Warning: This post contains spoilers from the first five episodes ofThe Sex Lives of College Girls.
Odds are, Leighton (Renee Rapp) is judging you.
As the resident mean girl ofThe Sex Lives of College Girls, it’s kind of her thing.
Reneé Rapp on ‘The Sex Lives of College Girls’.HBO MAX
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: I know this audition process was entirely over Zoom.
What was that like for you?
RENEE RAPP:The pandemic had just expanded what was two weeks ended up being like two months.
“College Girlswas either the third or fourth self-tape audition that I had gotten.
I felt like an alien.
It is crazy how the casting is so good on this show, given the circumstances.
Everyone is such a huge personality, it’s so funny.
The blend of people is so wild to me.
And we’re all together thriving off one another.
And it’s so cool.
Were you always auditioning for Leighton?
And so I’m pretty sure what happened isPauline [Chalamet]and I switched roles for one audition.
Which was very exciting.
With Leighton, I was covering up.
I was like, I got that, I know how to hide.
She’s such a stretch.
But yeah we both switched roles for a sec, I always forget about that.
What do you connect to with Leighton?
With Leighton, I connect to her identity, I connect to her queerness.
But also, Leighton’s super f–king insecure.
She really struggles to open up, too.
Do you get frustrated with her?
She’s so frustrating!
Leighton can be such a dick.
I wish she would stop.
I will say I’m super jealous of her tiny Smeg refrigerator.
There’s a marble tissue box also.
It’s very posh.
It’s a little scary.
Do you think it’s a comfort for her to have her brother on campus?
For sure, I think so.
He’s like the only sense of normalcy for her that she can cling to anymore.
That’s somebody who’s becoming her rock and maybe has been previously.
He’s definitely needed.
We saw her kiss Alicia, but where does she go from here?
Is she finding a sense of stability at college?
She’s doing her best.
Which is nice to see.
I also feel like she’s learning that these roommates could be legit friends.
She’s been such an asshole that she hasn’t been able to see anyone for who they are.
So now that she does, she sees potential friendship.
She and Whitney [Alyah Chanelle Scott] start to have these moments.
Leighton’s not necessarily thoughtful but she is trying and so they start to have these friendship moments.
And even I think Leighton softens a little bit with Bela [Amrit Kaur], which was fun.
Did this feel like this was a special project when you were working on it?
I definitely, at that moment, was like, “This is a lot bigger than me.”
I never thought this would ever happen.
As soon as the show started coming out, I was so nervous about everything.
The show’s kind of f–king good!”
[Laughs] There was a lot of anxiety surrounding it but it was really exciting.
New episodes ofThe Sex Lives of College Girlspremiere Thursdays on HBO Max.
This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
