How “Mean Girls” Stars Auli'i Cravalho and Jaquel Spivey Deal with Bullies: 'Block Out the Noise' (Exclusive)

Sometimes it's "better to have a Burn Book where you write down your feelings instead of saying them out loud," says Cravalho

Auli'i Cravalho and Jaquel Spivey have learned how to take on mean people.

The stars play best friends Janis and Damian in Mean Girls, the new musical reimagining of the 2004 comedy, again written by Tina Fey. Their outcast characters fear and despise the Plastics, the clique of popular girls who rule the hallways at their high school.

Cravalho, 23, and Spivey, 25, tell PEOPLE the ways they've learned to treat bullies in the real world.

"Sometimes it's important to ... throw it back, see what happens. Other times, maybe it is better to have a Burn Book where you write down your feelings instead of saying them out loud," says Cravalho, also the voice of Disney's Moana.

Spivey, who's in his first movie role after breaking out in Broadway's A Strange Loop, adds, "Sometimes it just feels good to say, 'Shut your ass up,' you know? Sometimes it just needs to happen."

Related: Reneé Rapp Reveals the Karaoke Song She's Making Christopher Briney Sing at Her Birthday Party (Exclusive)

"But I'm also the type of person, I can say 'shut your ass up' and keep it moving. I feel like a lot of people really give power away," says Spivey. "I had to learn early on as a chubby, queer, Black kid trying to find himself. You've got to hold onto what you know or people [are] going to take it."

"So," says Spivey, "I'm very good at blocking out the noise."

Their costars who portray the Plastics — Reneé Rapp, Bebe Wood and Avantika — have also developed approaches to handling meanies.

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. 

Related: Here's How You Know the Cast of the 2024 Mean Girls Movie

"It’s important to remind yourself that what these people say are their opinions. You get to decide what you make a fact, and you hold that control in your power," says Avantika, 18. Wood, 22, adds, "I love RuPaul’s, 'If they’re not paying your rent, pay them no mind.' That’s my mantra."

Rapp, meanwhile, is still learning. "I actually don’t know how I deal with it. I would like to think I try hard to have a lot of empathy. However, you get burned badly enough, you start to get sensitive and edgy. I’m going through a whole thing where I’m like, 'I need to figure out how I deal with mean people.' "

"Which," the singer, 24, adds, "is not to say that I myself don’t have the capacity to be mean or I’m exempt from a really mean thing I did when I was a kid, because I’m sure I was doing some crazy s---. Like, I know I was!"

Angourie Rice, the Australian actress who plays Cady Heron, has a low tolerance for not-nice individuals.

"I can’t deal with mean people, I just cry," says the star, 23. "It’s hard because logically you understand when people are mean it’s because it’s their problem. It’s not to do with you. Emotionally, things still hurt."

Mean Girls is in theaters now.

For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on People.