QUEEN BEE

Ageism and Bus Brawls: Reneé Rapp Is Going Full Diva on the ‘Mean Girls’ Press Tour

Buddy the bus driver—you’ve been warned.

The drama behind the scenes of the new Mean Girls might be more intriguing than the movie itself. This isn’t to say the movie is boring! But the chaos swirling around star Reneé Rapp’s press tour is so thrilling that it’s become its own topic of conversation—one that’s stirring the pot more than Regina George herself.

Rapp, who plays Regina in the movie and also starred as the cunning Queen Bee on Broadway, is starting to develop quite the reputation for going rogue in interviews. Fans have picked up on this since the promo for her debut album, Snow Angel, in 2023—and now, with Mean Girls, all eyes are on Rapp once again.

Mean Girls audiences noticed her chaotic ways once more in one of the first interviews that launched ahead of the movie musical reboot. In the clip, the star called out someone who drove her tour bus—who would definitely go in her Burn Book.

“His name is Buddy, and he is such an asshole,” Rapp says. “He was so disrespectful to my friends Priscilla and Bella, who I work with, and to my mother.

“If you’re watching this,” she says to the camera, “I can’t stand you, and I hope your business burns. You are so disrespectful and so misogynistic, and I hate you.”

Rapp ends the interview bluntly: “Fuck you, Buddy!”

For what it’s worth, Buddy has seemingly responded to Rapp, claiming she owes him more than $2,000 in a Facebook post hashtagged #yourmadmad. (More like #yourmeanmean.)

The actress went viral again just a few days later for some eyebrow-raising comments on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen. Cohen was stumped after Rapp willingly admitted she was “very ageist” in a segment about picking her favorite housewife.

“You don’t like…older people?” Cohen asks in the clip, astounded.

“No,” Rapp simply responds.

Rapp had nothing else to offer here, but Cohen needs to know more: “Are you ageist toward me?”

“No,” Rapp says again.

Again, this isn’t enough for Cohen. “Um, so you look down on older people? Or you just don’t care for them?”

“The driving thing has got to go,” Rapp explains. “I don’t know. I just was always the young one in situations. Millennial women were always coming for me. Just, like, shut up!”

Maybe Rapp is more anti-millennial than she is ageist—but her lack of explanations here suggests we may never know the full extent of her prejudice.

Another interview with Rapp recently made the rounds after she mistook the interviewer’s reference to “Lilo,” Lindsay Lohan’s nickname—who, spoiler, has a cameo in the new Mean Girls—for the character in Lilo and Stitch. In the clip, Rapp and co-star Christopher Briney have a long giggle over Stitch joining the Mean Girls cast.

“I wanna meet the older sister,” Rapp confesses, admitting her crush on Nani in Lilo and Stitch. “She’s so fine.”

“I wanna meet Stitch, dude,” Briney added.

This conversation, as with the others, is reminiscent of a chat you might have while stoned with friends, or with someone in the line for the bathroom at a bar after having a few drinks. Rapp is goofy, random, all over the place—and, really, unlike any celeb on a press tour we’ve seen in a while.

There are plenty of other interviews with Rapp during her Mean Girls promo that are worth watching for a quick laugh. Some examples: She defends Megan Thee Stallion from Tory Lanez, who recently was found guilty of shooting the rapper in the foot; she explains why she’d rather go to high school now than in the early 2000s (simply, “I’m gay”); and she stuns Stephen Colbert with practically every word out of her mouth in a Late Show interview.

It’s imperative for Regina George to exude massive star power—and that’s a quality Rapp sure has. She might not be perfectly PR-trained, but who cares? Let her cook.

Fletcher PetersEntertainment Reporter

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