Rivkah Reyes on Early Fame, Recovery, and Making Music on Her Own Terms
Rivkah Reyes was eleven years old when the world decided that it knew her.
A musician from the age of four, Reyes began studying classical guitar before most children could read, developing perfect pitch and an instinctive ability to learn by ear. At eleven, that private relationship with music became public when she was cast as bassist Katie in Richard Linklater’s 2003 School of Rock. The film became a generational touchstone while Reyes returned home to Chicago to the considerably more complicated task of growing up after the world already knew her name.
Through it all, music remained a constant. Reyes played bass in a grunge band throughout high school and continued acting and performing into adulthood, while navigating the lasting complexities of early fame, addiction, and mental health struggles. Sobriety would eventually become another defining chapter — one she now speaks about openly in the hope that her experiences might make others feel less alone.
Currently based in New York City, Reyes is returning to music with Fan Favorite, her unapologetically queer debut EP, out November 6th. Its bubbly, grungy sound draws candidly from heartbreak, desire, and lived experience, including the bratty, cheeky new single “Menace,” an ode to fully committing to a bad decision. It arrives at a point when Reyes is less interested in fulfilling the expectations attached to a precocious child than in defining what success means to her now — and making the work that only she wants to make in the process.
KP: You started classical guitar lessons at four years old. What do you remember about your relationship with the instrument before ambition, performance, or a career ever entered the picture?
RR: I mean, I always wanted to do music, ever since I came out of the womb. There’s lore that I would sing in my stroller to a parent that had woken up from a nap.
I started in these baby music classes when I was two years old, where it was just learning about the basics of rhythm and pitch and tempo and stuff like that. Then, once I was four years old, I became eligible to take an instrument, and the options were laid out. It was piano, violin, flute, cello, or guitar.
At first, I did violin, and legend has it that I picked up the violin and held it like it was a guitar and started to strum it. My mom was like, “Okay, well, there’s a better option. She wants to play guitar.” [Laughs]
Once I started playing, I got super into it. I would practice first thing in the morning before school. I would do my homework super quickly so that I could go back to practicing when I would get home from school.
It was never a question of career or anything like that. I just wanted to play.
KP: It’s so interesting that you say that. I was classically trained, but in piano, and then I switched to guitar when I was about six. But the funny thing is, I wanted to learn how to play violin when I was a teenager, but I couldn’t get the bowing right because I’m so used to strumming, right? So, that was a total mind block for me. I still would really love to learn violin, but I’m so bad. It’s just not happening. [Laughs]
RR: Right?! Luckily, with guitar, I’ve always had kind of a magical ear. I have perfect pitch, and once I had practiced my stuff for guitar lessons and the classical work that my teacher was giving me, I would just play along to the radio — whatever my dad was listening to, whatever my mom was listening to — and just try to pluck out the melody. I got really good at that long before I started wanting to play rock or play in a band or whatever.
I just always had an ear for it. I’ve always said that you could put an instrument with strings in my hand and I’d be able to figure it out within five, ten minutes. I have friends who have a banjo, and I’ll pick up the banjo and just figure something out.
I think there’s just this thing that music has always been my life. It’s been inherently such a part of who I am and what I’ve done since day one.
Even though I’ve hopped mediums quite a bit — from music to film to content creation to dance to comedy — there’s always a musical aspect to everything.
KP: And to go back to when you said you were learning by ear, I read you said that was when music really clicked for you — finding out that you had the ability to do that, because not every musician, even those who are super talented, can.
So, what changed when you realized that you didn’t have to experience music exclusively through formal training? I think there’s such a beauty to being able to teach yourself and also just using your innate gift to create, right?
RR: Yeah, definitely. I mean, there are obviously a lot of things to learn through formal studying, like how to read music, especially for composing.
