Reneé Rapp Talks Past and Present Projects in New Interview
Trigger Warning
Reneé Rapp has been featured on the cover of the newest issue of The Hollywood Reporter. In this interview, the singer gets candid about her idols, inspirations, career, mental health, sexuality, and writing process for her debut album, Snow Angel.
Rapp has a long and impressive résumé that she is continuing to build. Most recently, she starred in the theatrical release of the 2024 Mean Girls musical adaptation. The film features her hit single, “Not My Fault,” featuring Megan Thee Stallion. In the film, the actress reprises her role as Regina George after taking on the iconic character in Mean Girls the Musical on Broadway.
Rapp has also starred as the character Leighton Murray on the HBO series, The Sex Lives of College Girls, for two seasons. She has since left the show to pursue her music career. In 2021, the singer released her EP, Everything to Everyone, which includes the hit “Too Well.”
Additionally, in 2023, she released her debut album, Snow Angel, which includes the single of the same name, “Snow Angel.” She has since embarked on a sold-out North American tour, the “Snow Hard Feelings Tour,” which is now on its European leg.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the musician got candid about her writing process for some of her songs. She discussed the songs “Poison Poison,” “Snow Angel,” “I Do,” and “Tummy Hurts.” Rapp has also included a version of “Tummy Hurts” featuring Coco Jones on her deluxe version of Snow Angel. The singer mentions that in many of these songs, she takes inspiration from events in her personal life.
When talking about her song, “I Do,” for The Hollywood Reporter, she mentioned it was written about her friend and Sex Lives of College Girls co-star, Alyah Chanelle Scott. Rapp explained, “‘I love you so much, and this feels so romantic in a platonic way, but I don’t understand how to explain it.’ And I now know that it was so much more complicated in my sexuality… And I now know that she’s just my f*ing rock, and I just don’t think I like boys.” She described how personal aspects of her life impact her songwriting process.
When explaining her goals for songwriting, the artist stated, “I’m not making music to just make music. I’m making music to start conversations. My idols make culture, my idols start conversations. That’s what I love.” Ultimately, she illustrated that she has a deeply reflective process when it comes to songwriting. This process involved thinking about her life and how it can start a conversation amongst her listers.
The single “Snow Angel” is a powerful ballad about a traumatic event that happened to her while out with friends one night. During her interview, she mentioned that she was drugged and was left with no memory of what happened. “I still feel like I’m sorting through those feelings. I do understand that it was an incredibly traumatic experience that I don’t remember at all. And it feels weird to talk about because I don’t remember it. I just recently started to be like, ‘Wait, the people that let this happen to me suck,’” she explained.
The song has struck a chord with fans, many of whom are making their own interpretations of the meaning. She mentioned her reaction to this as “I wanted to have ‘Snow Angel’ come out and it is confusing and left up to interpretation.” She explained that the song was received as she intended it to be.
You can read Reneé Rapp’s full interview with The Hollywood Reporter here. You can also stream the album, Snow Angel, here.
