Christopher Briney Is More Similar To Aaron Samuels Than Conrad Fisher
Plus, why he identifies as a golden retriever BF.
Christopher Briney’s got the brooding heartthrob thing down playing Conrad Fisher in The Summer I Turned Pretty, but IRL, he insists he’s more like his character’s brother. After TikTok crowned Jeremiah Fisher one of the best examples of the golden retriever boyfriend (an SO that’s goofy and loyal with a touch of puppy love), Briney — who’s dating actor Isabel Machado — jokes that he also fits the bill. “I like a good back rub, I wag my tail," he tells Elite Daily in an exclusive interview through his Uber partnership. “I think there’s some of that in me.”
Ahead of the release of the Mean Girls musical movie on Jan. 12, the 25-year-old actor — who’s playing Aaron Samuels — says that he actually relates to his new character more than his breakout role on TSITP. “I think I'm probably a little closer to Aaron [because] he's pretty personable in a way that Conrad isn’t,” he says. “Sometimes [Conrad] has a cold shoulder that I don't really tend to put up at this point in my life, whereas Aaron is just sort of happy to be there and just trying to be nice to people.”
Jonathan Bennett’s Aaron might be responsible for iconic Mean Girls quotes like “Grool,” but Briney says he purposefully tried to differentiate his character from the 2004 North Shore High hottie.
[The role of Aaron is] so iconic and I can never re-create that — I can only do my own version.
“I purposefully didn't rewatch the original Mean Girls after I booked it, because I didn’t want to have that in my head as the right way to do it,’” he says. “[The role of Aaron is] so iconic and I can never re-create that — I can only do my own version.”
Briney says he didn’t tap Bennett or Kyle Selig — the Aaron Samuels from the Tony-nominated Broadway version of the film — for inspo when creating his character, but he did have one Mean Girls alum guiding him: “Tina [Fey] was on set so [the directors] could always push you in a direction if [they needed to].”
Just like the 2024 Mean Girls will be a “hybrid” of the musical and the OG film, Briney hopes to create an entirely new Aaron. “I tried to do my own thing as much as I could and just fit myself into that world,” he says, teasing that fans can expect a “completely different world” from that of the 2004 film, thanks in part to updated technology and social media.
“I'd like to think that any actor doing something will be doing it differently than another actor,” he adds. “I guess we’ll see if it worked, but I have to think it did — I hope it did.” Fans will have to wait until Jan. 12 to see Briney’s interpretation, but here’s hoping the new Aaron Samuels is a golden retriever boyfriend.