Now, my job is kind of hard because I have to teach other musicians my new work. When we were making it, it was just like, “Oh, that’s cool. Alright, sick. Yeah, let’s record that,” and then moving on, and not really writing out exactly what my fingers were doing on the frets or whatever, just being like, “I think that’s a C. Yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s a C.” [Laughs] Then I have to listen really diligently to whatever my guitarist is playing and be like, “Oh, actually, I think there is a seventh in there.” I’ve had to curb my frustration at other people’s learning styles.
But I definitely took a nontraditional route. After I started playing bass and pivoting into acting as well, like for School of Rock, I stopped taking my classical training in high school, and I was pursuing theater.
I actually learned how to read music better through performing in musicals than I did through classical guitar lessons, because I would kind of cheat my way through it and listen to the audio and just be like, “Oh, it’s this,” and my guitar teacher would be like, “It’s not that, but you’re playing the right notes; your hand is just not on the right fret.” I’m like, “I just figured out a way to make it easier for me.” [Laughs] Playing with a band, I just learned how to finagle different tunings in order to make things easier for me.
But yeah, I always like to approach things in a nontraditional way, I guess, from a place of doing it my way rather than doing it like everybody else’s. Whether or not that’s been successful is up for discussion.
KP: It’s funny because you described yourself as the “weird guitar girl with the Doc Martens” growing up, and it made me laugh because I have this memory. I was such a reject growing up. I’m from Brooklyn, but my parents raised me in Rockaway, which is very conservative compared to living here.
I remember my teachers wanted me to get more involved in school somehow because I just was such a loner. So, they convinced me to perform in the school talent show in the fifth grade. I remember going up there in head-to-toe fatigues — full-on army — with my Doc Martens. I was the laughingstock of the entire school. So, it didn’t really make things better. [Laughs]
RR: What did you do for your talent show performance?
KP: I played guitar, electric, and they wanted something patriotic to open the show. So, I think I soloed “The Star-Spangled Banner,” if I remember correctly. But the clothing was my fault. [Laughs] I still love military wear, full on.
RR: I’ve got camo on right now.
KP: Oh, yeah. See? Look. Exactly. [Laughs]
RR: You said you’re from Brooklyn?
KP: Yeah! My dad is from Park Slope, and my mom is from Carroll Gardens.
RR: Oh, a straight-up Brooklyn girly. I’m in Bushwick.
KP: Oh, okay. So, we’re not far. We’re close right now!
It’s interesting, though, because I think music — and especially being into rock when you’re younger — kind of gives you an escape into this world where people typically don’t fit in. That said, I was just wondering if music initially gave you somewhere to put all of those parts of yourself that didn’t necessarily conform.
“If there’s anything that School of Rock taught me, it’s more punk to not win.”
RR: Definitely. I mean, talking about talent show trauma, I have some.
KP: Oh, do you? [Laughs]
RR: Well, I did pretty well on the talent shows. I’m not gonna lie. I was an outlier because there were a lot of dance routines, a lot of magic tricks, things like that. Just straight-up singing. But I was the only girl playing guitar. The only girl shredding classical guitar.
One year, I did this bit where I would bring a chair and a footstool and play sitting down. There was a year where I got onstage without the chair, and I was like, “Oh my God, where’s my chair?” Then I pulled a Jimi Hendrix, pulled it behind my back, and played a classical piece behind my head. I think I won that year. I think I won either second or first place that year.
KP: So, you didn’t win some years? Who the fuck won?
RR: One of my best friends! She was an incredible dancer. She was awesome. She still does musical theater and stuff. She’s a truly amazing dancer. But there was never any rivalry between us. I was just like, “Well, it’s like we both won in some way.”
There was a year where we tied. Then there was a year — the year after School of Rock came out — this was when I was entering my kind of angsty rock-chick era. I put down the classical for that era of “Rivkah goes bad.” [Laughs] I started with a classical song, and then I unzipped my jacket, and I was wearing an AC/DC shirt underneath. I played “Hells Bells” by AC/DC as my song. Then I did an AC/DC medley and I sang.
That year, I did not win. Then I was just like, “Well, you know what? It’s more punk to not win. If there’s anything that School of Rock taught me, it’s more punk to not win.”
