In the Lifetime movie, Rinna stars as a woman who sends her own daughter anonymous, bullying text messages
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After Lisa Rinna exited The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills in early 2023, she was ready to return to her TV movie roots.
“I had been talking to Lifetime right after I left Housewives about doing a movie,” explains the former Melrose Place actress, 60, who previously starred in the network’s films Another Woman’s Husband in 2000 and Sex, Lies and Obsession (with husband Harry Hamlin) in 2001.
“We had a meeting and they asked me what kind of a movie I wanted to do. And I said, ‘I’d love to play either a murderer or somebody really, really crazy,’ and they were like, ‘Oh my God. We love it. We think we have something for you,’” continues Rinna. “So they had sent me an idea first that was truly a murder story and I loved it.”
But Hollywood’s dual writers’ and actors’ strike last year derailed the plans for that film. “Lifetime came back to me and they said, ‘We have another idea. What do you think of this?’” she says.
The network pitched her on Mommy Meanest, a chilling true story about a mother who sends her own daughter hundreds of bullying, anonymous text messages.
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“It hadn’t even been written yet. And I was like, ‘Oh, I love it. I love it. Let’s do it,’” says Rinna, who stars as Madelyn, the titular mean mom who’s terrorizing her daughter Mia (Briana Skye).
While Mommy Meanest ticked the “crazy” box Rinna was after, she hasn’t given up hope on portraying a killer.
“I still need to play a murderer,” she says. “ I just want to play different things that I’ve never gotten to play before. That’s not happened yet, so that’ll be next maybe.”
Mommy Meanest is one of Rinna’s biggest roles to date. “I haven’t done a movie for Lifetime for 22 years,” she says. “And honey, that muscle was weak so I had to really learn my lines.”
“I mean, I had so many lines,” she says. “I’ve never been in that many scenes in a movie so I really had to focus and kind of shut the world out.”
Well, not the entire world: Rinna’s daughter Delilah, 25, has a supporting role as one of Mia’s classmates, and filmed with the cast for a bit just outside Vancouver.
“When she got there, I just welcomed her,” says Rinna, who also shares daughter Amelia, 22, with Hamlin. “I made sure that she had food and the right things in her hotel room, and I made sure we got her a matcha when she went to set. Mom stuff like that.”
Mommy Meanest premieres May 11 at 8 p.m. ET on Lifetime.
