Olivia Rodrigo on Netflix Concert Film and Voting In Her First Presidential Election: “It Couldn’t Be More Important”

During her GUTS World Tour, adorable video footage of a young Olivia Rodrigo performing to her stuffed animals plays in the background. “It makes me really emotional. My mom can’t watch that part without crying,” the singer admits.

It’s one of the many moments featured in Netflix’s Olivia Rodrigo: GUTS World Tour, her concert film that debuted Tuesday. 

“It’s a very sweet moment,” Rodrigo continues to tell The Hollywood Reporter. “It makes me so happy to watch those videos back. This has always been my dream, as evidenced by those home movies of me putting on shows to my stuffed animals. And I’m really grateful that it happened in this way and I get to live out my dream every night. It’s really special. I’m a very lucky girl.”

GUTS, Rodrigo’s sophomore album released last September, was a major success and helped her double the number of shows she played on her 2022 SOUR Tour. She also upgraded from theaters to arenas like New York City’s Madison Square Garden and Intuit Dome in Los Angeles, where the Netflix special was filmed.

She’s hoping that her fans who couldn’t make it to her live shows are fulfilled via her new concert film. “That’s what was really exciting to me about putting this on Netflix — people who maybe weren’t able to get a ticket are going to be able to watch it,” she says. “Also, I think this movie shows some different perspectives and angles and it feels fresh and exciting even if you have watched it before.”

In an interview, the 21-year-old talks about performing live, her advice for tour opener and rising star Chappell Roan, a possible return to acting and voting for the first time.

Your last tour visited theaters but on your recent tour you upgraded to arenas and played double the amount of shows — what was that like? 

It was wildly different. My two tours, I feel like they’re not even comparable. They both felt so different. The SOUR Tour was super intimate and it was great. I’m really happy that I cut my teeth in touring with that kind of routing, but this tour was really big and I got to go to so many places that I’d never been to before and I was playing these bigger venues. And so it definitely stretched me as a performer, and I feel like I learned a lot and became a lot more confident as the shows went on.

Your band includes female, trans or non-binary musicians — was that also the case for your first tour?

It was, yeah. I love girl bands. I grew up loving rock music and more specifically girl rock bands like Sleater-Kinney and Hole and Babes in Toyland and all these women rockers. And so going on tour, I always set out to kind of recreate that environment for myself.

On the tour you perform “Pretty Isn’t Pretty” from GUTS, which has a groovy beat but is lyrically deep. What was it like writing that song, and have you had fans specifically talk to you about that track?

That’s so interesting you say that. That’s one of my favorite songs to perform. I had been thinking of the lyrics for that song for so long. I had multiple trial rounds where I tried to write “Pretty Isn’t Pretty,” and it just didn’t quite make the cut. And finally when I wrote this version, I was like, “Yes, I finally articulated what I wanted to say.” It’s one of my favorite songs to perform live because it’s not a hit song or anything. It doesn’t have the most streams of any of my songs and my discography, but I always look out when I’m singing that song and there are a few people in the audience who just really, really feel every lyric and I can tell it really resonates with them. I always try to make eye contact with them and sing it for them, and it makes it a really meaningful experience for me.

A lot of your fans are your age or younger, but you have older fans too. How does it feel to see some of the 30- and 40-year-olds singing along at your shows?

That’s such a fun part [of the shows]. It’s been so cool to see all the different age groups sing along, and there’s just a diverse group of people who come to the shows, and it’s so fun to get to look out and see them every night. Music is so universal. It reminds me how alike we all are. We’re so much more alike than we are different and a concert is a perfect example of that in real life.

I hope that if you write from a place of honesty and vulnerability — [something] that most people have felt that in their lives before — hopefully [everyone] resonates with that. That’s my theory.

You mention in the film that “Enough for You” is your favorite from SOUR. Why is that?

I wrote that song by myself in my bedroom on my bedroom floor, and I’m really proud of it and it really captures this insecurity that I was feeling at the time. That’s an insecurity that thankfully I don’t feel now, but it’s a real beautiful time capsule of my 17-year-old heart, and so I always have a fondness for it.

Chappell Roan makes an appearance in the concert film — what was it like to perform with her?

It was awesome. I mean, I love Chappell, and she’s been such a huge part of the GUTS world tour. She opened; she did the first seven or so shows with me, and she really helped me get my footing and helped me figure out what the show was. It felt remiss to not include her; she’s such a big part of it. I love that song [“Hot to Go!”] so much, and it was so much fun to perform it with her. The audience went crazy.

You both work with producer Dan Nigro — is that how you met?

Yeah, we met through Dan. We used to swap off doing sessions in his studio and we’d see each other every now and then and hang out. She has some background vocals on some of my songs from SOUR and GUTS, so she’s always been a part of my life, and I’m so, so happy that she’s blowing up and killing it and getting all the recognition that she so rightly deserves.

She, along with a number of artists, are marking their breakthroughs this year. They’re experiencing new things — more fans, fame, upcoming Grammy nominations, etc. What advice do you have for them since you had this same experience in 2021?

Oh my gosh. It is so hard. I’m 21, I feel like I’m still flying by the seat of my pants in so many ways, but I think looking back at that time where my music was starting to take off and I was starting to gain some traction, it was all super-exciting, but I think it’s really important to remember at the end of the day that the things that really give you purpose in life probably aren’t charts or awards or stuff like that. And I think if you keep that mindset, then you’ll be a happier, more grounded individual.

Has there been any time to record new music or write? Do you write when you have a thought or do you prefer to write in a scheduled session? 

A little bit of both. I love writing songs. It helps me feel sane and human. It’s kind of like a self-care thing for me. It’s like journaling or something, or calling your therapist. That’s kind of what songwriting is to me, so I’m always writing songs. But I’m trying not to put too much pressure on making something that’s going to be heard by a lot of people right now. I’m kind of having fun with it.

Earlier this year you were nominated for best rock song at the Grammys alongside The Rolling Stones, Foo Fighters and Queens of the Stone Age (boygenius won the award). I wondered if getting that nomination felt extra-special in a way?

Yeah, it did. It felt really great. I mean, it felt like I was being accepted into a community that is kind of historically very male heavy. It’s a lot of guys making rock music, and so to be included in that category as a younger woman was really exciting to me. It meant a lot.

Which artist would you like to collaborate with or write a song for?

Oh my gosh, I always wanted to write a song with Gwen Stefani. I love her so much, and I got to perform with her this year at Coachella. She’s such a nice, grounded, sweet woman, and I think her songs are such guidebooks for me in my song writing. And so it would be cool to make something with her today. That’d be awesome. She’s so versatile. She’s the ultimate cool girl. Nobody does it like her. She’s awesome.

The election is coming up. How are you feeling about it, and is this the first time you’ll be able to vote for a presidential candidate?

It is my first presidential election. I missed the last one. It’s very exciting. I cast my vote yesterday [Sunday]. I did a mail-in ballot, and I went and I dropped it off at the polling station. It was very exciting. And I wore my sticker very proudly all day. It’s a super, super important election, so I’m hoping that everyone, especially people my age, get out there and vote. It couldn’t be more important.

A lot of us first saw you in an acting role before “Drivers License” came out — if you were to return to acting, what kind of role would you want that to be?

Oh, very interesting. I would love to do an acting role that has nothing to do with music. As much as I love music, I think it would be really cool to get to stretch a new muscle and do something completely different than what I’ve been doing for the past few years. I would love to do something like that, but who knows? The future is bright.