Reneé Rapp Is Stepping Into Her Authentic Self

COVER

Reneé Rapp

Is Stepping Into Her Authentic Self

By Emily Rosati

Publishing date: Mar 02, 2023

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I felt that self-awareness was a bad thing. I now know that it’s not. I just always thought it was an annoying quality,” Reneé Rapp tells me through Zoom, speaking to the pain many of us have experienced when fighting with who we are and who we want to be. The 23-year-old actor, musician, and social media legend is stepping into the difficult realm of self-awareness. One that is a far cry from the one-note online personalities that revel in self-love and Nike’s “just do it” attitude.

Self-awareness is integral to evolving; giving us the power to live intentionally, become better decision-makers, and do so with confidence. And can sometimes be carried in the likeness of a crushing weight on your shoulders, which Reneé is evidently familiar with. “I have two extremes going on constantly. In every part of my life, I do,” she shares, separating two distinct aspects of her psyche, the first being her, a human being informed by layered lived experience, and the second being her, the witness, seeing her personal disturbances and strengths, in which she reacts to and often channels into poignant artistic expression. 

She may not realize it, she is on her way to mastering the art of unbecoming; acknowledging her inner dichotomies and letting them unravel. She willingly shares all this with me, a stranger, but for Reneé Rapp this isn’t off-script. To both me and her 1.3 million TikTok followers she is a beacon of authenticity and ultimately, a force that simply cannot be fucked with. Coming off career milestones of playing barbie-from-hell Regina George in Mean Girls on Broadway, queer-icon Leighton Murray in HBO’s The Sex Lives of College Girls, and releasing her debut EP Everything to Everyone in November of 2022, Rapp says time off is her next project.

“It’s interesting, I’ve never craved having downtime, I’ve always been very afraid of it,” she explains, “which I actually think is a good omen, that I feel comfortable in my career. Things are going in the right direction.” Let me give Reneé her flowers and make this clear: she has over 4 million monthly listeners on Spotify alone with one album in her discography and sold out her first tour in two minutes. It’s safe to say she is going in the right direction. 

Despite her recent success, she is prone to bouts of self-doubt and depreciation like the rest of us, and admits, “I need a creative second to not be creative.” In a world that makes you feel like your value is determined by your productivity, it’s reassuring to know that even the greats can see when it is their time to take a break. 

I felt that self-awareness was a bad thing. I now know that it’s not. I just always thought it was an annoying quality,” Reneé Rapp tells me through Zoom, speaking to the pain many of us have experienced when fighting with who we are and who we want to be. The 23-year-old actor, musician, and social media legend is stepping into the difficult realm of self-awareness. One that is a far cry from the one-note online personalities that revel in self-love and Nike’s “just do it” attitude.

Self-awareness is integral to evolving; giving us the power to live intentionally, become better decision-makers, and do so with confidence. And can sometimes be carried in the likeness of a crushing weight on your shoulders, which Reneé is evidently familiar with. “I have two extremes going on constantly. In every part of my life, I do,” she shares, separating two distinct aspects of her psyche, the first being her, a human being informed by layered lived experience, and the second being her, the witness, seeing her personal disturbances and strengths, in which she reacts to and often channels into poignant artistic expression. 

She may not realize it, she is on her way to mastering the art of unbecoming; acknowledging her inner dichotomies and letting them unravel. She willingly shares all this with me, a stranger, but for Reneé Rapp this isn’t off-script. To both me and her 1.3 million TikTok followers she is a beacon of authenticity and ultimately, a force that simply cannot be fucked with. Coming off career milestones of playing barbie-from-hell Regina George in Mean Girls on Broadway, queer-icon Leighton Murray in HBO’s The Sex Lives of College Girls, and releasing her debut EP Everything to Everyone in November of 2022, Rapp says time off is her next project.

“It’s interesting, I’ve never craved having downtime, I’ve always been very afraid of it,” she explains, “which I actually think is a good omen, that I feel comfortable in my career. Things are going in the right direction.” Let me give Reneé her flowers and make this clear: she has over 4 million monthly listeners on Spotify alone with one album in her discography and sold out her first tour in two minutes. It’s safe to say she is going in the right direction. 

Despite her recent success, she is prone to bouts of self-doubt and depreciation like the rest of us, and admits, “I need a creative second to not be creative.” In a world that makes you feel like your value is determined by your productivity, it’s reassuring to know that even the greats can see when it is their time to take a break. 

Whenever I write a good song, I’m in a good mood. When I write a shit song, I’m in such a bad mood.

Whenever I write a good song, I’m in a good mood. When I write a shit song, I’m in such a bad mood.


 

Creating an album that holds the tender lyricism of Everything to Everyone is a clear feat, yet like the nature of life, it’s cyclical, she says. For Reneé, re-entry into album mode can be both daunting and energizing, and she is surely determined to find her own rhythm and keep herself happy.  

“Whenever I write a good song, I’m in a good mood. When I write a shit song, I’m in such a bad mood.” Reneé is a devoted lyricist, translating the nuanced emotions of a 20-something into a well-packaged vessel for the rest of us to cry into. From songs like “Don’t Tell My Mom”, a desperate plea of trying to show face while you’re suffering to save others the worry, to “Colorado” which plays with the relatable impulse to uproot to a new city on a whim in an attempt to feel like a new person, and “What Can I Do” that captures the agony of yearning for a friend and wracking to determine if they too think it could be something more.