KP: Right. Exactly! [Laughs]
RR: And to have the underdog arc. That’s sort of carried me.
Then I started to play with bands and stuff in high school, too. I kind of got into drugs in high school, so I was well-liked at parties because I always had drugs on me. But I also was still kind of an outlier.
I went to a pretty prestigious college prep that cost a lot of money to get into, and I was on a scholarship. I had to keep that close to my chest because the kids who were on scholarship were judged pretty hard.
There was a really strict dress code where you had to wear a collared shirt and you couldn’t wear jeans. You could wear whatever shoes you wanted as long as they were closed-toe, with no logos or anything like that.
But I was always the bitch wearing a flannel and being like, “Well, this has a collar, so what are you gonna do about it?” Always wearing Doc Martens. We couldn’t wear cargo pants, but I’d have some kind of baggy situation with a studded belt going on, and I secretly had a nose ring. Stuff like that. I was always pushing it a little bit.
I was in a band called Sweet Revenge — we were grunge. We would do a lot of divorced-dad-rock covers, a lot of Nickelback and Bush, and stuff like that. We swept at the talent shows because we were usually the only band with a girl in it. I would wear a little miniskirt for the shows, and I think also the School of Rock of it all had a little something to do with it. There was this novelty to it.
I was playing bass for that band all of high school, and it was a formative time for me. I really learned about stage presence, band dynamics, and songwriting during that time. I learned how to pipe in like, “Hey, that lyric sucks. I think you can make it better by doing this,” and having the boys in the band be like, “Actually, yeah, you’re kind of right.”
But then whenever we all went off to college, the boys in my band pursued pre-med and finance. They’re all doctors. Well, one of them is a doctor. One of them went into pharmacy, and now he works in a lab doing literal science.
And now I live in Bushwick, and most of my money comes from hosting parties, DJing, and making fucking OnlyFans content. So, the tides have turned for sure.
But yeah, I guess it’s similar with the School of Rock kids. A lot of them have left the industry, left acting, and left music. But I’ve stayed, and I’m still very supportive of my friends who went on to be lawyers and real estate professionals and speech pathologists and cool shit like that.
I just don’t think there’s anything else I want to do aside from performing, aside from creating. My nine-to-five is just sitting in the studio with my friend, digging around, and making a really cool trip-hop cover of a divorced-dad song, like the other day. And that’s the brunt of my work this week.
KP: That sounds pretty good to me. I’d rather do that than anything else, too.
And speaking of your childhood taste, I was reading that it kind of swayed from Nirvana and Soundgarden and Smashing Pumpkins all the way to Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and Mandy Moore.
RR: Yeah! It’s funny. I had this thing where all my girlfriends in school were listening to the girly pops and hip-hop and all that, but then my guy friends were listening to Blink-182, Nirvana, and Green Day.
My dad is good friends with Eddie Vedder and Billy Corgan, so I grew up listening to grunge. I grew up really listening to rock, but my mom was huge on the divas — Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, TLC, SWV. Big soul and neo-soul R&B were on her side of things, and my dad was just a classic rock guy.
I hate when people are like, “I listen to everything,” but I do straight-up listen to most things. I even listen to country! I host a line-dancing party, so I do have to kind of keep my finger on the pulse of what’s hot in country right now. I don’t play him at my events, but I love Morgan Wallen’s songwriting. He has some good songs; I’m not even gonna lie. But fuck him. He’s homophobic and he sucks.
But yeah, I’m a huge sucker for nostalgia. I love anything that makes me feel like a teenager again.
Even in current music, I love Julia Wolf because she’s got this kind of Twilight-core thing going on. Caroline Kingsbury is another one that comes to mind because she’s kind of like Cyndi Lauper. She has this ’80s new-wave vibe. The new Olivia Rodrigo stuff is very The Cure and New Order and Depeche Mode-forward. I love anything that just makes me feel a sense of being in the past.
