“My name is Regina George… And I’m a superstar… Fear me, love me, stand up and look at me…” It’s hard to look away when Reneé Rapp appears in Mean Girls, Lolita in spite of myself, singing in his beguiling and menacing voice. In the adaptation of the eponymous musical, itself adapted from the cult film written by Tina Fey in 2004, she plays Regina George, the “villain” of the story.
At the head of the “Plastics”, the popular girls of the high school, at the same time “brilliant, false and tough”, she reigns terror and mistreats the new girl Cady Heron (Angourie Rice), as lost as she is naive. A role that revealed Rachel McAdams in the original comedy twenty years ago. Very little known in France until now, where does Reneé Rapp come from, this new “mean girl” who is bursting onto the screen?
From Broadway to the big screen
The 23-year-old actress is originally from Huntersville, North Carolina and grew up in the suburbs of Charlotte (which should speak to you a little more than the first one). It was in high school that Reneé Rapp got into theater, reports Vogue. She excelled there and won a Jimmy Award for best performer in 2018 (award given to high school students in the United States) thanks to her role in a theatrical adaptation of the film. Big Fish.
It was not until the following year that Reneé Rapp met Regina George. In 2019, she landed the role of the queen of “Plastics” in the musical which was a hit on Broadway. The beginning of a long story with Mean Girls. “When the movie was announced, I was on the show on Broadway,” the actress explained to 20 minutes. I was in my dressing room, I read that filming was planned, I told myself that I wanted to do it. We talked about it with the other members of the troupe, “did you see?”, but we said to ourselves that there was almost no chance that one of us would be there. But I’m stubborn, I said to myself “I want to do it”. »
In the meantime, she got one of the main roles in the American series The Sex Lives of College Girls, created in 2021 by Mindy Kaling. She plays Leighton, a rich student who hides her homosexuality. She left the series two years later, in particular to concentrate on her other passion: music.
A first album and a feat with Megan Thee Stallion
Because Reneé Rapp also has real success as a singer and composer. She released a first EP in 2022 (one of the tracks, Too Welljoins the Billboard ranking), then a pop rock album, Snow Angel, the next year. She addresses very intimate subjects, notably mental health or her addiction problems as a teenager, specifies Vogue. As part of a world tour, the artist will even perform in Paris, at the Olympia, on February 13.
And this may be the best opportunity to see Reneé Rapp soon. Very tested by her performances on Broadway and filming, the young woman seems to want to concentrate mainly on music from now on, as reported The Official USA. “I get so anxious on set and feel bad about myself, so I feel like I shouldn’t put myself back in that environment,” she told Los Angeles Times.
Especially since his musical career is a hit, like Not My Fault in the soundtrack of Mean Girls, featuring Megan Thee Stallion. Uploaded only five days ago, the clip has already racked up millions of views.