'Mean Girl' Reneé Rapp isn’t getting much nicer on 'Bite Me'
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Renee Rapp was just 19 when she learned she'd be starring on Broadway. She played the meanest girl in "Mean Girls."
(SOUNDBITE OF PLAY, "MEAN GIRLS")
RENEE RAPP: (As Regina, singing) My name is Regina George. This girl is a fugly cow.
MARTÍNEZ: Last year, she reprised the role on the big screen, and now Renee Rapp has an eye on the pop charts. And if the title of her new album is any indication, she's still got a little mean girl in her. It's called "Bite Me."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SHY")
RAPP: (Singing) I'm violent when I'm drinking. I'm violent when I'm sober, too. I'm useful in a bar fight.
MARTÍNEZ: Since her Broadway debut, Rapp's career has been a rocket ride. An album deal, concert tours, an HBO series. And it's kind of hard to believe she's just still 25 years old. And to me, she's always carried herself with this weirdly advanced level of self-assurance.
Why are you so intimidatingly confident?
RAPP: Oh, my God. You think I'm intimidating?
MARTÍNEZ: Yes.
RAPP: (Laughter) I have always been told that I really come across that way. My dad has always said to me, like, the most confident people in the room are the people who are aware that they're insecure.
MARTÍNEZ: You could've fooled me.
RAPP: Yeah (laughter). A lot of people say that. I spend so much of my life cripplingly anxious...
MARTÍNEZ: Wow.
RAPP: ...About every decision I make or don't. Like, I do think, like, everything is divine. And I think I was born to do this, and this was the only thing that I was going to do.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah.
RAPP: But I also think that, like, that comes with a massive emotional burden of being like, this is what I was supposed to do, and I feel that deeply in myself. And I also am cripplingly anxious about every single [expletive] decision I make. Sorry that I did cuss, but you know.
MARTÍNEZ: Oh, it's OK. That's what confident people do.
RAPP: (Laughter).
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MAD")
RAPP: (Singing) OK, I get it, you want to be mad.
MARTÍNEZ: The new album is called "Bite Me." Let's hear "Mad."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MAD")
RAPP: (Singing) I wish I could take that pretty little face and shake some sense into you. Hey, you, all the time you wasted being mad, we could've been cute and we could've been stupid.
MARTÍNEZ: OK, Renee, so the song to me is very aptly titled because when I heard it, I got mad. And I'll tell you why I got mad.
RAPP: (Laughter).
MARTÍNEZ: Because I've always been the one that's been accused of being mad or staying mad. And people tell me get over it. Why are you so mad? And it's not like I'm some raging lunatic that gets mad over every little thing.
RAPP: Of course.
MARTÍNEZ: But I always think that whenever I do express being mad, it's for a good reason. It's because I thought of something and I need to express it.
RAPP: Yeah.
MARTÍNEZ: So, like, in this song, it's like you're making fun of me, Renee, for being mad at stuff.
RAPP: (Laughter) Well, OK, in your defense, I feel all my emotions to a 10. I also have been accused of being like, oh, my God, you don't need to get this upset about something. Or, like, oh, my God, you don't need to hold that grudge. It's so funny. I'm really confrontational in life. But in my close, personal and intimate relationships, I am so level-headed and calm, when I'm sober. I am, like...
MARTÍNEZ: (Laughter).
RAPP: I am such a pacifist.
MARTÍNEZ: You know, even in 2025, women get angry, then it becomes, oh, angry woman syndrome. Guys get angry, it becomes like this whole intense. Oh, that guy is intense. You know, that guy is just...
RAPP: Of course.
MARTÍNEZ: ...Trying to work out a problem or something like that. So, I mean, what's your relationship with anger?
RAPP: I think in men, it's often seen as attractive and, like, defender kind of a thing. And in women, it's always seen as this sort of weakness or, like, this cheap kind of behavior. I had a job that pretty much beat me senseless emotionally. And then when I started to get angry and be like, hey, like, you guys can't really treat me like that, they'd be like, whew, what a drama queen.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah.
RAPP: Like, what a mean person. And I was like, you weaponize this behavior so that you can do whatever you want and treat me however you like. So I have a great relationship to anger. I think it's really healthy.
MARTÍNEZ: I guess, as long as the anger doesn't cross into homicide, I suppose.
RAPP: Exactly. Homicide is sometimes frowned upon.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LEAVE ME ALONE")
RAPP: (Singing) I'm a real bad girl but a real good kisser.
MARTÍNEZ: So let's hear the lead single off of "Bite Me." This is "Leave Me Alone."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LEAVE ME ALONE")
RAPP: (Singing) Manager called me, said where's the single? Leave me alone, babe, I want to have fun. Oh, you're breaking up, babe. I don't got no signal. Leave me alone, babe, I want to have fun.
MARTÍNEZ: So later on in the song, too, I mean, party in the hills, people trying to talk business. Were you feeling any pressure to put something else out? You know, you had all that success with "Mean Girls." I mean, was the business, the industry, was all of us pressuring for more Renee Rapp and you were like, leave me alone?
RAPP: Absolutely. Absolutely. I can't tell you, like, how many, like, different, like, devised plans I, like, was proposed with of like, OK, well, your next single's going to come out, da-da, da-da, da-da, da. And I was like what single? What's ingle? Literally what are you talking about? I knew the place that I was in. I was like, first of all, I'm burnt out. I don't like this anymore. I'm not having fun, and I'm depressed. And everybody wants me to keep going. And I was just like, wait, why am I taking advice on your timeline when you don't make music?
MARTÍNEZ: (Laughter)
RAPP: Like, I was like, wait a minute. Why the hell would I listen to you?
MARTÍNEZ: You know, sometimes maybe I read too much into things. But I was reading some of the song titles on your album. "Leave Me Alone," "Why Is She Still Here?" "I Can't Have You Around Me Anymore," "I Like You Better When You're Gone." I mean...
(LAUGHTER)
RAPP: Yeah.
MARTÍNEZ: It sounded a little isolationist, just a tad. Just a little bit. Like, I need to be away from people that maybe aren't my close circle.
RAPP: Yeah.
MARTÍNEZ: I mean, is that some of what was going on with those songs?
RAPP: It is. Yeah. I mean, I felt so swallowed by everybody and everything that I was like, wait, I don't even know who I am anymore. Like, I was like, I don't remember the last time I was, like, happy. Oh, it was so depressing. And what's interesting is I had never been more surrounded by people, but I'd never felt more lonely. So this whole making of the album to me just felt like I, like, wanted to, like, rip my skin off and, like, run away with my clothes off. This just felt like I was like, I have to get rid of everything that's attached to me and be, like, reborn and, like, go and run and do my own thing.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I THINK I LIKE YOU BETTER WHEN YOU'RE GONE")
RAPP: (Singing) I know that I'm supposed to miss you and wish that you were here.
MARTÍNEZ: That's Renee Rapp. Her new album is called "Bite Me." Renee, thank you very much.
RAPP: Thanks, honey.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I THINK I LIKE YOU BETTER WHEN YOU'RE GONE")
RAPP: (Singing) I got a funny feeling, funny feeling something's wrong.
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