Natasha Lyonne Reveals She Almost Didn’t Star in ‘But I’m a Cheerleader’ After Clea Duvall Told Her, “You’re Not This Type of Person” 

But I’m A Cheerleader could have been a very different movie from the cult classic it has become.

Natasha Lyonne just revealed that she almost didn’t get cast for the lead role of Megan, the naive cheerleader who gets sent to conversion therapy after she’s suspected of being a lesbian.

“Clea DuVall had put me in the movie because the script for But I’m A Cheerleader was on the floor of her car, and I was in the passenger seat,” Lyonne recalled during her Variety Actors on Actors conversation with Melanie Lynskey. “So I picked it up and I said, ‘What’s this movie? What’s my part?'”

Lyonne continued, “[DuVall] said, ‘You can’t play this part, because you’re not this type of person.’ And I said, ‘Excusez-moi, Girl, Interrupted.’”

The Poker Face actress said they later went back to director Jamie Babbit’s house, where she showed off her cheerleading skills.

“We went over to Jamie’s house, and boy, did we show her. ‘Watch what I can’t cheerlead,’ I said,” Lyonne recalled.

But I’m A Cheerleader premiered in 1999 at the Toronto International Film Festival. Though it was not a critical hit upon its premiere, the movie has gone on to become a cult classic. Lynskey later asked Lyonne if she had any hesitations playing a character going through conversion therapy.

“I was not hesitant at all. I’m consistently shocked by the things we consider shocking,” Lyonne replied. “I find it very patronizing when we say something like, ‘Oh, did you see that this straight male actor is playing gay? Bravo.'”

She continued, “When Clea and I were on the cover of Out magazine, it just seemed so weird to me that people would care. It felt like what you’re supposed to care about is the conversion-therapy part. And we’re supposed to try to stop that.”

Despite her connection to DuVall, who was already cast in the film, Lyonne was not Babbit’s first choice for the lead role. In 2012, Babbit revealed in an interview with After Ellen that her first choice for the role had to back out of the film due to religious reasons.

“Although she cried when she told me she couldn’t do it, she was clearly very torn, she just couldn’t have her family see her face on this poster,” Babbit said.

Lyonne stated that she remains “so proud” of But I’m A Cheerleader.