It does take a lot of talent and guts to step into shoes as big as playing Cady Heron as Angourie Rice did. Mean Girls, unarguably one of the biggest teen comedies of the mid-2000s, not only turned 20 in 2024 but had a feature film remake. Whether or not the 2024 Mean Girls is judged as a worthy remake, there’s no denying Angourie Rice’s stellar performance.
The Melbourne-born Australian actress, whose career began as a child actor, is one of the fastest-rising actresses from the continent. However, Rice is no stranger to Hollywood, having starred in a few big-budget films and worked with some of the industry’s biggest names. If Angourie Rice looked familiar playing Cady Heron in Mean Girls (2024), here are 8 movie and TV roles you probably know the actress from.
These Final Hours (2013)
These Final Hours (2013) is Angourie Rice’s on-screen acting debut. The then-12-year-old Rice was cast as Rose in the Australian science fiction apocalyptic thriller. These Final Hours follow a plot about the end of the world. After an asteroid hit the North Atlantic, causing a global firestorm, a radio news announcement stated the raging firestorm would hit Western Australia in 12 hours. Although the movie focuses on how people spend their final hours, it centers on James (Nathan Phillips), a young man who just discovered his lover, Zoe (Jessica De Gouw), who is pregnant.
Angourie Rice’s character, Rose, is introduced while James, after leaving Zoe, is driving to attend “the party to end all parties.” James rescues Rose from two kidnappers. Although he planned to leave her off with his sister, after discovering his sister and family had committed mass suicide, he proposes to reunite Rose with her father. At the end of These Final Hours, both characters find closure as they spend their final hours with loved ones. Angourie Rice was nominated for her performance at the Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards and the Australian Film Critics Association Awards.
The Nice Guys (2016)
Angourie Rice co-starred alongside Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling in the neo-noir buddy action comedy The Nice Guys (2016). The movie was Rice’s first major American feature film. Rice played the younger sister, Holly March, of Private Investigator Holland March (Ryan Gosling). After crossing paths with Jackson Healy, a violent enforcer, the trio work together to rescue and solve a case. Although only a supporting character, Angourie Rice’s performance received nominations at the Australian Film Critics Association Awards, Golden Schmoes Awards, Online Film & Television Association, and Empire Awards, UK.
Every Day (2018)
Angourie Rice pushed her career a step further with her lead role as Rhiannon in Michael Sucsy‘s emotional, romantic fantasy drama Every Day (2018). The movie centers around A, a traveling spirit that wakes up in a different body every day. When A wakes up in Rhiannon’s boyfriend’s body, he and Rice’s character bond in an amazing way. While both begin to fall in love with each other, A finds Rhiannon daily in the new body he wakes up in. He falls in love with her the day he wakes up in her body and gets to experience her life. However, as a traveling spirit, A admits he must leave for Rhiannon to enjoy life. After a romantic night together, A wakes up in the body of Katie (Hannah Richardson) and chooses to drive away to New York.
Spider-Man Films
Angourie Rice joined the cast of the second Spider-Man film reboot, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), playing Betty Brant. The character is introduced as a student of Midtown School of Science and Technology. Betty Brant also co-hosts the Midtown News with fellow student Jason Ionello. Although a minor supporting character in the first film, Betty Brant will later become an unpaid intern for The Daily Bugle. Betty Brant was in a romantic relationship with Ned Leeds (Jacob Batalon) before they later broke up and chose to stay as friends. Angourie Rice reprised the role in both sequels, Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019) and Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021).
Senior Year (2022)
Although cast in a minor role as the teenage Stephanie “Steph” Conway, Senior Year (2022) is another movie audiences could have recognized Angourie Rice from. Rice plays the Australian immigrant who decides and succeeds in becoming popular in High School. Rice’s character exits the film after a near-death cheerleading accident leaves her in a coma for 20 years. The character awakens as a 37-year-old, played by fellow Australian actress and comedian Rebel Wilson.
Honor Society (2022)
Before her lead role in Mean Girls (2024), Angourie Rice played the lead in the American coming-of-age comedy Honor Society (2022). Rice plays the titular character Honor Rose, a middle-class student at George H. W. Bush High School, hoping to get a recommendation from her guidance counselor to attend Harvard University. When she discovers she is one of four students the guidance counselor is looking to give the recommendation, she schemes her way into sabotaging the other three students. However, her ambition will create new friendships in the most unlikely places and reveal she is not the only manipulative student at the school.
Mare of Easttown (2021)
Angourie Rice was also one of the main cast of HBO’s original crime drama limited series Mare of Easttown. The 7-episode miniseries originally aired from April 18 to May 30, 2021. Rice was cast as Siobhan Sheehan, the headstrong and rebellious daughter of Kate Winslet‘s character, Marianne “Mare” Sheehan. Rice’s character was introduced in the first episode (“Miss Lady Hawk Herself”) and made appearances in all other episodes.
The Last Thing He Told Me (2023)
The Apple TV+ miniseries The Last Thing He Told Me (2023) was Angourie Rice’s last television role before playing Cady Heron in Mean Girls (2024). Starring alongside Jennifer Garner, Rice played Garner’s stepdaughter, Bailey Michaels/Kristin. After its release on the streaming platform, the 7-episode miniseries became Apple TV+’s most-watched limited series ever. It attracted over 4.5 million unique viewers within a month of its release. The Last Thing He Told Me became Angourie Rice‘s sixth credit on the small screen.
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