It’s early in Australia when Angourie Rice appears on Zoom, her long blond hair in beachy waves. She seems bright-eyed and energetic, so I ask if she’s a morning person. She laughs and eventually lands on, “Nope.” Her sweet spot is waking up at 8:30 or 9, she says, but she’s up early because she travels to the UK tomorrow.
It’s a bit of a nutty time in general for the multihyphenate — her second book, “My Wonderful Disgrace,” hit shelves this week, and her latest feature film, the rom-com “Finding Emily,” releases in the UK next week. But in Australia, where she was born and raised, she’s able to maintain somewhat of a normal schedule before the craziness really begins.
“I like to wake up, I like to go to the gym, I like to sit down on my computer and read scripts and do meetings,” she says of a typical day when she’s not on set or traveling for a project. “Usually, I try to make time to see friends and family. I like seeing people in real life every single day. That’s mostly what I’m doing.”
It sounds like a balanced approach to the life of a celebrity, but I get the sense talking to the 25-year-old that she must be very productive to be able to pull off all that she does, between acting projects (you might recognize her from her role as Betty Brant in “Spider-Man” or as Cady Heron in “Mean Girls: The Musical”) and her writing. She admits that when she is on set for a project, her day to day looks more “regimented.”
“I do try to be disciplined about taking care of myself throughout the week, because the job can be so tough on the body,” she says. In the mornings, she’ll give herself 30 minutes to an hour to prepare for the day, sometimes squeezing in a little yoga. She’ll meal prep her lunches ahead of time, too, and has a few other tried-and-true tricks that keep her feeling her best.
The first is physical movement — she loves being able to walk to a gym nearby and “have someone tell me what to do.” Last year, she says, she fell in love with lifting weights. She appreciates the goal-oriented aspect of this type of fitness: “I love anything practical — anything that feels like, I will be doing this at some point in my real life, like I will be lifting a heavy thing.”
For her mental health, she says, it’s simple: “I do just feel my best when I’m talking to people I love and who understand me and have known me for a while.” That could be her mom or sister or dad or a friend. She says that some of her closest friends are from high school, which she knows can be rare. “Something I really value about those friendships is that I’ve been close with them since before this all became a huge part of my life,” she says, referencing her career. “And I think also when somebody knows you through your really embarrassing 13-year-old stage, you’re kind of bonded for life.”
In a matter of minutes, it becomes crystal clear that Rice is a people person. She says the way she decompresses best is with loved ones (“I can go like one or two days living on my own, not seeing people I know, talking to the cashier at the grocery store, but after two days, things are happening up in my brain and I need to, like, go and see someone”). And in the middle of our conversation, Rice checks her phone; her mom, Kate Rice, is calling, but she’ll return it later on.
It’s that ability to connect, that empathy, that perhaps makes her so successful as both an actor and an author. After all, both of her writing projects have been done in collaboration with her mom (their first book, “Stuck Up and Stupid,” was a Reese’s Book Club pick). And her acting projects hinge on her ability to connect with others in a genuine way. Her latest film, “Finding Emily,” is all about a hopeless romantic teaming up with Rice’s character, Emily, to find his one true love.
This week and next, she’ll be promoting the film with her castmates, and it’s in these moments that she abandons her regimented schedule for later nights — risking an empty tank for the magic of togetherness. “I’m definitely more the one to be like, ‘Hey, let’s go out,'” she says. “I’m like, let’s actually sit down and talk away from all the madness and just have a conversation with us.”
Given that she likes to be with people, it all makes sense. And although discipline may be what’s gotten her here, Rice is also looking forward to a summer — and a year — where she lets go. “This year, one of my ideas for this year was letting go of embarrassment . . . just do what you want to do and if being embarrassed is the worst thing you’re going to be, it’s actually not that bad,” she says, then repeats it one more time like a mantra. “I’m trying to chase adventure and opportunity without the fear of embarrassment.”
Lena Felton (she/her) is a senior director of special projects at PS, where she oversees sponsored packages, tentpole projects, and editorial partnerships. Previously, she was an editor at The Washington Post, where she led a team covering issues of gender and identity. She has been working in journalism since 2017, during which time her focus has been feature writing and editing and elevating historically underrepresented voices. Lena has worked for The Atlantic, InStyle, So It Goes, and more.
