Olivia Rodrigo on Her ‘Guts World Tour’ Netflix Film, Why She Foregrounds Women and Rock ‘n’ Roll, and the Sound of ‘Girls Losing Their Minds’ Over Her Chappell Roan Duet
When Olivia Rodrigo’s Guts Tour opened in Palm Springs last February, Variety wrote, “It’s a rock ‘n’ roll show, by the way — maybe the best rock tour we’ll get all year, even if the season is young.” Now that a concert film is arriving to commemorate the recently wrapped tour, and the chance for reassessment is nigh, there’s no reason to take any of that back. “Olivia Rodrigo: Guts World Tour,” premiering today on Netflix, further cements just how assured the show was as a captivating blast of guitar-driven energy, from a 21-year-old star who has clearly earned her rocker’s license.
On the eve of the film’s release, Rodrigo got on the phone to talk about her feelings about seeing herself on screen, her one ongoing performance insecurity, keeping rock at the forefront (notwithstanding some signature ballads), and bringing so many women on stage with her as musicians and dancers. One of those women was Chappell Roan, first as an opening act on the tour and then as a duet partner for “Hot to Go,” filmed at L.A.’s Intuit Dome as the tour came to a close. Rodrigo makes it sound as if there will be a good wait before she comes back to unveil what will surely be another four-letter-word album title. But fans have this mostly-“Guts”/all-glory tour souvenir to hold them over.
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Going with Netflix for this might seem like a no-brainer, given the reach. But artists have other choices, including doing theatrical engagements for concert films — like Laufey, who you just had at your premiere the other night, who’s putting her concert movie in theaters on a weekend in December. Did you weigh how to make this available to people, or was it clear from the start?
I always really wanted it to be Netflix. I was really excited by the idea that people who maybe weren’t able to get a ticket who wanted to come to the show could finally watch it. And Netflix is the most accessible to everyone, so that was always the dream.
In watching the full film, is there anything you discovered anything about yourself and your performance style that maybe you didn’t realize previously?
It was an interesting experience to sit down and watch the film from beginning to end, because I’ve been living and breathing this show for the past year of my life and I’ve never actually gotten the chance to sit down and watch it. It was cool to see it from a different perspective. I mean, I try to not be so self-critical. There are certain moments where I can tell: “Oh, you’re a little more nervous than other moments” — and other moments where I’m like, “Oh, yeah, you’re really in it, getting lost in it.” Whenever I play the piano, I get pretty nervous, and sometimes I can tell that in my face. I’m always just worried I’m gonna hit the wrong note. But besides that, it was pretty fun to watch.
We’ve seen you do a few bits on piano, including at the Grammy Museum last year, and it felt like you were confident and capable enough to do a whole show at the piano.
One of these days I’ll do it. But it’s just the most obvious when you make a mistake. I feel like anything else I can flub and kind of get away with it, but on the piano I’m like, “Ah, gotta practice.” But I’ve definitely got my hours in on this tour.
Because of the big screens in the venues on tour, you already have good reason to be thinking about how you’re coming off on screen. And there’s a lot of acting, if we can call it that, during the course of the show, in your performance style, embodying the song. You’re kind of a master of the eye roll. Do you enjoy thinking about how you’re going to dramatize the songs, especially through your face, knowing that will be on the big screens in the show, but then knowing it’s really gonna be captured in this film?
That is so funny you say that, because everyone always makes fun of me for how much I love to play to camera. I grew up doing TV shows; I was an actress. And so I think in some weird way, it just got ingrained into me and got drilled into me: play to the camera — big eyes to camera. It’s just second nature. And it’s kind of funny: My producer, Dan (Nigro), when we’re trying to track vocals and he wants a really emotional performance, sometimes he’ll set his iPhone up and record me, and miraculously it’s always a better vocal. [Laughs.] So it was very fun to get to do that for this Netflix film.
Do you have a favorite number now that you watch the film, and is it any different than what it might’ve been when you were in the moment, doing these shows?
Ooh. That’s a great question. My favorite number is usually “All American Bitch.” I like to make the crowd scream and get all their anger out; it always feels really cathartic. But I really liked watching “Pretty Isn’t Pretty” in the film. There’s dancers in it, and I find it really visually beautiful, and it’s one of my favorite songs on the record. So that one was fun to watch.
