Reneé Rapp Says She Wasn't Acting in Coming Out Scene in Sex Lives of College Girls: 'That's Me'

In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the Mean Girls star revealed that the show helped her fully come out s queer. While recalling the coming out scene for her character in Season 1 of the Max series, Rapp said it mirrored her personal life in so many ways.

In fact, she said she wasn't acting at all in that moment, telling the outlet, "that's me."

"It was hard for so many reasons. Recently, on TikTok, [I watched] this scene in Season 1, where I come out to another character as a lesbian, and I'm crying, sobbing. And I hadn't seen that scene in years," she said of stepping away from the show as a series regular.

"It is so interesting that at the time I wasn't even aware that what I was experiencing in my own personal life was actually exactly what I was doing onscreen."

She continued, "I was in a relationship with a man, incredibly confused, unsure of myself, feeling so insecure in my acting. And I watched the scene the other day, and I was like, 'Wow, I feel so lucky to have that.' That's something I would show my kids.

"So when I watched it back, I was like, 'Yeah, that's hard to leave that.'"

While it was difficult to step away from the show, Rapp, who will still be appearing on the show's upcoming third season, said she's grateful to have the moment forever, not only for other people struggling with their sexuality, but for herself, too.

"I'm also so grateful that I was able to have that moment. Not only was it helpful for other people, it was crazy for me; crazy helpful and also crazy hard. Because I'm like, 'Why am I freaking out all the time?' " she said. "I would go home and I would call my friends and I'd be like, 'I think I'm a lesbian, but I really love my boyfriend. I would want to be with him, but I see him more as a friend.'"

"So not only was I doing that on the show, publicly, in a big way to so many people, and my family, who had no idea that I was gay," she continued. "I was also going through it personally. It is f--king crazy to watch that back."

When asked if the show forced her to confront her feelings, Rapp wholeheartedly agreed, and not just for her either, but for her family and a lot of the people in her life that hadn't fully come to terms with her sexuality yet.

"Look, this is good and bad," she explained. "Being celebrated for being out because of a TV show or celebrity or success or something was really interesting because I think it forced a lot of people in my life and my family to have to accept me in a weird way, and in some ways that are twisted, like, 'Damn, we could have done that a long time ago without her being on a TV show.'"

"However, I think it made it a lot easier in ways that pissed me off but I’m also really grateful for," she continued. "That [show] was the most parallel experience in my life, and I remember doing that specific coming-out scene and not acting at all. At all. I was just sobbing. I see that and I don't see a character. I'm like, 'That's me.'"

Rapp, who unexpectedly announced her departure from the series in July 2023, previously discussed her decision to leave in a January interview with Vanity Fair, where she said she feels better now than she ever did about the state of her career.

"The people in my life that I work with now care about me as a person," Rapp told the outlet. "And I think that is a difference from things I've experienced in the past."

Since the news of her departure from Mindy Kaling and Justin Noble's comedy series, Rapp has shifted her focus to music. She recently released a song with Megan Thee Stallion entitled "Not My Fault," which appears on the Mean Girls soundtrack, and is currently on tour, and slated to make her Coachella debut in April.