• Reneé Rapp cohosted the Cap'n Crunch party in Palm Springs on Saturday.
• She spoke to Insider at the event about her "dramatic" songwriting and hating her most popular song ("Too Well").
• She also opened up about her roles in "The Sex Lives of College Girls" and "Mean Girls: The Musical."

The first weekend of Coachella is as famous for its star-studded events and sunny pool parties as much as its iconic performances.

True to her self-admitted habit of "doing too much," Reneé Rapp was able to combine all three.

On Saturday, the 23-year-old multihyphenate took the stage at the 60th birthday bash for Cap'n Crunch, which took place at the Margaritaville Resort in Palm Springs, California.

Rapp cohosted the event with Anderson .Paak, where she performed her latest single "Bruises," as well as the bonafide hit "Too Well" — a fans-first decision she's forced to make regularly, since Rapp said she has always "hated" her most-streamed song.

"I'm like, 'Who wrote this chorus?' Mind you, it was literally me," Rapp told Insider of "Too Well," adding that she "actively" dislikes the song even while she's singing it.

That's a tough position to be in as Rapp has performed the popular track on "The Late Late Show," "Good Morning America," and "Jimmy Kimmel Live!"

During her recent sold-out tour, she sang that infectious, prophetic chorus ("I get so sick of myself / Can't stop overthinking") everywhere from Los Angeles to London.

In the midst of touring and recording new music, Rapp is also preparing to film season three of HBO Max's hit series "The Sex Lives of College Girls," in which she stars as the privileged, caring, queer college student Leighton Murray, and reprising her Broadway role as Regina George in the upcoming film "Mean Girls: The Musical."

Rapp opened up to Insider about all of the above while relaxing in her green room at Cap'n's Cove.

Did anything surprise you about performing your album on tour? Do you look at any songs differently now that you sang them live?

Yeah, because my song that has done the most I think, in general, is the song I hated the most.

Which one?

"Too Well."

You hated "Too Well?"

I still do very much.

When you perform it, do you hate it?

Actively. Yeah. I'm like, "Who wrote this chorus?" Mind you, it was literally me.

When you put it out, did you hate it?

Yeah.

So why did you put it out?

Because everybody on my team was like, "No, you need a song like this. You can't only do ballads." And I was like, "You guys are crazy," and then they were absolutely right.

Don't you just hate it when other people are right?

I hate when other people are right when they're not me. It really frustrates me.

The hook of "In the Kitchen" is a big moment on tour: "Strangers to lovers to enemies." But to me, the tone of the song isn't bitter. It's not angry. It's wistful.

100%.

So I'd love to know why you use the word "enemy" in that context and what it means to you.

I think because I'm a very dramatic person, and so people have always been like, "Oh, you know, shouldn't hold grudges. You shouldn't hold blah blah blah." I'm like, "I'm 23, I got time to hold a grudge." I'm actually OK too. I don't mind it. 

So I feel like "enemies" works because it's the one time that I jab. It's the only line in the song that's kind of a knife, as opposed to the others, they're just very matter-of-fact. Because when I deal with situations with people, whether it be personal relationships or friendships or things like that, I'm just very matter-of-fact.

At the end of the song, you sing, "I used to love you, now you're dead to me." And then in "Moon," you sing, "How can I be dead to you when we're looking at the same moon?" It almost feels like a call and response.

Absolutely.

Did you intend to connect the narratives of those songs?

Yes, 100%. Because they are both exactly how I feel. I don't know. Maybe for other people, it's different, but I feel like for me, you don't have just one attitude toward a past relationship or toward someone who treated you poorly. You don't just have one attitude. 

Even somebody who I don't particularly like, which is fine, I can be like, "Wow, I really don't like this person," but I can also have a different side that's like, "Damn, I really have a lot of empathy for this person. Maybe I do actually kind of like them a little bit."

It's just that sort of duality of, I really don't know how to pinpoint exactly what I feel, but I do know that I feel multiple things at once.

It also strikes me as, "It's OK if I feel this way about you, but you can't feel this way about me."

100%. It's like, "Literally, what are you doing? You can be absolutely dead to me. By the way, you've been dead to me."

"But why aren't you hung up on me?"

Absolutely. And it's like, by the way, I know you are. Like, hello?

Another song that strikes me on the EP is "What Can I Do," which sounds like a solo or a monologue in a play.