KP: I was the same way because I was playing so much electric guitar when I was a kid. So, I listened to a lot of Zeppelin but also Plasmatics, a lot of really old punk —
RR: Plasmatics?! What the fuck? Oh my God.
KP: Wendy O! You love her, too?
RR: Yeah! I fucking — wow, I can’t believe you just pulled that out. Her, and I listened to so much X-Ray Spex in high school.
KP: Poly Styrene is also the coolest.
I collect Wendy O shit. I have this really old amazing Plasmatics book that she signed over here. And you know the music video for “The Damned” where they run the school bus through the wall of TVs? This was one of the pieces of wood from that structure, and she signed it.
RR: What the fuck? How’d you get that? eBay?
KP: An auction house, if I remember correctly. You know the one thing I still need, though? I need to get one of her chainsawed guitars. I found one years ago, and I passed it up. I got a Janis Joplin-owned bag instead, but I also really fucking love Janis.
RR: Love Janis.
KP: Love Janis for real. I would have fallen in love with her back then. I really fucking love a free-spirited woman! That’s my type. [Laughs]
RR: Oh my God, Janis. I mean, I could talk about Janis forever, too. I started listening to her when I also started doing drugs, so it was a good time.
KP: Oh, good time to start. [Laughs]
RR: Yeah, I definitely started listening to Janis around the time I was popping a lot of pills. I was just like, “She gets it.”
Her whole discography is incredible, though. I remember illegally downloading it on LimeWire and just listening to all the deep cuts, the live performances and stuff, and just getting so high.
KP: She’s one of those artists that — well, I think her and Amy, to me — they always sounded better live. I don’t listen to their studio recordings much, actually.
RR: I saw Amy. I saw Amy at her last Lollapalooza.
KP: No fucking way.
RR: Oh yeah. It was whatever year that was, 2007, maybe 2006? It was insane.
KP: That’s truly insane. Oh God, I’m so jealous. Very, very, very, very jealous.
RR: Yeah, the headliners that year were, I think, Radiohead and The Smashing Pumpkins. I’m pretty sure Tool played that year, too.
I love going to festivals. That’s the other thing, because there’s a lot of breadth and volume to who’s playing. I grew up in Chicago, so my family would go to Lollapalooza every year for my birthday.
I actually just saw MCR for the first time ever. The person I’m seeing is a friend of Gerard Way’s, so we went to the concert on Sunday. We had amazing seats. The first half of the show is all Black Parade. They just played Black Parade from top to bottom. Incredible, incredible stage production, pyrotechnics, everything.
KP: I love fire. I wanted to be a pyrotechnic when I was a kid! That was one of my dream jobs — that or being a detective or a hacker. [Laughs]
RR: I wanted to be a magazine editor or a radio host.
KP: Oh, really?
RR: Yeah, yeah. I used to do a lot of visual art, too, when I was a kid. I would draw from fashion magazines. Then we had this little cassette recorder, and I would record little radio shows. I would play the host, but then I would also play all the guests calling in. Then I would also sing all the songs on the radio show. [Laughs] It would just be a pendulum swinging from girly pop to rock.
KP: Very cute. That’s very funny.
RR: Pyrotechnics are really cool, though. To this day, I’m like, “Whoa.” I was in awe.
KP: Where did they play? In New York?
RR: They played at Citi Field.
It was so sick, and it was my first time seeing them live. MCR has been — I mean, talk about nostalgia. When I was a brat in middle school — or maybe they came out when I was in high school — whenever Three Cheers came out, I was just immediately hooked.
Having been a diehard Green Day fan, it was pretty controversial of me to start liking MCR. But I fucked with them so heavy.
I mean, they played “Helena,” and I was just sobbing.
KP: That’s amazing.
I wanted to talk briefly about early success. I became successful when I was super young, too. I was 14 when my life changed completely overnight.
I know for me, the public perception of who I was and then who I actually was, or who people wanted me to be, was totally, totally different. Especially when I was young, I felt like I had to fit a certain mold, which then shaped who I actually was.
