Jaquel Spivey says when he writes his memoir, the Mean Girls chapter will be titled 鈥淢y Light at the End of the Tunnel.鈥�
鈥淭o get to tell a story of a fat, Black, queer person who is happy about the world around him and loves himself unconditionally and walks through the world with his head held high鈥攊t was the perfect segue into finding Jaquel again,鈥� he tells 半岛体育.
That happy character is Damian, Mean Girls鈥� least mean character and most loyal friend to Janice (played by Auli'i Cravalho) and Cady (Angourie Rice). Spivey is taking on Damian in the story's newest iteration, a screen version of the 2018 Broadway musical (itself based on the hit 2004 film) hitting movie theatres January 12.
And as for finding Jaquel again鈥ell, that鈥檚 because Spivey hit most of our radars in a decidedly less happy story, the Pulitzer- and Tony-winning musical A Strange Loop. Spivey earned himself a Tony Award nomination starring as Usher in the musical鈥檚 Broadway premiere, bringing writer Michael R. Jackson鈥檚 often difficult and harrowing story of a young, fat, Black, queer musical theatre writer struggling for some semblance of self-acceptance in a world that seems to hate him.
鈥淚 had such a great experience on Broadway,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut after a while, when you鈥檙e playing a character that鈥檚 in such a dark place, it starts to weigh on you even if you yourself aren鈥檛 in a dark place. It really started getting difficult for me.鈥�
And it wasn鈥檛 just an emotional toll. Spivey says his performance was physically taxing too鈥攈e was on stage for most of the show's 90-minute runtime and sang a majority of the show's songs. 鈥淚 was using a character voice,鈥� he reveals. 鈥淢ichael and the music team had a sound in mind, and I wanted to deliver that as best as possible. But going over a year without being able to use your actual tone is kind of tough.鈥� Mean Girls, he says, was a totally different experience. 鈥淚t was nice to be in a place where they鈥檙e like, 鈥榃hat do you sound like? Let鈥檚 find out what this character sounds like through you.鈥�
In fact, Spivey left his fingerprints all over this new screen Damian. He cites original Mean Girls film star Daniel Franzese as an inspiration and the one who started it all, but Spivey wasn鈥檛 interested in recreating that performance for the story鈥檚 second screen outing. Spivey鈥檚 Damian is uniquely 2024, with a confidence and nuance that is all too often missing from onscreen queer representation.
And of course there鈥檚 something else that makes Spivey鈥檚 Damian stand apart. 鈥淚t鈥檚 very obvious that Damian is Black in this movie,鈥� Spivey shares. 鈥淚 say that proudly.鈥�
He鈥檚 not the first Black actor to take on the part. Both DeMarius R. Copes and the late Darius Barnes understudied the role on Broadway. 鈥淭hey were the first to really show Damian as a Black man. To be able to bring that to the screen is a huge honor,鈥� says Spivey. Now that the show is available to be performed by schools, they鈥檝e no doubt been joined by countless other pioneering Damians, too.
To Spivey, the character is about more than making audiences laugh鈥攚hich he does throughout his screen-stealing performance, to be clear (you will get to hear Spivey鈥檚 takes on 鈥淵ou go, Glen Coco鈥� and 鈥淪he doesn鈥檛 even go here!鈥�).
鈥淚 think Black queer representation, especially for a plus-sized man, is very scarce,鈥� he says. 鈥淎nd when you do see it, it鈥檚 either the joke or the punching bag. In this iteration, he鈥檚 neither. He鈥檚 funny, but he鈥檚 not here for your amusement.鈥�
Surprisingly, Spivey鈥檚 2024 take on the character was partially helped, he says, by some initially disappointing news. Two of Damian鈥檚 big numbers from the Broadway version of Mean Girls鈥�"Where Do You Belong?鈥� and 鈥淪top鈥濃攚ere cut from the screen adaptation. Spivey didn鈥檛 even find out the songs were gone until the first day of rehearsal, and he鈥檇 auditioned for the role singing the former.
But Spivey used it to his advantage. 鈥淚 wouldn鈥檛 say I鈥檓 bitter because I feel that in this world of Mean Girls, Damian is not your theatre gay,鈥� Spivey explains. Instead of being heartbroken with the cuts, Spivey decided to use the opportunity to widen perceptions about gay and queer people. 鈥淨ueerness doesn鈥檛 have one look and one existence. There are a lot of queer people out here who don鈥檛 even like Broadway. That sucks for them, because they should love it鈥攂ut everybody has their own thing.鈥�
Spivey says it also helped him address another quirk of queer representation that can be unintentionally damaging. Gay people are not put on earth to entertain the people around them. 鈥淪ometimes queer people put on the show because they know that we often entertain people with our existence,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 want Damian to feel like he had to always be on and to always entertain and be like, 鈥極h hey, I鈥檓 gay. Miss thing? Boots the house down!鈥� That鈥檚 cute, but sometimes people don鈥檛 talk like that. I happen to be queer, and that doesn鈥檛 come with me needing to perform for you.鈥�
The character transformation, Spivey says, was all part of working on a Mean Girls that has been decidedly adapted for a 2024 audience. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 Tina鈥檚 writing,鈥� Spivey explains. 鈥淪he understands that 2004 and 2024 are very different.鈥� The biggest way that plays out in the new screenplay is that, while it's still being about teenagers being terrible to each other, the students of North Shore know there are certain lines that are off limits鈥攎ost noticeably homophobia. The original film makes a major plot point of Queen Bee Regina George bullying Janice as being a lesbian. The new film features a more nuanced take on this particular backstory. Fey told that she made that particular update because she knew even the queen bees of 2024 would get flack for that from their peers. The children are learning鈥攅ven the mean ones!
Spivey says this new Mean Girls gives the kids of today a model for being a bully without having to be hateful to gay people, which (in a roundabout way) is almost touching. 鈥淵ou can be a bitch without being queerphobic,鈥� Spivey says with a twinkle in his eye. 鈥淧eople do it every day.鈥�
That element lets this Damian be a little more loud and proud, a little more unapologetically himself鈥攁nd that鈥檚 especially poignant to Spivey. 鈥淚 grew up in North Carolina,鈥� Spivey says. 鈥淚 know what it鈥檚 like to walk down the hall and have a group of jocks laugh and snicker, but I sashayed anyway. Damian does that, too. I hope it encourages some kid out there to keep being their best true self.鈥�
Happily, it turns out this is a piece of Spivey鈥檚 Damian that comes from the actor himself. 鈥淲e get one life. I鈥檒l be damned if I spend time worried about y鈥檃ll. I鈥檓 gonna have a good time while I鈥檓 here.鈥� Luckily for us, Jaquel Spivey does, in fact, go here.
Rene茅 Rapp
Jenna Fischer in Mean Girls
Tina Fey in Mean Girls
Jaquel Spivey, Angourie Rice, and Auli'i Cravalho in Mean Girls
Ashley Park in Mean Girls
Jon Hamm in Mean Girls
Christopher Briney in Mean Girls
Bebe Wood, Renee Rapp, and Avantika in Mean Girls
Tim Meadows in Mean Girls
Busy Philipps in Mean Girls
