Meet the lead of the Broadway musical’s film adaptation
How did Angourie Rice get her start?
Given that her dad is a theater director and her mom a playwright, Angourie Rice seemed fated for a career in the arts. “I don’t think it was predestined, but there were so many elements of my environment that made it possible,” says the Australian actor, who spent much of her childhood backstage at her parents’ productions. That said, she had no delusions of grandeur. “I grew up around artists, actors, writers, directors, and creative people who were doing it not because they wanted fame or money but because they loved it and it was the driving force in their life,” explains Rice, who turns 23 this month. “There are lots of ways to define achieving success in the arts.”
Which projects has she worked on?
Rice first appeared on screen at age 11, winning an award at the St. Kilda Film Festival for her debut in the short film Transmission. She followed that with the sci-fi thriller These Final Hours, and has since portrayed a passel of daughters—Ryan Gosling’s in The Nice Guys, Kate Winslet’s in Mare of Easttown, Jennifer Garner’s in The Last Thing He Told Me—as well as Betty Brant in the Tom Holland–led Spider-Man films. While she has been touted as a “breakout star” each time out, she cites Spider-Man as the “before and after” moment: “That changed a lot for me, in terms of opportunities and also in terms of how much time I spent away from school.”
How did she prepare for the role of Cady in Mean Girls?
The Melbourne-based Rice was able to catch up on some of that lost school time with her latest project, this month’s film adaptation of the Broadway musical Mean Girls. Being cast as Cady—the character Lindsay Lohan played in the original 2004 film—was surreal for Rice, who was just 3 years old when the word “fetch” entered the lexicon but who came to know the world of the Plastics well. “My parents would spend a lot of time in the rehearsal room, and me and my sister would be backstage,” she remembers. “The main thing was this portable DVD player: We owned three or four DVDs that we watched on repeat, and one of them was Mean Girls.”
What’s next?
Rice recently wrapped both a play at the Melbourne Theatre Company and a book tour for a novel, Stuck Up & Stupid (which she cowrote with her mom), but she has no intention of slowing down. “I’m the type of person who’ll go on holiday and write a to-do list,” she says with a laugh. “For better or worse, I feel like I can’t sit still.” While she’s staying mum about her next screen projects, she’s continuing to produce her story- and book-focused podcast, The Community Library, and she has also set herself the challenge of having her whole family over for dinner: “I think it’s a hard thing to do—host a big dinner party that’s successful—so that’s my goal.”
