Busy Philipps Admits She's 'Jealous' She Wasn't in Original Mean Girls, Reveals Why She 'Couldn't Even Audition'

Though Busy Philipps steals scenes in the new Mean Girls, she still wishes she starred in the 2004 original alongside Lindsay Lohan and Tina Fey.

"I was jealous that I wasn't in it, to be honest," Philipps, 44, recently told NPR while discussing her role in the recent Mean Girls movie musical. "I couldn't even audition for it because I was filming White Chicks."

Almost two decades after the original movie's release, Philipps made her way into the Mean Girls universe by playing Regina George's (Reneé Rapp) mother, who Amy Poehler portrayed in the 2004 film.

"I don't know how I got so lucky, except that I'll take it and I'm so glad," Philipps told the outlet of the chance to work with Fey, 53, on the new Mean Girls and the comedy television series Girls5eva, which Fey produces. "I'm so grateful for it, because I did spend so much of my early career wanting to be in the boys' club of comedy, and always feeling like I don't understand why I'm not."

"I was such a huge, huge fan of hers. Of course her career meant everything to me," she added of Fey, who wrote the original Mean Girls, the Broadway musical inspired by the movie and the subsequent movie musical based on the Broadway show.

Philipps also joked to NPR that she found playing Regina George's mother in Mean Girls — depicted as humorously desperate for her popular teenage daughter's approval — relatable to her own life as a mom. She shares two children, Birdie, 15, and Cricket Silverstein, 10, with her ex-husband Marc Silverstein.

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"I am famous. People think I'm cool," she told the outlet. "But you [are] just never cool to your kids. Ever."

Philipps costarred with Rapp, 24, Auli'i Cravalho, Angourie Rice, Christopher Briney, Fey, Tim Meadows, The Office's Jenna Fischer and Jon Hamm in the Mean Girls movie musical, which premiered in theaters Jan 10. The movie made $28.6 million at the domestic box office in its opening weekend and has grossed $103.5 million worldwide, per Box Office Mojo.

“I think I’m cool, but my kids don’t think I’m cool. And I’m aware of that," Philipps told PEOPLE at the movie's premiere. "I also think I’m very clear on the fact that I’m their mother and not their friend, so that definitely makes me uncool.”

Mean Girls is streaming now.