Film

And None For You, Glen Coco: He Didn’t Even Get Paid For His Mean Girls Role

This is an outrage.

by Katie Booth  2 May 2014

Want more Junkee in your life? Sign up to our newsletter, and follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook so you always know where to find us.

In a movie full of bitching and backstabbing, there’s one character in Mean Girls that still, 10 years on, stands out for all the right reasons. After all, he did get four candy canes (who knows what that actually means, but he got three more than Cady Heron so that must be good, right?).

Despite his face only appearing briefly on screen, Glen Coco has become a legend. And this is why:

Shockingly, the actor who played Glen Coco, David Reale, has never actually been paid for his brilliant depiction of the candy cane king.

Reale told Dazed that while he auditioned for a different part in Mean Girls (which he didn’t get it), the filmmakers “ended up filming a lot of the school stuff right across the park from my apartment in Toronto. One day, I sort of wandered onto set to see if I could watch some scenes being shot and maybe get some free food.”  He did end up scoring a free lunch, “because everyone just assumed I was hired.” YOU GO, GLEN COCO!

As a “consolation prize” for not getting the role he auditioned for, director Mark Waters offered Reale his infamous bit part. “He said something like, ‘Hey, I’m going to put you right in the front in the next scene and you’ll have a name and everything.’”, Reale revealed.

“Glen Coco brings out the best in people,” Reale added about his unintentional bit of good fortune. And he couldn’t be more right.

Reale has secured a number of roles since his Mean Girls debut, appearing in television series such as Suits and Skins. But he still hasn’t been paid for his portrayal of Glen Coco, largely because he never signed a contract and wasn’t “officially” hired.

Still, in true Glen Coco style, he’s positive about it: “If a hungry teenager can wander in off the street, get a free meal, sit in a chair, say nothing, and become part of an internet sensation that has people from all over the world saying nice things to him on a daily basis, then anything is possible.”

It seems real-life Glen Coco is just as much of a legend as his movie counterpart.