Yeah.

How do you think your stage experience has affected your songwriting?

Actually, it's affected my songwriting so much. Because I think seeing the genuine connection to certain songs that I really have my whole heart in and chest in is such a different experience, I'm sure, for the listener, but also for me as a performer, as an artist. 

I would perform "In the Kitchen" 10 times every day over "What Can I Do," just because I feel more connected to "In the Kitchen" and I feel like I was less concerned about the opinion of what people thought of that song. And with "What Can I Do," I was really careful about the writing and very tactful and wanted to be very specific.

"In the Kitchen" was just word vomit. And so I actually prefer that sort of thing.

I'm contractually obliged to ask you about "The Sex Lives of College Girls."

Yeah! Yeah, yeah, yeah. By the way, if you could tattoo that on my body? She said, "I'm contractually obliged to ask you about the 'The Sex Lives of College Girls.'" [Laughs.]

I'm contractually obliged to answer your questions about "The Sex Lives of College Girls," so ask away. That was perfect. No one has ever said something so beautiful. Stunning.

You've spoken in the past about some similarities you share with Leighton, but I was wondering if you could see her ever sharing your musical ambitions.

I had pitched one time before season two that Leighton got a grand piano from Elton John that just showed up in the middle of their dorm room, and she had removed all of the furniture and just had the grand piano in the middle. And all the girls came in and were like, "What is this?" And she was like, "This is my piano." Like, "It's from Elton John. Music is my passion. It was a gift from my father." 

And so I had pitched that. So I definitely think that she shares a sort of musical ambition in the sense that I do, but nobody ever wrote me in a grand piano.

So it's a subplot in your brain.

It's absolutely a subplot. And I try to play it through in my incredible, thoughtful performance. [Laughs.]

Who between you and your three costars is the most like your character?

Oh! Well, I feel like Alyah is a lot like… Actually, Alyah is literally nothing like Whitney. Rewind. Alyah is the opposite of Whitney. Whitney is dumb, and Alyah is the smartest person alive and is also the coolest, hottest person ever.

I feel like they play and write Whitney a very specific way to be like, "Oh my God!" Blah blah blah. And that's the polar opposite of Alyah. Alyah's dodging bullets and dodging bitches left and right. She's amazing.

I feel like Whitney is more naive than dumb.

100%. She's super naive. I feel like the other two girls are very similar to their characters.

Interesting. I have to say, I don't agree with Kimberly's decision in the season two finale.

I don't either. No, I don't either. It's so sad.

Did anybody in the cast say, "She would never do this?"

No.

Well, she would do it, I guess.

Right.

She really prioritizes a hot man.

She really does! But also, everyone does in our show.

Except you.

Except for me! Oh, that's true. [Pauses.] I personally prioritize hot men, I think. [Laughs.]

I want to ask you about the upcoming "Mean Girls: The Musical" film adaptation. Do you have any songs you listen to get into character as Regina George?

You know what? I don't. For "Mean Girls" — and even for "College Girls" I'm kind of figuring out — I get weirdly, a touch method in a way. Not intentionally and not in a very smart way. In the way that amazing and brilliant actors are method? Not in that way.

I think I just sort of start acting a tiny bit bitchier. And so I complain about really, really small things that I shouldn't, and that's just kind of what gets me into that. I'm like, "Ugh, what are we doing?" And everybody's like, "You're literally showing up to do your job. Shut up."

Well, I imagine it's hard to slip out of that because being "bitchy" is such a shield that you can use in so many situations.

And let's be clear, I do.

Which Reneé Rapp song would be on Regina George's playlist?

That's such a good question. Damn, I don't know, because my inner monologue is so different from that. I feel like I can present quite like that, but internally, absolutely not. 

Oh! I don't know if… [Pauses.] "Poison Poison." It's a new song.

Do we know when that might be coming out?

Later this year, probably.

Anything else you can tease about your next album, project, or EP?

I've never been so incredibly anxious or nervous about something in my life, and I've been so anxious for my entire existence. So I'm so scared. There's nothing behind my eyes right now because the last six months, it's just been like… [Mimes hyperventilating.] 

We're recording while I'm in New Jersey for "Mean Girls" and stuff, and then I fly back here, so it's a lot. But it's a lot because I care so much about it, so I hope that it will be good.

Listen to Reneé Rapp and more on Spotify with Insider's rising artist radio.

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