“Would you like me to source you a paper towel” Less than two minutes into an interview with Reneé Rapp – pop star, film star, Broadway actress, media sensation – and I have spilled an entire bottle of water onto the table.
Luckily, as a father of two, I carry a permanent supply of tissues and I was able to clean the mess.
Rapp was amused by this and said “You literally have tissues with you I’m so impressed”
She also shared that her parents are similar in that they always carry things with them, such as hair bands, wherever they go.
Rapp is a little frazzled after two days of live shows and somewhat sleep deprived thanks to a group of kids running races in the corridor outside her hotel room.
She’s friendly and engaging, full of zingy quotes that confirm her reputation as pop’s most unfiltered star.
Rapp played the central villainess Regina George in the Mean Girls film and spent the press tour gleefully going off script.
She tore into the owner of a bus company whose boss had been an “asshole” to her mum and praised co-star Megan Thee Stallion for having “the best ass I’ve ever seen in my life”.
Elsewhere, she confessed to being “very publicly ageist” and said her only male crush was Justin Bieber, because he “looks like a lesbian”.
Rapp knows what media training looks like, she just doesn’t vibe with it.
She thinks it’s a skill to be able to give a thought-out, fluffy answer, but that’s not something she wants to do.
Rapp got on a phone call years ago where they were telling her how to answer certain kinds of questions, and what not to say, and she just remembered being like, “This feels so boring to me”.
Rapp discovered her interviews were attracting attention and it caught her off guard.
She got insecure about it a bit last year because she never imagined her personality and the cadence of her speech would be analyzed.
Eventually, she summoned the courage to watch some of those YouTube compilations, “and I was like, OK, this is kind of funny”.
Rapp even pokes fun at the situation on her recent single Leave Me Alone.
The song is a witty response to the people who’ve tried to sand off Rapp’s rough edges.
It was born of real frustration when she had just wrapped up a European tour and was under pressure to follow up her hit single Not My Fault.
Rapp was told that everybody wanted her to put a single out in the summer and an album in the fall.
She started panicking and was like, “Holy crap, how am I gonna do that” because she was really, really, really depressed last year.
Rapp was crying to her girlfriend about it, like, “I have no idea how I’m going to do this”.
And her girlfriend was literally like, “You don’t have to, and, by the way, you shouldn’t”.
Rapp agreed with the advice but went to work regardless, a by-product of career insecurity and a need for approval.
She was like, “This is what somebody’s asking of me, so I can’t not fulfill that, because that means I’m not working hard enough, and that means I don’t want it enough”.
Rapp’s single-minded, almost masochistic, focus comes from her parents.
Her dad’s a medical salesman, while her mum, an accountant, now acts as her business manager.
Rapp’s mum deliberately gave her an alliterative name “just in case you want to be a star”.
Before the interview, she plays six of the record’s 12 songs, including an irresistibly catchy tribute to her girlfriend, Towa Bird.
Titled Shy, it describes how Rapp became tongue-tied around the British musician when they toured together in 2023.
Rapp says she’s not a shy person whatsoever, so that made her realize how madly in love she was with Towa.
Rapp’s opal blue eyes glow as she rhapsodizes about her “British princess”.
Not only is Towa her best friend and her most trusted confidant, but also she wants Rapp to win just as much as Rapp wants her to win – and that feeling is so scarce.
The album reflects on Rapp’s former flames, including a pair of tracks that explore what happens when a third person inserts themselves into a relationship.
On Why Is She Still Here, Rapp confronts her partner about a girl who’s gotten a little too close.
Flipping the script, Rapp severs ties with a friend when the temptation to stray becomes too strong on the melancholy ballad I Can’t Have You Around Me.
She sings it quietly, like an apology, with a subtlety that wasn’t always present on her debut album, Snow Angel.
Being a theatre girl, transitioning to pop music can be really difficult, confesses the star, who literally has the phrase Plus De Voix (more vocals) tattooed on her left wrist.
Rapp’s looking forward to playing these songs live, but she admits the burnout from her last tour still casts a shadow.
She couldn’t name you one set she’s played in the last two years where she felt comfortable.
Rapp looks out at the audience and she’s like, “I gotta go home”.
Part of the issue is that, as her star rose, Rapp’s concerts attracted more casual fans and critics.
A lot of voices came into her head, criticism, self-destruction, labeling yourself not good enough, all of those negative things made it harder for her to perform.
But with new material and a much-needed break under her belt, Rapp’s hopeful her upcoming tour, which hits the UK next March, will be different.
Early on in her career, she was so euphoric when she played.
It’ll be good to remember that feeling.
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