Lindsay Lohan was bullied in high school by real-life 'mean girls' 

Long Island-raised Lindsay Lohan says she experienced real-life mean girls after shooting the classic high-school comedy.

In a video interview posted Monday on "The Breakdown," Cosmopolitan magazine's online series in which stars watch clips of their work and comment on them, Lohan recalls she "had such a blast" making that 2004 film. "All of the cast, we were always just hanging out together and we became such a close family," she says of herself and co-stars Rachel McAdams, Lacey Chabert, Lizzy Caplan, Amanda Seyfried, Daniel Franzese and Jonathan Bennett. "It didn't even feel really like work at all."

She notes of the film's cultural impact, "I don't think we knew what 'Mean Girls' was while we were doing it. No. We were just a bunch of kids making a movie. So you never really know what to expect. Maybe [screenwriter] Tina Fey had an idea because her writing was so on point."

The Cold Spring Harbor and Merrick-raised Lohan, 36, says she also did not anticipate the reception she would receive upon returning to Sanford H. Calhoun High School after production ended.

"I had an experience like 'Mean Girls' because I finished 'Mean Girls" and then I went back to regular school," she says. "And I wanted to, like, be on [the] cheerleading [squad] and be normal. And there were girls on [the] kickline [team] and one of them tripped me when I was walking in the hallway, and girls were pretty mean to me, so that's why I had to just [leave]. I was, like, 'If I want to keep doing movies I have to just home-school,' because it wasn’t working out anymore."

In the print interview, Lohan also reveals a surprising friendship with 82-year-old screen legend Al Pacino. She and the Academy Award-winner and nine-time Oscar-nominee had met in 2014 in London, when Lohan made her stage debut in a West End revival of "Speed-the-Plow" by playwright David Mamet, a longtime friend of Pacino's.

"I actually have asked him for a lot of advice for a lot of things, especially work-wise and just life-wise, just because he’s a great person to talk to," Lohan says, adding, "He always says, 'Focus on your craft when it comes to your work.' And I think that’s really important. Don’t let other outside things blur your vision."

And she related a Pacino anecdote. "Recently, I was at a restaurant in San Francisco with my husband," financier Bader Shammas, whom she married earlier this year, "and his family, and all of a sudden, this waiter was bringing our food to a different table, or I thought he was. … I was like, 'Oh no, he’s taking that to the other table,' and then I realized he was blocking a paparazzi flash. And so when he came by, I go, 'Oh, thank you so much for doing that.' And he goes, 'Oh. No, I wasn’t blocking it for you. Al Pacino’s here.'

She went to say hi. "I don’t get nervous talking to him on the phone," she says, "but I was nervous this time. And I was like, 'Is it okay if we take a picture? We need to photograph this moment.'"

Lohan stars opposite Chord Overstreet in the Netflix romantic comedy "Falling for Christmas," premiering Nov. 10.