30-06-2025
‘X-Men' Star Alexandra Shipp on Being Reneé Rapp's ‘Sexy Lesbian Video Vixen' for ‘Mad': ‘A Dream Come True'
Alexandra Shipp is living her 'best life' thanks to Reneé Rapp.
The actress — known for her work as Storm in 'X-Men: Apocalypse' as well as for roles in 'Straight Outta Compton,' 'Love, Simon' and 'tick, tick…BOOM!' — plays Rapp's love interest in the music video for her new single, 'Mad.'
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'I'm in my video vixen era, and I'm living my best life,' Shipp told me Saturday at the Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project Block Party fundraiser. 'There's a lot of things that I thought were going to be on my 2025 bingo card. Being a sexy lesbian video vixen was not on it. I am so honored to be a part of it. And I think that we definitely played off a very hot power couple.'
The video features Rapp singing to a seemingly pissed off Shipp at a hotel party. 'All of the time you wasted being mad / We could've been cute and we could've been stupid,' Rapp sings. 'Hey, you / All of the time, you wasted in your head / We could've been having sex.'
'Reneé is so warm and so loving that it was really fun to work with her,' Shipp said. 'I think it's just really great when wonderful people are so successful as well as talented…Already being a fan of hers and her asking me to do the music video, it felt like a dream come true. Plus, ain't nobody shooting anything right now, and to be able to collaborate with an artist who's down to collaborate and have fun, maybe that's what this is about.'
The release of the video happens to coincide with Pride month, so I asked Shipp, who came out as queer in 2021, if she could deliver a message to queer youth.
'I will fight for you. I will stand up for you. I will protest for you. I will rally for you. I will vote for you,' she said. 'I think that it is important that people come out and say, I not only am a member of the community, but I will fight for my community, tooth and nail, because I think it's important so to that next generation of little LGBTQ babies — know that I'm on your team, and there are a lot of people who are on your team, and we got you.'
Shipp also revealed that she recently wrote, directed, produced and starred in a short feature about her real-life best friend, a songwriter and single mom raising a child who is on the spectrum: 'I played the superhero before, but working on this short, I felt like I really played a superhero.'
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