Addison Rae says she's had to work "much harder" than others to break into acting
28 July 2021, 13:20 | Updated: 31 August 2022, 15:32
Addison will play Padgett Sawyer in Netflix's He's All That.
Addison Rae believes she's had to "work that much harder" to break into acting as a TikTok star.
The 'Obsessed' singer is starring in Netflix's He's All That, a remake of 1999 teen movie She's All That. The film, which will be released on August 27, will see Addison's character, social media influencer Padgett Sawyer, turn an unpopular classmate into a desirable prom king.
Last week, a clip from the movie was shared on social media and the reviews were, um, harsh. "Yeah I think it's time to cancel my subscription," one user wrote. And another commented: "How is this worse than what I've imagined and I had low expectations."
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Since it was announced that Addison would be starring in the film, fans have wondered how she was able to land such a big role, with many believing it's because of her TikTok following. Addison is currently the third most-followed person on TikTok with 82 million followers. Until recently, Addison was actually the second most-followed TikToker (behind Charli D'Amelio with a whopping 121 million followers) until she was overtaken by Khaby Lame in July.
In a new interview with Elle, Addison has revealed that making the transition from TikTok to acting hasn't actually been as easy as it looks. In fact, she's had to work harder because of it. She told the publication: "In this industry, when you come in and get labeled as one thing... people like to keep you there. Which is understandable, and I get it, but what people don’t realize is I’ve always wanted to do acting, I’ve always wanted to do music. I’ve always wanted to do all these other things that they didn’t really get to see or know, because I just started being known when I was 19 years old.
"People haven’t really seen the background, or the classes I used to take and things like that. So I try to tell myself, ‘You have to work that much harder to get people to take you seriously.'"
Despite this, Addison admits she was "super lucky" to blow up on TikTok so quickly, which gave her the opportunity to move from a small town in Louisiana to Los Angeles. And contrary to popular belief, Addison actually trained hard for the role.
She continued: "I was in acting classes probably three times a week, and doing personal coaching over Zoom as well as script analysis. [I tried to find] things I could relate to in my life and how I felt in that moment. The biggest part was being able to connect emotions and figure out exactly how I wanted to read a line or be in a scene.
"Delivery is the most important part. Even the day of, [before doing] a scene, I would call my acting coach Nancy, and she’d be like, ‘All right, what are you channeling today? What exactly is the mood you’re getting into? How are you going to feel? How are you delivering that line, and how is your character going through this event?’ Then I’d have to get myself in that space. I would sit in my trailer for a few hours before I’d go and do the scene and read my lines and then make sure I was mentally in that space."
