"Mean Girls" Star Jonathan Bennett on Playing Aaron Samuels in Ariana Grande's "Thank U, Next" Video
Spotting all of the cameos in Ariana Grande’s “thank u, next” music video undoubtedly takes some effort, not to mention knowledge of her Victorious costars. Of course, one of the most iconic cameos was from Mean Girls star Jonathan Bennett — AKA Aaron Samuels himself — who was seen walking the halls with the “Plastics” and telling the camera, “Ariana told me my hair looked sexy pushed back. She’s not wrong.”
It turns out that returning to his classic 2004 role took some work. OK, maybe a lot of work. In an interview with BuzzFeed News, Jonathan revealed that a group of seven stylists collaborated to perfect that “sexy” Aaron Samuels look. According to the actor, his beauty team flat-ironed individual sections of his hair to give it that throwback ‘00s style, “taping and gluing everything back up where it belongs.”
Going back to the halls of North Shore High School was a bit of a shock for Jonathan, given that it’s been over a decade (!!) since he stepped into Aaron’s shoes, quite literally. “I hadn’t had that done in 14 or 15 years, so to have that done and then look in the mirror for the first time with the blue sweatshirt on, it definitely gave me chills,” he told BuzzFeed, adding that watching Ariana and the other “Plastics” strut down the hall in slow-motion was seemingly “identical” to the original scene. “It literally transported me back to being with Lindsay Lohan and everyone else,” the 37-year-old said. “If you’re going to do this, you’re going to do it right and you’re going to do it big. Ariana did exactly that.”
As for how he ended up in the video — it's a classic story all on its own. Jonathan told BuzzFeed that Ariana's manager DM'd him over Instagram and asked him to reprise his infamous role. "It’s why I love Ariana Grande, because she gives her fans what they want," he said.
Despite the fact that Jonathan has said that he’d never do a Mean Girls sequel, it seems as though the momentary time travel was nothing but fun for the actor. After all, he has plenty of good memories from his days on set; in 2017, Jonathan told Teen Vogue that he laughs thinking about that soccer scene. “I don't know how to play soccer nor had I ever kicked a soccer ball in my life,” he said at the time. “They had to get a soccer coach to teach me how to kick the ball because I was so bad at it.”
And even though Jonathan had no idea that Mean Girls would be the huge success that it was, he’s “proud” to have helped bring it to fruition. “It's just part of my life, and I'm honored to be part of people's lives,” he told Teen Vogue. “I wouldn’t change it for the world.”
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