That brings us to the choreography. The dancers don’t show up until 28 minutes in, and are used sparingly, but the choreography is well-done and really adds dynamics. It’s been brought up that you had a question about whether to use dancers or not. It’s like a rock ‘n’ roll show, and do dancers traditionally fit in with that? On the other, your core audience may have never seen a show without choreography before, so of course it’s second nature to have it. It feels like thought went into how to choreograph songs like “Pretty Isn’t Pretty or “Love’s So Embarrassing,” so that songs about feeling insecure don’t have this incongruously perfect, acrobatic dancing.
Thanks for saying that. I mean, there was a bit of discussion (about whether to have dancers) at the beginning because, yeah, I did want this show to feel like a rock show, and I wanted to it to be hot, sweaty, loud and all of those things that I love. But the dancers add such a beautiful element, and I think it makes the show so much more interesting and engaging for the viewers. And I really wanted the choreography to feel really unique. I am admittedly not the best dancer in the world, and if I got up on stage and tried to do classic pop choreography, I would look really bad doing it. And so I really wanted it to feel like it was sort of weird and individual. And I love all my dancers so much, and I think they’re so unique and individually talented. Sometimes I feel like you can just watch one of them for the whole show, because they’re just so entertaining in and of themselves, so I really love that aspect of it. I’ve come to really love all of them, and it’s nice to share the stage with girls like that.
It was the opposite of a boys’ club up there, with an all-female band, and the dancers putting that many more women on stage, including possibly trans or non-binary people…
Yes, there is one trans, non-binary person who’s my dancer. So, thank you for noticing that.
Why was it important to you to have all that female energy up there and not have a bunch of dudes running around with you on the stage?
[Laughs] You know, I love rock music so much, and it was all that I listened, to growing up. Well, I guess rock music and, you know, I love singer-songwriter pop music as well, but rock music had a special place in my heart. And I remember being maybe 16 or something and finding all of these girl bands like Hole and Sleater-Kinney and L7 and these bands who were playing music that I had before only heard sung and played by guys. I remember how empowering that felt and how I just fell in love with all of those girls and those bands. I find it really powerful to watch a bunch of girls playing rock music, and power chords and shit. So, that’s really kind of the environment that I wanted to recreate for myself.
When we reviewed the opening night and wrote that it’s “maybe the best rock tour we’ll get all year,” which got tweeted out, it was hilarious watching how many old-school rock people got mad that we were saying that.
Well, thank you for that. That’s a huge compliment. Thanks for falling on that sword for me!
You had a terrific selection of different opening acts on this tour, including the Breeders. But it was fun seeing Chappell Roan as support on opening night, and of course, the film documents her coming back to join you in the main set for one of the last shows in L.A. So was “Hot to Go” a fun one to learn and do with her?
Well, I certainly didn’t have to learn “Hot to Go.” I think that was actually one of my top five Spotify songs like two years ago, so I know that song like the back of my hand. I love it so much, and it was so much fun to perform with her. I’ve heard some pretty loud screams in my life. I’ve been lucky to hear lots of girls losing their minds over the years, and I truly don’t think I’ve ever heard a scream as loud as the scream I heard when I said that Chappell was coming on stage. People were so excited — I swear to God, they just screamed bloody murder for like six minutes. It was awesome. But yeah, I’m really happy that she’s in this movie. She’s been there for so much of my journey, and I’ve been sort of there for her as we’ve known each other for a long time. [The two artists share Nigro as co-writer/producer.] She opened for my “Sour” tour, too, actually, and she does background vocals on both of my albums. So we’re very intertwined in each other’s worlds, and I think it was only fitting that she was included in this movie, since she was such a huge part of this tour.
Any idea of how long till you start your Act 3, working on a “Guts” follow-up?
Oh my gosh. I’m pretty tired after this tour. I’m really excited to just kind of take a break and gather inspiration, because it’s fun for me, and not put any pressure on it for a little bit. I mean, I’m always cooking stuff up … but trying to keep it low-pressure.
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