Reneé Rapp FAULT Magazine Covershoot and Interview

Words: Fabio Magnocavallo

Get yourself a girl who can do both, they say. That girl would be Reneé Rapp, the multitalented entertainer from North Carolina who is slowly but surely taking the music and acting industry by storm, simultaneously. 

It’s first thing on a Wednesday morning and I meet the recently-turned 23 year old in central London at her hotel ahead of a full day of promo. We jump in a car and travel together to her next destination where she will spend the rest of her hours talking about herself to even more journalists. It’s Rapp’s first ever time out of the country and one day away from her sold-out debut show in the capital city. A week prior to flying over, Rapp had announced an intimate concert at Kings Cross’ Lafayette, which has a capacity of 600. After selling out the show within just minutes, she upgraded to Heaven, which can hold more than double what the previous venue could. Yet again, the tickets were gone in a flash, resulting in another upgrade. In the end, Rapp’s debut UK show ended up taking place at the O2 Forum Kentish Town, where she performed the biggest show of her career to 2,300 eager fans who knew the words to every song.

Packed-out venues aren’t a new concept for the starlet, however. Before wrapping up 2022, she embarked on her first 7-show North American tour, which of course, was also in high demand. These said shows have all been in support of her debut 7-track EP, Everything To Everyone, released on November 11 via Interscope Records in the US and Polydor in the UK. After barely being out for three whole months, the project is not only captivating live audiences but has also already racked up over 50 million plays on Spotify alone. At the 34 GLAAD Media Awards, Rapp has been nominated for Outstanding Breakthrough Music Artist, which we can confidently assume will be the first of many music nominations in the upcoming years.

For someone achieving new milestones at a quick pace, many still discovering Rapp’s talent might be wondering how she initially got her foot in the door. The answer to that is her theatre background. Following her portrayal of Sandra in her school’s production of Big Fish, the aspiring star was honoured with the Best Performance by an Actress trophy at the Jimmy Awards in New York City, beating out her competition of 40 people. In 2018, she was cast as Wendla in Theatre Charlotte’s 2018 production of Spirit Awakening before booking her most iconic gig to date: Regina George in the Tony-nominated musical Mean Girls in 2019.

Like her career in music, Rapp’s acting life remains nothing short of exciting. Currently, she plays one of the lead roles in HBO Max’s teen comedy-drama streaming television series The Sex Lives of College Girls, which has enjoyed two successful seasons. 

With so much going on in her world, FAULT met up with Rapp to learn even more about the rising star.

So, we’re here in London and you’re playing the biggest show of your career tomorrow. The demand has been crazy and you’ve had to upgrade the venue twice. That must be a massive confidence boost?

Absolutely. For me, I think that I always have anxiety surrounding pretty much everything, but music specifically because I never know if people really give a fuck. It’s also nice to know that people genuinely wanna listen to music ‘cuz I understand that I am very spoilt to have other platforms. I’m always worried that people like will only wanna see me for acting and not music. Music is like my lane and that’s where I feel most comfortable. It was nice to be like, oh yeah, I could do a show here, and also it’s my biggest show!

Do you think it’s also because you put so much of yourself into the songs that it’s more rewarding when fans gravitate towards that?

Especially that. With acting, it’s not that I don’t care, but I don’t. It’s not emotional for me. It’s not something I connect with in that way. It’s something I’m very fortunate to do and it’s something that I’ve grown to have a very specific love for. But music is really the only thing I give a fuck about.

You released your debut EP, Everything to Everyone, in November. How have you felt about the reception of that?

Really good! We didn’t really finalize the songs for the project until like the hour before it had to be turned in and it was like a huge fight because originally “Everything to Everyone” wasn’t gonna be on the project. And I was like, ’Are you fucking kidding me?’ I was like, ‘There’s no way that’s happening!’ Everybody wanted to fight me because they were like, ‘You’re so behind.’ And I was like, ah, I don’t give a fuck. I was sure that it needed to be on there for it to make sense. So, it’s been really nice because I think people like the songs more than I do.