RR: You were a child star?
KP: Not in the traditional sense. I was a magazine editor, so I wasn’t a singer or actress.
I started a fashion magazine when I was 14, and it blew the fuck up. The problem was that I was never really a fashion girl. I actually only started a fashion magazine because kids always made fun of me for what I looked like. It was just a tongue-in-cheek, self-deprecating thing.
I worked in the fashion industry for over a decade, but I’m not a fashion girl. First and foremost, I was a musician and an artist, but I felt like I had to live a life that I wasn’t comfortable with simply due to my success.
I wasn’t a typical child star in the way that you were, but I have a very complicated relationship with early success.
Did you ever feel that you were able to truly be yourself? And, ultimately, would you recommend it to other young kids?
RR: I think it’s very complicated. I think it falls on the kid. Is it what they want?
I guess I would say that it’s different now with social media. If I had Instagram when I was in high school, I would have killed myself. Straight up.
But we had MySpace, we had Xanga, and there were IMDb message boards. Then, when I was in high school, Tumblr became a thing. It was late high school for me.
But regarding fame, I just feel like I wanted it. I wanted the attention, I wanted the notoriety, and I wanted the success. I knew kind of from a young age that I was destined to have that type of attention and success.
Then, after School of Rock, when it didn’t result in my career taking off immediately, I was like, “Well, I guess I’ll go back to school. I guess I’ll go back to Chicago. I guess I’ll go back to being a normal kid.” But there was always this level of not being a normal kid, because everywhere I went, especially when it was still fresh, people recognized me.
I still get recognized. Yesterday I was at an event and some girl came up to me and was like, “You just have to know that School of Rock changed my life.” Then one of the girls from High School Musical was at the same party, and I got to be like, “Oh my God, that’s the girl from High School Musical. Holy shit.” That kind of thing happens all the time.
But back then, it was like, “Okay, I have to live this normal life now. I’m going to try to not get bitter and not get resentful at the fact that I didn’t immediately become Hilary Duff.” It was tough. It was disorienting.
I was often having to question whether people actually wanted to be friends with me or if they just wanted to be friends with the girl from School of Rock. Which today still sometimes happens, if I’m fully honest. Not so much in New York — I feel like this is more of an LA thing.
KP: We don’t give a fuck about that! [Laughs]
RR: Exactly. But when I lived in LA, I could see right through people. The second they found out I couldn’t give them anything or help them get anywhere, they were like, “Oh, okay then. Bye.” I don’t experience that as much here, thank God.
But yeah, I definitely can tell when somebody is a fan or a friend. There’s a distinction.
With social media, too, making everyone feel a little too close for comfort, there’s sort of a parasocial thing.
I run a pretty successful twice-weekly event that happens in New York, where I’m kind of leading this community. I have to maintain some anonymity, some privacy. I tend to be pretty close to the chest with certain things.
But then I’m also a mental health and sobriety advocate, so there’s also this level of what’s public and what’s private. I’ve always had to be that way.
Seeing fellow former child actors get DUIs and have public breakdowns and stuff, I was just like, “Okay, let’s not go there.”
And I fortunately — and kind of unfortunately — got to have my own breakdown in private and come out of it stronger, with a story of, “I survived. I’m sober now. Here’s how I battled that.” I’ve become kind of a voice for folks who struggle with alcoholism and drug addiction, which is an honor.
KP: That’s amazing.
RR: It is. If I were to die tomorrow — and knock on wood that doesn’t happen — I will at least have left this world having helped people. That’s all I’ve really ever wanted to do.
I’ve always felt such a pull towards music for that reason — when somebody’s lyrics just feel like they came from your brain, and it’s like, “How did she know?”
I just finished listening to Phoebe Bridgers’ new album, which I got to hear a lot of at her secret show. But listening to some of these lyrics, I’m like, “She is inside my brain. How did she know? How did she know exactly how I felt when XYZ bad thing happened in my relationship?”