The ebb and flow of creativity, intertwined with self-esteem is a relatable notion to many. She goes as far as to mimic the inner critic that manifests with her bad mood, “I’m not creative, I’ll never write a good thing again”—which sounds eerily similar to my own occasional inner machinations.  Her good mood is something more to the effect of “wow I’m god”. Her sheer honesty and vulnerability are astounding, her tendency to swing like a pendulum from imposter syndrome to a god complex, transforming our conversation into what feels like a catch-up between two long-time friends. Her evident inner polarity starts to unfold. 

As Reneé Rapp’s fundamental openness presents itself to me, I can quickly hear her voice ring in my head, “who do you talk to when you can’t talk to no one?”, the opening line from her EP’s title track, for Reneé these words are truly a reflection of her own experience.

“I have an amazing support system but I think honestly, at this point in my life, I don’t feel very understood by anyone,” she discloses, “I don’t think that’s anyone else’s fault. But I still feel like that. I could say as much as I want and I will never feel understood.”

It takes serious guts to confess something like that, and more so to take accountability and remove blame. Cue, the self-imposed weight on my shoulders to do right by telling her story.

 

I’ve made it a point in my life to not be disappointed.

Reneé’s perspective on disappointment is telling, putting her aversion to being misunderstood into context. “Friends of mine, for a long time, were very worried that I don’t process things, but it’s actually that I’m so prepared for things to fail that I don’t mind when they do,” she says.

You see, her unwavering sense of self and determination isn’t a product of solely being a Capricorn, but rather, as she puts it, “a very strange tortured artist mentality.” She continues, “I think I’m very used to being disappointed so I’ve made it a point in my life to not be disappointed.” The validity of this thought process sincerely checks out, setting the bar low and being pleasantly surprised is clearly superior to having crushed hopes. When you can’t control anyone but yourself, it’s a seemingly logical idea to prepare yourself, in Reneé’s words, to be “fucked over or not impressive to someone.” 

The idea of her not being impressive is ironic. In fact, impressive is the exact word I would use to describe her—she made her Broadway debut in a leading role at 20 years old, for crying out loud. What’s interesting is how your deepest psychological evaluations of yourself can drive you, proving this concept when she admits, “that’s the crux of my insecurities, I feel very scared to be unimpressive.” 

Fear and love can be considered evolutionary emotions that guide you through your humanity, with contradictory intentions but aligned agendas. “My biggest fear is to be a failure. That’s the only thing that has ever driven me,” says Reneé. She continues to defy her insecurities, transcending her fear of failure into her talent of navigating difficult feelings and eloquently expressing them through her music, and further, becoming an idol in her own right. 

While she confesses her deep sensitivity, I see an incredibly emotionally intelligent young woman, standing in her truth, a truth readily available to the world. Her authenticity in our interview is nearly identical to her work where her true self is splayed out for her audience to see. 

 

 

“I’m emotionally sensitive. I think I just always get kicked around by people. Even if they don’t understand what they’re doing,” Reneé says, providing me with an understanding of the intention behind the song “Bruises”. The song featured on her EP’s Deluxe version, and its music video counterpart uses blood, knives, and violent imagery to make a literal connection to how words cut deep. Reneé, your theater roots are showing. 

“I’ve opened up a lot on the internet because I think that was the first place I opened up where I genuinely felt accepted,” with her loyal fanbase seeing her evolve in front of her eyes, Reneé reveals, “It’s become a very interesting and delicate relationship that I’m afraid I’m not evolving enough, all the time.” Again, proving that she’s overcompensating for her insecurities, seemingly in a way that is not exactly rooted in fear, but sure-footed in courage to face them.

Reneé Rapp’s raw, blunt nature draws obvious parallels to her character Leighton Murray, rich-bitch legacy student, in The Sex Lives of College Girls, created by Mindy Kaling. She admits that her own lived experience helps her play the role authentically, although she credits the environment to her and the overall show’s major success. “I don’t love a hierarchical situation and there are a lot of rules and weird power dynamics that are inherent to the business [of film and television] that I don’t like as a human being,” she says adding, “I like to create, do my own thing, [and] for everyone to feel we’re on the same playing field.” 

“I carry myself in a way that I feel comes across unapologetic,” she explains, “so I like when other people can also be unapologetic,” answering the question of how vetted pros, people Reneé may refer to as “daddy”, such as Kaling, Tina Fey, and Lorne Michaels have met their match in a young Reneé Rapp. She tells me that “daddy” is her term of endearment, a nod to those she admires, made possible by their loose take on a pecking order.

Unlike the version of Reneé the actress, whose roles lean into her edge, Reneé the musician is tender and soft in her craft. The experience of touring across North America and Europe was a unique experience for the 23-year-old, “It’s such a mind fuck because I was proud of myself but also really hardcore judged myself,” making mention again of her inner extremes, “I’ve never seen so much footage of [myself]. When I watch TV shows, like [The Sex Lives of College Girls], I’m like ‘that’s not me’. But [performing live] is me me.” 

 

 

In the zeitgeist of internet fame and influencers, we’ve seen a cycle of it girls, each holding down their respective territory. Online personalities offer a connection to whichever phase of life we are in, whether it’s a radical love-yourself era bursting with positivity or exposing our flaws to reject the notion of constant self-love. In comparison, Reneé Rapp is wholly herself, even in her contradictions, not gatekeeping any side from the public—asserting herself as TikTok’s ultimate baddie. Put plainly, Reneé Rapp hits different.

“I think success, for me, [is] always having the next thing done five steps ahead,” she confesses, still learning how to manage her fear of disappointment, even with her promising track record. If being able to hold two opposing truths is a marker of intelligence, Reneé is trucking through the messy journey to being a certified emotional genius.



Photographer: Katia Temkin


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