You’ve been on the entertainment scene for a number of years now, but when did the creative process for this project begin?

So for the entirety of our filming process for season two of The Sex Lives of College Girls, I didn’t have a day off for I think three and a half months, like even weekends, because every single time I would leave set, I would go to the studio, whether it was Sunday, whether it was like 9:00 PM at night, I’d go record till three and then wake up at five to go shoot the next day. I say that in a way that doesn’t feel like, oh my God, I just like work so much. I just say it in the sense of like, I love this shit. I was willing to burn myself out in order to get this done and I would do it again.Could I physically do it again? Probably not. But, I would if I could in a heartbeat. 

The first song I wrote on the project was “In The Kitchen” in February 2022. Overall, it was a six to seven month writing process. 

Was there a song that was most challenging to write or one that you didn’t think would make the cut because it was so hard to get finished?

I feel like a lot of them were challenging in different ways, but I think the most challenging one was “Too Well” because I hated that song. The second we recorded it, everybody was like, ‘We love this!’ And I was like, ‘Y’all are drunk. This song sucks! This is so stupid, there’s no creative lyricism or whatever.’ I think like two or three days before the thing was turned in, I finally approved it. I literally said to my A&R, I wrote him a text that was my notes for the EP written down on paper, and my one note for “Too Well” was literally verbatim. I was like, ‘If you decide to put this on the project, you guys better make me fucking love it.’ I was like, something needs to change, the mix needs to be good or whatever. And they were so, so amazing and so determined. Also, I was wrong and everyone else was right. I’m now like, ‘Yeah, you guys are all smart. I get it now.’

Was there a particular message you wanted to get across with the songs?

No, no. I literally just wanted them to listen to it, I guess. I cannot give myself that much credit at this point in my career. I so wish that I was like one of those people who could like sit here and be like, ‘It was a culmination of da da da da da.’ It’s not, it was literally my entire year of being 22. The biggest message overall that I felt I had was to be a people pleaser. I felt like I had to do everything for everybody. I wasn’t really thinking about it until the project came together and I was like, ‘Oh, this is like a culmination of like everything I’ve been through in my 22nd year of life.’ I feel like it was the first year that I decided to live for myself and be very brutally honest as opposed to like filtering myself, making myself more comfortable for people, making myself smaller so other people felt better. So, I lost a lot of people in my life. I lost a lot of dead weight this year, it was fucking amazing and I’m so glad that they’re gone and they will never fucking return. I’m thrilled because I’m no longer subscribing.

Which song do you connect with the most?

“In The Kitchen,” for sure.

What was it like venturing out on tour straight after releasing the EP? I guess it’s one thing to read nice things about your music but to actually see that translate in person must be something else.

It was like the best feeling ever but it also just felt so natural. I think think everybody’s like, ‘Aren’t you excited and proud?’ I mean this in the most humble way possible, I feel relieved. Because I think I’ve been talking so much shit ever since I was born, telling people that I’m going to do this, this is what I’m going to do and y’all are not gonna fuck with me and not get in my way respectfully. So, after like 22 years of talking shit, I was like, ‘Oh, I’m actually doing it, thank God.’ It would be super embarrassing if I was to just talk shit and then didn’t get there. I would feel stupid, so I just felt relieved.

I read that you were in a girl group named Daddy’s Little Girls when you were a teen. What was the music like?

Oh, fucking awful. I literally hated it. It taught me so much though. The two other girls that were in that group, one of them, I’ve never had someone hate me so much that I’ve spoken to so little. It was so weird. I was like, ‘Yo, I think you’re pretty cool’  and she would be like, ‘I want you dead.’ I’m like, ‘Okay. Um, perfect.’ [laughs] The other one was a Republican and still is. So, I’m not down with that.

What was the music like?

The best way I can explain it is, imagine like three teenage white girls who are all super blonde from North Carolina, from like Hick North Carolina who like desperately wanted to be the white girl Destiny’s Child and did it so poorly. I feel like it was gentrification. It was fucking trash.