I’ve always wanted to provide that for people, too. And it is just an honor. Even last night, the girl who came up to me at that party being like, “Oh my God, School of Rock changed my life.”
KP: Well, I worked in fashion. It’s not something I’m particularly proud of, but I think School of Rock was — I’ve never seen it, by the way, so I’m very third-party in this — but I think it was such a bridge for young kids to want to become musicians and get involved in bands.
It’s something really cool to be a part of, and I think it has a really amazing legacy in that way. It’s something to be proud of. That’s a really cool thing that you got to do.
RR: Yeah, thank you. I agree.
It definitely warms my heart when people come up to me and say that School of Rock is what inspired them or their daughter or their friend or their sister to pick up the bass or an instrument.
I’ll still do my best to respond to every DM when it comes to, “You inspired me to pick up my instrument of choice or become a singer,” whatever it is.
And now I get a lot of girls being like, “You were my queer awakening.”
KP: That’s always a nice thing! [Laughs]
RR: Yeah. I sent a similar message to Megan Fox. She didn’t respond.
KP: [Laughs] Bummer!
“If I were to die tomorrow — and knock on wood that doesn’t happen — I will at least have left this world having helped people. That’s all I’ve really ever wanted to do.”
RR: Yeah, it’s okay. It’s fine.
But yeah, you’re right. It’s an honor to have been a part of something that has that legacy of inspiring millions of people to either change careers or start a new one or pick up an instrument and do what we do.
KP: It really is.
And to focus on your latest release, “Debt Collector” came out of a breakup followed almost immediately by going to a Lorde concert with your ex.
Was there a moment that night when you knew that you were going to write about what was happening?
RR: That night was so botched. [Laughs]
KP: Something kind of similar happened to me, too.
RR: Did it? What concert?
KP: Yeah Yeah Yeahs, who are my favorite band.
RR: Oh my God.
I mean, I can still listen to Lorde. It’s just “Supercut.” I have to be in a very specific mood now to hear that song. The other day, I was with the person I’m seeing, and “Supercut” came on, and I was just like, “I don’t know.” I can’t have that one on my lovemaking playlist. [Laughs]
But yeah, I didn’t in that moment think, “I’m gonna write a song about it.” However, I will say that the Lorde concert was very inspiring. And still, to be able to go with my ex, even just as friends — it was a heated night. A lot of energy that night, a lot of emotions that night. We were crying; we were screaming.
Then I was just like, “Should we get dinner?” And she was like, “No.” And I was like, “Okay.”
Then I went to a bar with one of my friends and told her everything. And she was like, “Dude, that’s gonna make an amazing song.” And I was just like, “I know.”
When we got to the studio to record my upcoming EP, I knew that I wanted to write a song about the Lorde concert of it all. This one just kind of fell out of me. I didn’t even know really what I was saying half the time.
KP: How long were you guys broken up when you went to the concert?
RR: She broke up with me the day of the concert via text.
KP: Oh, wow! Okay, okay.
RR: I was getting ready to meet her at her apartment for said Lorde concert, and she texted me, “Riv, I just want to go as friends.”
KP: Well, I give you credit for going. I don’t think I could have! [Laughs]
RR: I feel like we had been dating casually for four months and then more seriously for another three. But the three months that we were dating seriously, two of them were long-distance. During the time that we were long-distance, my mom died, and then her mom died. So, it was just a lot.
The concert fell on the day after she moved back to New York after dealing with her mom passing away and the funeral arrangements and the estate and everything and having to deal with immigration stuff. She was from the UK.
So, she came back, and then the day after that was the Lorde concert. And on that day, she texted me, “I just want to go to the show as friends.” And I was like, “Same. Totally.” [Laughs]
Then I changed my outfit because I put on something really slutty at first. So, I just put on a T-shirt and jeans and went with her to this Lorde concert at Madison Square Garden.
We had a great night. I mean, it was a great concert. It was a great night. We didn’t fight at all.
