The Big Picture

Welcome to a new episode of Collider Ladies Night with Mean Girls 2024 star, Reneé Rapp. During her conversation with Collider’s Perri Nemiroff, Rapp revisits her journey from North Carolina to the Broadway stage and then to the big screen. Rapp discusses her determination to advocate for herself in a challenging industry, and pinpoints the key to her confidence while doing so.

Reneé Rapp is one of the most exciting and inspiring forces on the rise right now in entertainment. Not only is she bubbling over with next level talent, but she also boasts a number of extremely admirable qualities, ones that can be hard for any artist to establish, let alone one just starting her career. Rapp operates with maximum conviction. She’s someone who knows what she wants, and has absolutely no problem advocating for herself. Even better? She keeps her collaborators’ best interest in mind while pursuing her own dreams.

Rapp is often in the spotlight courtesy of her flourishing music career and highly influential social media presence, but her name is in even more headlines than usual right now thanks to her feature film debut, Mean Girls. After playing Regina George on Broadway, Rapp returns to the role for the new Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr. directed film. Mean Girls 2024 holds tight to the 2004 original, incorporates a slew of songs from the musical, and manages to put its own fun, fresh spin on the narrative.

In case you need the basics, Mean Girls follows homeschooled Cady Heron (Angourie Rice) after she moves back to the US from Kenya. Cady’s got absolutely no clue how to navigate the high school social scene, but fortunately, Janis (Auli’i Cravalho) and Damian (Jaquel Spivey) swoop in to give Cady the lay of the land at North Shore High School, most importantly, a warning about The Plastics led by queen bee, Regina George (Rapp). Trouble is, the appeal of popularity proves too powerful. While on a secret mission to expose Regina as a “mean girl,” Cady starts to lose herself in the thrill of being at the top of the food chain and becomes a “mean girl” herself.

With Mean Girls now playing in theaters nationwide, I got the chance to have a Collider Ladies Night chat with Rapp to discuss her journey with the Mean Girls franchise and where she gets her unflappable confidence.

Mean Girls Cady Heron is a hit with the Plastics, an A-list girl clique at her new school when she makes the mistake of falling for Aaron Samuels, the ex-boyfriend of alpha Plastic Regina George. Release Date January 12, 2024 Director Samantha Jayne , Arturo Perez Jr.

One of the most invaluable things a rising star can have while navigating such an unforgiving industry? A good team at their back. Or rather, the right team. A group of individuals who are, yes, good at their jobs and can get a client opportunities, but also have a firm understanding of and respect for that individual’s dreams and how best to advocate for them. Rapp has that now, but it took time to find.

“My current team knows this better than anybody because now I’m in such a familial group, and I’m with people that really support me and actually give a fuck about me. I was in so many situations where that was not the case beforehand, and it made my life a living hell. Some of those people, one person in particular, wishes I was dead, and that’s amazing. I think it’s very cute of her, and that’s probably gonna make her age rapidly. So I would pick it up, girl. But yeah, I think it’s hard to know. I think that when you’re young and you’re eager, or when you’re eager in general, or you’re excited to work, you’re gonna go in the position that you think is going to best suit you. And I don’t regret any of those decisions that I’ve made, but I am very glad that I trusted my instincts and the people around me, and I’m with the team that I’m with now. And that girl is aging rapidly. It’s not my fault.”

Having a strong, supportive team by your side is vital, but so is having the ability to recognize what’s best for yourself — even if it means saying no to a highly sought after opportunity.

Rapp began auditioning for Mean Girls back in 2018. Eventually, she was offered a part in the show’s national tour. While many might label that a must-do gig, especially for someone looking for their first big break, Rapp knew it wasn’t the right fit and turned it down. Where did she find the courage to say no, especially so early on in her career? Rapp was quite frank about one key thing during our conversation:

“First and foremost, I grew up in a house where I was financially stable and financially comfortable, so I think a lot of my confidence comes from how I’ve grown up. I think that would be silly to not acknowledge that I had the resources to say no, which is a huge privilege, a very big blessing, and definitely has helped facilitate how I walk through life.”

Why Reneé Rapp Passed on the ‘Mean Girls’ National Tour
Image via Paramount Pictures

She continued by emphasizing how much she values her time, and others’ time as well:

“I really value myself and I value my time, and I value the things that I want in life, and I also value other people’s time. When I said no to the tour, in my brain, I’m like, ‘Well, that’s not what I wanna do, and I don’t think that’s what’s gonna serve me long-term, though it would serve me financially, and in so many other ways.’ But I also don’t think it would be of service to the tour if I were to have accepted that, knowing that I didn’t want to do it. That’s not right. But getting a Broadway offer definitely excited me.”