Are you hoping those songs never surface online?

No, praise be. I love to leak things because I think it’s funny. I think they would sue me ‘cuz again, they don’t like me, so I don’t think that I should ever let them see the light of day.  I still have everything though, especially the one who’s a Republican. I have all of her shit.

Now that both your music and acting career is in demand, your schedule is obviously getting busier. How are you finding balancing everything?

I don’t think about the acting side at all, which is good because I cannot let that take emotional space in my life because in order to have music career that I want, I’ve learned that that has to be my emotional investment 100%. Acting has become a hobby in a really good way. The problem is when there gets to be issues in acting that do take up my emotional space, then I really struggle and then my mental health really, really suffers and so does my music. I try to just let it be a passive amazing experience.

As a lot of people know, you played the iconic role of Regina George on Broadway. How would you sum up that whole experience?

I was a baby. I think I’ve never learned so much in such a short amount of time. I’ve never been so green ever ‘cuz like I turned down that job twice because I was like, ‘Hmm, I wanna be a pop star.’ And my dad was like, ‘You’re so stupid.’ At the time, the reason I took the job was my dad verbatim said to me this is a business move. I didn’t understand how amazing it was and how stupid I was for thinking of not doing it, but I was a kid. 

I think I would describe it as like the coolest thing ever that was so fundamental and built such an incredible community for me. And also was the time where I was the most miserable and sick I’ve ever been in my life. I had a terrible eating disorder and I’ve struggled my entire life with them. But during Mean Girls I was very sick and very unwell. It’s wild ‘cuz I look back on it and I’m like, that was the greatest time in my life but I had also never been more ill. So, it’s really weird.

It’s since been announced that you’re also going to play Regina in the movie adaptation of the musical. Is that all filmed and ready to go?

No, I started filming in a couple weeks. It should be coming out at the end of this year.

You currently play Leighton in The Sex Lives of College Girls. In what way do you identify with your character?

I think I identify with her in the sense that sometimes she says shit just off the dome that is so heinous and ridiculous and honestly a lot of the times it’s super ignorant. She’s smart but I’m not book smart like that, I’m more street smart.  I mean I relate to her in a way that I think her coming out and her like homophobia is probably very similar to mine. I don’t relate to her clothing at all. I think her style is garbage. Somebody recently said that it’s like if Nancy Reagan was a lesbian, and I agree. It’s like a crime. I genuinely feel that the lesbian community sheds tears every day over how I dress on that show. 

There is going to be a third season. How do you hope Leighton will evolve in future episodes?

I want her to dress differently. I’m not saying that she shouldn’t be very fem-presenting because I myself am feminine to an extent but I’m not trying to wear a fucking two piece tweed. I’m good on that. Like, I’m super good on that actually. I don’t think the culture is calling for that at this point, you know what I mean? I also want her to find stability in a relationship. I don’t like how her relationships have been going. I want her to kind of become like more of an asshole again.

You’ve said you see acting as more of a hobby these days, but is there a dream role you would love to take on?

I think I wanna do everything. At one point I was like, ‘I wanna be in a Marvel movie.’ I really don’t at all, but I would do it. I don’t really think about it that much. I wanna be in a movie that’s an A24-style movie, something that’s hard and kind of scary, but also funny. Something sexy, something superhero. I wanna do everything until I’m like, ‘Nah, I don’t wanna fucking do that.’ I like to check off boxes and I think like a list, so whatever fits on the list I’m good with.

And back to music, quickly. I’ve seen that you’ve been in the studio again recently. Does that mean new music is fairly imminent?

Totally, yeah. We’re working on an album to come out this year.

What is your FAULT?

I put everyone else’s emotions over mine. I try to hyper read and control everyone else’s emotions to where it affects mine. I need to not do that ‘cuz like I care so much. But like, I have like a dichotomy that I care so much, but I don’t give a fuck in the same sense. And so it’s really confusing to like live in my brain ‘cuz I care so deeply, but also at the same time, I don’t at all.