I was just like, “Do you want to talk about this after the show or before?” She was like, “Let’s talk about it after.” Then we didn’t talk about it for a month. So, I was kind of left in limbo.
And while I was in that limbo, I went off to LA to record my EP. I had gone through a couple other situationship crash-outs between the Lorde concert and me recording.
KP: That’s tough.
RR: What happened at your concert?
Oh, it was messy. [Laughs] My ex and I had bought tickets to see the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, whose concert was six months away. But by the time the concert came we had already broken up and I had just started seeing someone new the week before, who also coincidentally loved the YYYs. So, I was like, “Do I really make this sloppy and buy her a ticket to come with me?” I did. I couldn’t help it. So I went with my new girlfriend, and my ex went with her new girlfriend, and we were separate at the venue — at Webster Hall. To be fair, my ex did me so wrong. So wrong. I never would have done that if she hadn’t. I’m a true lovergirl!
But they’re my favorite band of all time, so I had to go. That was one of the best nights of my life.
RR: That worked out! Impressive.
I had to go see Lorde. I needed to hear “Ribs.” I really needed to hear “Ribs” live. And I needed to hear the new stuff.
But the show was great. I’m glad I went. I got a great song out of it.
KP: “Ribs is great.”
To shift back briefly, has getting older allowed you to separate the desire to create from the desire to succeed?
RR: Definitely. Yeah, I am not really concerned about success anymore.
Success would be nice, and it would definitely be helpful. It would feel good to see those numbers on Spotify climb, you know, whatever. But I’m really just in the business of making what I want to make now. I played in bands where I was not making the decisions. I was just there to play bass for years — with only men — for years. It just feels so great to be the boss now and to make the music that I want to make. To make what feels good.
And hey, if my fan base stays the same as it is right now, that’s still a lot of fucking people. Imagine 110,000 people in your living room. That’s enough. That is more than enough. I’m happy with where things are.
I mean, it would be awesome if things were to lead to bigger and better stages for tours and stuff like that. Of course, I watched MCR the other night selling out Citi Field, and I’m like, “I want to do that.” But it’s obviously not going to happen overnight. Overnight takes 20, sometimes 30 years.
KP: Absolutely.
If you could speak to that little girl immediately before she walked onto the School of Rock set, what would you want to protect in her, looking back?
RR: I would just want her to stay true to who she is. To never let a man try to tell her who she is.
I think a big reason why I was chosen to be in that was because I came in and was truly myself.
Richard Linklater and the whole team really wanted the kids to feel like real people, and I think they accomplished that — very much so.
Everything that I’ve done since School of Rock, acting-wise, I’ve been chosen because I was myself. I play a lot of characters that are very similar to Rivkah. It’s awesome that I get to just dial up a certain neurosis of mine or just play a different version of myself. I play a lot of Bushwick DJs, or lesbian heartbreakers. And I’m like, “Yeah.” [Laughs]
So, yeah, I would tell her, “Stay authentic. Just be yourself.”
KP: That’s great advice.
And finally, what do you feel makes a provocative woman?
RR: I think the most provocative women march to the beat of their own drum and dress in the way that makes them feel good.
Lately, I’ve been really enjoying leaning into my hyper-femininity. I am surrounded by beautiful, beautiful women, and I’ve never been the kind of girl who’s been threatened by other women.
I don’t really deal with jealousy. I don’t really compare myself to other girls. My first gay awakenings were Angelina Jolie and Megan Fox, and you could probably also throw in Pam Anderson, right? These gorgeous bombshells. I’ve always aspired to be one.
When I see another baddie on the street, I’m like, “Girl, you are fucking gorgeous.” And I’ll get it back. Not only does it brighten my day and brighten her day, but people around us see that, and they’re witnessing this little diva-off. I’m just like, “God, I love being a gorgeous woman.”
I think the most provocative women lean into their beauty and aren’t apologetic about it.
Photography (in order of appearance): Jon Del Real, Jules Rossi, Gracie Meier, Shelly Guidera
