m too old.’”
Ross would’ve been around 23 or 24 years old at the time.
But here’s the part that makes this story truly wild.
“And they said, ‘Tina Fey kind of had you in mind when she wrote the part of Damian,’” he continued.
Let that sink in. Fey — who wrote the screenplay for Mean Girls — specifically had Mathews in mind when crafting one of the most beloved characters in comedy movie history.
The RuPaul’s Drag Race judge we know and love today could have been the one delivering the line, “She doesn’t even go here!”
So what happened? In true Ross fashion, he didn’t sugarcoat it one bit.
“I was terrible and didn’t get it,” he said on the show.
You have to love the honesty. No spinning, no excuses — just pure self-deprecating Ross Mathews energy. He followed it up graciously: “It’s a great movie. It’s iconic, and I can’t believe I was there at the beginning a little bit.”
The role ultimately went to Daniel Franzese, who delivered that iconic line to perfection.
Damian’s Place in ‘Mean Girls’ History
In the movie, Damian is the best friend of Janis Ian, played by Lizzy Caplan. He serves as one of Cady Heron’s (Lindsay Lohan) first friends at North Shore High School.
Damian and Janis are the ones who initially guide Cady through the social landscape of the school and recruit her into their scheme to take down Regina George and the Plastics.
When writing the screenplay, Fey based a lot of the characters on real people.
Damian was based on Damian Holbrook — a senior writer at TV Guide — and his brother, Jim Holbrook. Damian and Fey were friends growing up and met at Summer Stage when he was 13, according to Billy Penn at WHYY.
“The movie version is far more me and the musical version is far more my brother,” Holbrook told the outlet in 2023. “He’s a show tunes fan, very flamboyant, very funny, and literally can drop a show tune lyric into any conversation.”
“It’s almost like my superpower,” he said of the character. “I may not have had a huge impact on the world, but this character has definitely made an impression. He’s been embraced by people.”
This article was created by content specialists using various tools, including AI.
