Reneé Rapp’s parents wanted her to go to college. She wanted to be a pop star. After detours to Broadway (where she played Regina George in Mean Girls) and Max (starring in Mindy Kaling’s The Sex Lives of College Girls), Rapp is doing just that while keeping her options open: She’s also Regina in Tina Fey’s Mean Girls musical movie, now in theaters. “I thought that I was a horrible actor,” says Rapp. “I thought that I was terrible at songwriting. And now those are the two things that I’m fucking doing.”

BORN IN North Carolina (“Any person who’s sort of translucent, I’m a descendant of”), Rapp was raised by parents who owned a music store.

AFTER THREE SEASONS on Sex Lives, Rapp left to pursue her solo career—amid rumors that certain cast members had questioned her bisexuality. “The people in my life that I work with now care about me as a person,” she says. “And I think that is a difference from things I’ve experienced in the past.”

SHE LEARNED she’d play Regina once more at a point where she felt “jaded and really angry and sad and bullied. I was like, I hate the industry.” When Fey offered her the role, “it was really exciting. I have a new start.”

RACHEL MCADAMS, the original big screen Regina George, is her North Star, but Rapp’s take on the character is a little different. “I’m a serial flirt. So I’m flirting with everybody, especially the girls, right? I have a bitchy attitude, so I’m going to be bitchy. I also am very dry, so she’s going to be dry.”

AS FOR FEY? “A lot of people talk about lifting women up and being a fucking feminist. And behind the scenes, it’s really not that. And I think that Tina is exactly as good of a person as she is hilarious and intelligent.”

SHE’S KEEN to move from comedy to “more intense” projects and “would literally beg on hands and knees” to play Stevie Nicks.

RIGHT NOW, she’s touring her debut album, Snow Angel, in Europe (“People are very sexy. I love a little accent”) and reflecting on her past. “I was told, ‘Boys aren’t going to want to be around you if you’re this emotional.’ And I’d be like, well, awesome. There’s a strong chance I won’t want to be around a boy, so go fuck yourself.”

HAIR, CANDICE BIRNS; MAKEUP, SABRINA BEDRANI; MANICURE, SREYNIN PENG; TAILOR, HASMIK KOURINIAN. PRODUCED ON LOCATION BY PREISS CREATIVE. FOR DETAILS, GO TO VF.COM/CREDITS.