Reneé Rapp has taken the world by storm with her music, her recent role in the new Mean Girls musical movie, and particularly with her unhinged press tour antics for said movie. She released her debut studio album, Snow Angel, in August, featuring the tracks “Pretty Girls,” “Tummy Hurts,” and title track “Snow Angel.” Critics responded fairly positively to her album, praising her wit and relatability.
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Rapp is set to appear as the musical guest on this weekend’s episode of Saturday Night Live (January 20), and to prepare, here are three facts you likely didn’t know about the performer.
[Get Tickets for Reneé Rapp’s 2024 Snow Hard Feelings Tour Here]
Reneé Rapp’s Traumatic Times on Broadway
In 2018, Reneé Rapp took home a national Jimmy Award for her work in high school musical theater. At 19, she snagged the coveted role of Regina George in the Broadway musical production of Mean Girls. She is currently reprising the role in the film version; both were written by Tina Fey.
Rapp has explained that her experiences on Broadway were traumatic, as she was suffering from an eating disorder at the time that was exacerbated by the show’s directors.
“I’ve struggled with an eating disorder my whole life and I had a lot of s–t happen during that time [on Broadway],” she said to NME last year. “And so my biggest thing right now is trying to prepare myself to go into the filming environment with a way healthier mindset. Because I don’t want to fall back into anything.”
Rapp has been in musical theater since high school, portraying Sandra in the musical Big Fish and winning a Blumey Award for her performance. In 2018 she performed in Charlotte Theatre’s production of Spring Awakening, then went on to perform on Broadway.
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ADHD Helps Her “Creative Process”
Reneé Rapp has been open about her attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, which affects about 8.7 million adults in the U.S. Speaking with Official Charts in August 2023, she addressed her ADHD diagnosis, claiming it helps her “creative process.”
“I didn’t know I had ADHD as a kid, I just thought I was really dramatic. I am, but that’s a separate thing,” she began. “I didn’t know or understand what it was, but now I do and I really love it. I think it helps me a lot. When I’m writing a song, 10 songs are coming out of that concept. My brain is in 10 different places.”
While that sounds exhausting to the uninitiated—and she addresses that aspect of it—Rapp also shared the positive moments of ADHD. “I actually really enjoy it,” she explained. “It’s exhausting, don’t get me wrong, but it’s really fun. If it’s somebody else’s story and a different creative process, I don’t do as well and I might panic. When it’s my thing, though, I’m like ‘wow, I have so many ideas!’”
“I think it really helps my comedy and my ability to deal with things,” she continued. “Don’t get me wrong, it can get bad and f–k me up mentally, but I do think it’s helpful to me in some respects. I’m always thinking of what’s next, which gives me better lyric ideas and more opportunity. More avenues to go down. I like it right now.”
She Was Pushed to Try TV
Reneé Rapp said she was looking to get directly into music, but was convinced to try television first. This led to her role on The Sex Lives of College Girls as closeted lesbian/queen bee Leighton.
As she told Elite Daily in 2022, “I auditioned for College Girls in the middle of the pandemic when nothing was going on. I really wanted to do music, and my agents were telling me to try TV. I was like, ‘OK, cool.’ I thought that any job that I do will get me some sort of a platform so that I can hopefully do music.”
She went on to describe the importance of Mean Girls for her career, stating, “Mean Girls was my first big job. It’s such a big part of my career and something that I love so much. I always thought it would be so cool to do a movie. So then when they asked me, I was like, ‘F–k yeah.'”
Now it seems Rapp has built that platform, taking TikTok by storm as well as mainstream music with Snow Angel. She’s now making music the way she intended, and continuing her Snow Hard Feelings Tour in 2024. On February 13, she’ll be in Paris, heading across Europe and the UK before going back across the pond to play at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in April.
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