She's the Man is a 2006 American romantic comedy teen sports film directed by Andy Fickman and starring Amanda Bynes, Channing Tatum, Laura Ramsey, Vinnie Jones, and David Cross.

Inspired by William Shakespeare's play Twelfth Night,[3] the film centers on teenager Viola Hastings, who enters her brother's new boarding school, Illyria Prep, in his place and pretends to be a boy in order to play on the boys' soccer team.

The film received mixed reviews from critics, but Bynes's performance was universally praised, and has developed a cult following.

Meanwhile, her twin brother, Sebastian has to enroll in Illyria, an elite boarding school, as he was recently expelled from Cornwall for skipping classes, but he secretly goes to London with his fledgling band instead.

While moving in, she meets her roommate, Duke Orsino, Illyria's attractive soccer team captain.

Illyria wins the game when Viola scores a goal, finally humiliating Justin and the rest of the Cornwall boys.

An adaptation of William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, the film was directed by Andy Fickman, produced by Lauren Shuler Donner, Tom Rosenberg, and Gary Lucchesi, and was written by Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith.

Amanda Bynes and Channing Tatum were cast respectively in the lead roles of Viola Hastings and Duke Orsino.

"[6] However, in a 2018 interview with Paper, Bynes admitted that her role in the film eventually had a negative effect on her mental health.

"[5] Neither Bynes nor Tatum were skilled at soccer before filming, so they played the sport for hours each day to prepare for the role.

[7] In a bathroom scene in the film, where a fight occurs between the characters of Bynes and actresses Laura Ramsey and Alexandra Breckenridge, some of the stunts performed had been done by the actors themselves.

Fickman stated in a behind-the-scenes feature that "As much as we had our three wonderful stunt actresses there, too, when you see the cut of the movie, it's a lot of our girls pounding each other".

The critical consensus reads, "Shakespeare's wit gets lost in translation with She's the Man's broad slapstick, predictable jokes, and unconvincing plotline.

[12] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "B+" on scale of A to F.[13] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote "...Amanda Bynes let us say that she is sunny and plucky and somehow finds a way to play her impossible role without clearing her throat more than six or eight times.

"[14] Writing for the San Francisco Chronicle, critic Ruth Stein wrote: "Bynes displays a flair for comedy, especially when Viola studies guys walking down the street and mimics their gait and mannerisms.

Bynes uses her elastic face to show Viola's every thought making the transition and doing her darnedest to pull it off... She's not going to win an Oscar for playing a boy, as Hilary Swank did [in Boys Don't Cry (1999)]; but Bynes makes a far more convincing one than Barbra Streisand in Yentl (1983).