Reneé Rapp Explains Her 'Love' for Regina George: 'The Mean Girl Is Always Hot to Me' (Exclusive)

"I love that she says what she thinks," says the singer, who also played the character on Broadway

Reneé Rapp has admiration for Regina George.

The "Talk Too Much" singer stars as Mean Girls' queen bee in the new movie musical version, years after she embodied the role on Broadway.

As the apex-predator, Regina finds enjoyment in watching the world burn at North Shore High School, taking newbie Cady Heron (Angourie Rice) under her wing as a puppet of sorts.

Rapp, 24, tells PEOPLE in this week's issue that she found some redeeming qualities in the villainous character.

"Look, I love that she says what she thinks. I really do," she says. "Now, I think a lot of things this character says are not nice, but I think in order to be manipulative you have to be really intelligent."

"I don't think she's using her intelligence in the best, most productive way," Rapp continues. "However, I don't know, she's determined. Something about that is hot to me. The mean girl is always hot to me."

Related: Reneé Rapp Reveals the Karaoke Song She's Making Christopher Briney Sing at Her Birthday Party (Exclusive)

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In the 2004 film version, also written by Tina Fey, the role of Regina went to Rachel McAdams, who tormented Lindsay Lohan's Cady.

Rapp counts herself a lifelong "huge fan" of McAdams, now 45. "I think she's f---ing brilliant," she says.

"She's one of my favorite actress ever. She has something I think is so special and something I really looked up to as a kid," says the Sex Lives of College Girls actress. "I thought what was so cool about [McAdams] was she's able to have the range acting-wise that she does but also can be the bitchiest character. And you are obsessed with her."

"You still love her and you still root for her for some f---ed up reason," Rapp says of McAdams's Regina. "You have to be so intelligent to be able to do that, I think."

Related: See the Mean Girls Casts Side-by-Side with the Other Actors Who Played the Characters

Outside of Mean Girls, Rapp enjoys McAdams in The Notebook, the romantic drama that debuted the same year as the teen comedy.

"She can also go and do something like The Notebook and make people fall in love with her. When I think of her in that film, I'm like, oh my God — that's how I feel like when I'm in love with someone, I think about Rachel McAdams in that movie. You can't describe that. It's next level."

Avantika, who plays fellow Plastic Karen in the new film, says Rapp plays Regina "with this very chill, hot-girl energy that I think [Rapp] just carries naturally in her vibe."

"I think the reverence that you kind of look up to Regina George in the film, she carries that kind of a power when she walks around set. She commands that kind of a presence," says Avantika, 18.

"I think all the best traits of Regina that you admire — her power and her sass and her wit and her ability to stand up for things — I think Reneé definitely does embody."

For more on the new Mean Girls cast, pick up this week's issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday.

Mean Girls is in theaters Friday.

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