Reneé Rapp is stepping back from acting for now, says she gets ‘so anxious on sets’
Content warning: This story includes discussions of eating disorders.
Reneé Rapp has been enjoying her newfound success in music so much that she is in no rush to return to acting for now.
In an all-encompassing interview for the latest edition of The Times’ columnist Amy Kaufman’s “For Real” column, Rapp spoke about finding the satisfaction she sought through acting in her musical journey.
“Writing this album has made me feel more accomplished, and accomplished makes me feel better,” Rapp said. “Which maybe sucks? But I definitely feel more self-assured than I did.”
The “Sex Lives of College Girls” actor also noted that she is making an active effect to move away from film and television as a result of her anxiety.
YouTube. TikTok. ‘Mean Girls’ on Broadway. ‘Sex Lives of College Girls’ on Max. Now, her new album ‘Snow Angel.’ How Reneé Rapp became a Gen Z multihyphenate.
“I go back and forth, because I get so anxious on sets and I feel s— about myself, so I feel like I shouldn’t put myself back in that environment,” she said.
The lean into music, however, was always Rapp’s endgame for her career, saying “I want to be a pop star” even before landing her first major acting role.
Rapp has previously spoken about the mental and physical strain that acting has caused her.
She opened up to the Guardian last month about being body-shamed while also dealing with an eating disorder when she starred as Regina George in the “Mean Girls” Broadway musical.
Reneé Rapp has opened up about the ‘vile’ comments she received about her body while working on the ‘Mean Girls’ Broadway musical, and how it affected her.
The 23-year-old performer said felt she had to leave the production in 2020 because it would be beneficial for her health.
While working on the musical based on the 2004 hit movie, Rapp claimed that people who worked with her on the production “would say some vile f— things to me about my body.”
She went on to say that those hurtful remarks worsened her eating disorder.
While Drew Barrymore and Reneé Rapp were doing an interview in New York, a man tried to hop on stage. Rapp leapt up and escorted Barrymore off stage.
Her ailment intensified to the point that the singer’s parents flew to New York from their home in North Carolina to yank their daughter from the show because of the adverse effects it was having on her well-being.
Even with Rapp’s change in direction and improved health, the actor’s parents feel “more worried than they ever have been, because they know more now,” she told the Guardian.
“Eating disorders don’t just go away and like, you’re healed, like: ‘Sorry, I can eat again, ha ha!’ It’s a lifelong thing,” Rapp explained. “There are battles with addiction and whatever everywhere. I still struggle with it, but at least my parents know that I’ve been taken out of environments that were really harmful to my sickness, which is awesome and a huge win. They worry like hell, but they’re chilling, I guess.”
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