Renee Rapp says her reimagining of Regina George is “absolutely” part of the LGBTQIA+ community.
The singer and The Sex Lives of College Girls star reprises her Broadway role as the iconic Mean Girls villain in the new film adaptation, which is based on the aforementioned Broadway musical of the same name.
Additional cast members include Angourie Rice as Cady Haron, Auli’i Cravalho as Janis ‘Imi’ike, Christopher Briney as Aaron Samuels, Jaquel Spivey as Damian Hubbard, Bebe Wood as Gretchen Wieners, Avantika as Karen Shetty, Jenna Fischer as Ms. Heron, Busy Phillips as Mrs. George and Ashley Park as Madame Park.
Tina Fey, who wrote the 2004 original and stage musical, returns as Ms. Norbury, while Tim Meadows is also back as Principal Duvall.
Ahead of the film’s release, Rapp collaborated with rapper Megan Thee Stallion on the pop banger ‘Not My Fault’, which pays homage to Lindsay Lohan’s line from the original: “It’s not my fault you’re in love with me or something.”
In the lyrics, Rapp – who identifies as bisexual – sings, “It’s not my fault you came with her, but she might leave with me,” and “Can a gay girl get an amen?” Subsequently, fans took this as official confirmation that Rapp’s version of Regina is also part of the rainbow mafia.
“For me, she absolutely is [queer],” Rapp tells GAY TIMES. “I got into an argument on Instagram about this and, hell yeah, I’m arguing on Instagram – so what?
@gaytimes Mean Girls’ @reneé sets the record straight on whether or not #ReginaGeorge is gay :nail_care::skin-tone-3: #meangirls #meangirlsmovie #meangirlsmusical #reneerapp #reneerappsupremacy #reneerappedit #reneerappfan #reginageorgeedit #reginageorgemeangirls ♬ original sound – GAY TIMES
“Somebody was like, ‘She’s not a lesbian’ and I was like, ‘Alright, so maybe she isn’t to you but for me, she is, so shut up. Be mad. Go home. Touch grass. Play in traffic.’”
The original Mean Girls, also starring Rachel McAdams, Lacey Chabert, Amanda Seyfried, Jonathan Bennett, Daniel Franzese and Amy Poehler, is known as a camp cult classic.
The musical, however, is “inherently” queer according to Rapp.
“This has so much nuance and there’s so many levels to what I’m about to say, but I think that there are a lot of young people who are very out across the spectrum, right?” she explains.
“In pop culture, and obviously I’m going to be biased, but gay people are just generally cooler and better. But, I think that’s more celebrated now, I would hope. Again, in certain spaces, absolutely.
“This is also a cast of so many gays, hello? If you’re putting really sick gay and queer people into a cast, it’s inherently going to be gay and very cool, which I think is really exciting.”
Mean Girls is respectively released in US and UK cinemas on 12 and 19 January. Following its theatrical release, it will be available to stream on Paramount Plus.
You can watch our interview with the Mean Girls cast here or below.
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