It's true that all films begin as words on a page, but this takes you perhaps a tenth of the way to a finished film - and even if you embark on this journey with a brilliantly crafted script, there's still a huge amount of opportunity to make an absolute dog of the road. That's because filmmaking is a highly collaborative art form. Everyone from the director to the cinematographer to the editor to the production and costume designers should be committed to serving that wonderful script properly (being on the same page is not enough, as there are many films where incredibly talented craftsmen were united in destroying a promising script ).

One of the most important stages in film production is, of course, casting. There is an art to great casting (therefore now he has his own Oscar), especially when it comes to composing comedy. Again, it's not just a matter of bringing together some of the funniest people on the planet. You need look no further than the mindless crimes of Harold Ramis' Club Paradise, Nora Ephron's Mixed Nuts, and Akiva Shafer's The Clock for evidence that comedic geniuses fail to sync up all the time. Chemistry is key, and a casting director needs to bring in the right group of actors to find those ideal matches.

As an example of on-the-spot comedy casting, you can't do any better (and maybe no worse) than Mark Waters' Sean Girls than the movie musical Mean Girls.). Despite being armed with a devilishly funny script by Tina Fey, Waters was challenged to find a collection of young, mostly unknown actors who could bounce off star Lindsay Lohan in an unpredictably funny way. They hit the jackpot with the likes of Rachel McAdams, Amanda Seyfried, Lacey Chabert, Lizzy Caplan and Daniel Franzese, but narrowly missed out on the role of Aaron Samuels. As Cady Heron's love interest (and Regina George's ex-boyfriend), Aaron had to be a pretty dumb object of desire. Jonathan Bennett ended up killing the part, but he initially lost the role almost killing a key element of the film.

At a recent Hallmark Channel panelJonathan Bennett spilled the tea on the Mean Girls casting process. He wasn't the first choice to play Aaron Samuels. Actually he was, but some executive meddling almost cost him a big opportunity.

According to Bennett, he ended his audition by making Lindsay Lohan blush on camera. "(Mark Waters) looks at me and says, 'Hey kid, you just made my lead actor blush.' You're going to get the role,'' Bennett said. "I'm like, 'Yeah, I got it!'

So Bennett was surprised when, after returning home from his triumphant audition, he got a call that the production was going with someone else—someone who, in the actor's telling of the story, possessed the blonde hair and blue eyes that were popular. at the time (he cites Paul Walker and Brad Pitt as examples). Unfortunately, Bennett is back to folding sweaters at Abercrombie & Fitch.

Not even Bennett knew that the actor playing Aaron was about to fire a bomb at the first table read.

If you're wondering how Bennett suddenly went from what he thought was the front-runner for Aaron to an also-ran, it all came down to an executive decision by then-Paramount boss Sherry Lansing to go with a Paul Walker lookalike (whose identity is a mystery) . Per Bennett, "I knew I was Lorne Michaels' choice, I knew I was the director's choice, I knew I was Tina Fey's choice, I knew I was Lindsey's choice, but the president of Paramount kind of ... goes over everybody's head and says, "That's him."

Then came the disastrous table read. Although Bennett wasn't there, this is how he understands the whole fiasco to be over:

“(The actor) goes to the table read in Canada, walks in, wears baggy pants, a baggy hood, a hat. It's like he's mumbling. ? And Tim Meadows says, “I'm Tim Meadows, who is you? It was just super-awkward, wasn't it? He just says all the wrong things. He mumbled when he read. And Lorne Michaels from "Saturday Night Live" is used to the chart being on point... so they were like, "Hey, make sure you deliver."

The flaky actor was fired right after the table read, which wasn't a big deal because everyone not named Sherry Lansing loved Bennett in the first place. Still, it was somewhat confusing for Bennett, who was shirtless in the middle of a shift at Abercrombie & Fitch when his agent called to tell him the good news. Although he was understandably delighted, the young actor's focus was on his work, so he told his agent that he would call him back after his shift. His agent was not amused. "You don't they have shift,” he replied. "Let go."

And just like that, Bennett was on a plane to Canada to film one of the most beloved comedies of the 2000s. which totally made a "catch" happen.