Turns out, waiting for the right opportunity paid off big time. When the Broadway offer came in, Rapp used it as a chance to advocate for herself in a big way. She didn’t just take what she was given to her. In pursuit of her passion, she asked for more. Rapp agreed to the Broadway contract if her music ambitions were supported. Rapp admits that in some cases, standing up for yourself in such a way doesn’t always produce such positive results, but in this particular case, she made her pitch to the right people, Tina Fey and Lorne Michaels.

“I’ve been in other jobs and other scenarios, and other life scenarios where I’ve spoken up for myself and been like, ‘This is what I want and this is what I’m comfortable with,’ and it hasn’t been received in the same way, right? I think not only does that say things about me, sure, it also says a lot of things about how receptive Tina and Lorne were to it. They didn’t take that as, ‘There’s this entitled bitch.’ They took that as, ‘Wow, this is really awesome that she feels confident enough to tell us what she wants and where she’s gonna go in life with this.’ But I think a lot of other people in my experience have just brushed it off, called me a bitch, called me self-centered, said different things to different people that have gotten out somewhere, and whatever, and that’s fine. That’s completely fine. If you need to call me a bitch for standing up for myself, you go right ahead.”

Tina Fey Trusted Reneé Rapp, So Rapp Trusted Her on the New ‘Mean Girls’ Movie

If you’re hesitant to speak up for yourself and need motivation to do so, just look at Rapp. Since making that pitch to Fey and Michaels, she’s starred in a Broadway show, launched a successful music career, established a wildly passionate fan community, and then got the opportunity to headline her very first feature film.

While it could be a scary situation jumping into such a big first, the mutual trust Rapp shares with Fey obliterated any big screen nerves. She explained:

“I was so down. I remember having conversations where I was like, ‘Oh, I’m doing this. Definitely. However, we need to get information,’ because anything Tina is gonna do I trust because she’s always trusted me, and so therefore, not only does she deserve that for being so smart and such an amazing writer and producer and actor and friend, but she also just deserves that [because] she trusted me when I was younger, so of course I trust her now. She absolutely deserves that same creative respect. I would follow her into a fire. I would follow her into war. I don’t care.”

Mean Girls 2024 gave Rapp the chance to continue her collaboration with a like-minded creator in Fey, but it also afforded her the opportunity to work with artists with different approaches to their work, like co-star Angourie Rice.

“I think Angourie is a really thoughtful actor, and that’s something I really respect. She’s talked so much about the way she annotates her scripts and the way she picks these points of her character that support the next thought and validate this reaction, and things like that. And like, I couldn’t tell you where my script is. I actually lost it day one before we started filming. Granted, I know the script fairly well, but still, I don’t know where that shit is. I’ll figure it out. I don’t love to run lines. I don’t love to have something thoroughly memorized. I think it should come naturally for me. And as long as I’m doing my best work in that way, then that’s good. And I’ve been criticized for that before, but I think people are just kind of like, haters. If you don’t do something the way that they want you to, then they get big mad.”

However, that’s not how Rapp operates. She may do her own thing, but she has a significant amount of respect for the way Rice tackles the work. She continued:

“I love that Angourie does that, and it’s inspiring that Angourie does that. I think that’s one of the coolest things about her. She’s so thoughtful and she’s so precise, and that’s so amazing. And she’s not someone who would ever shame me for not doing that, and I would never shame her for annotating, but other people would, and I’m like, ‘Go write in a room somewhere, bitch. You’re tired.’”

Reneé Rapp Vows to Make More Movies After ‘Mean Girls’
Image via Paramount Pictures

Rapp surrounds herself with good people. She’s got confidence in her craft. She’s a good creative partner who respects her collaborator’s process. But, Rapp has spoken about experiencing anxiety when acting for the camera.

“It’s definitely something that’s always there, but I also think it’s just your environment. I now have been fortunate enough to be on a couple of sets, and then sets of my own for music videos and things like that, and so I think it just depends on the environment. If you’re comfortable and you feel supported and you feel safe and not judged, the odds of you doing good work are much higher, which sounds silly and obvious but, like, damn, it isn’t! And then if you’re on sets where you don’t feel that, then I’m an anxious mess. I can’t function. If I’m trying to do something, whether my process be thoughtful or thoughtless on that day, if I’m trying to do something that’s vulnerable, I can’t deal with someone who’s coming for me on the other side. I can’t do that. I’m too much of a wear-everything-on-my-sleeve [type], and I take issues very seriously, and that’s not something that I can handle personally. And kudos if somebody can handle that, I’m not that.”

Rapp shouldn’t have to handle that. No one should. And should we have more artists like Rapp in the industry, ones who strive to create judgment-free spaces, more can flourish.

Just before finishing up our chat, I said to Rapp, “Make more movies,” and fortunately, her response was, “I shall.”

Looking for even more from Rapp on her journey from North Carolina to the big screen in Mean Girls? You can watch our full Collider Ladies Night conversation in the video at the top of this article, or you can listen to the interview in podcast form below:

Mean Girls is now playing in theaters in the U.S. Click below for showtimes.

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