Celebrity News July 11, 2024
Rita Ora on Possible Katy Perry Collab: ‘I’d Be Honored’ (Exclusive)
The Queen of Hearts Rita Ora was serving in red at the L.A. premiere of Disney’s “Descendants: The Rise of Red.”
"Extra" spoke with Rita about her role, and possibly collaborating with her friend Katy Perry.
Rita and Katy Perry recently attended Taylor Swift’s concert in Australia. Rita dished, "I've never seen Taylor Swift live. I had the best time. I had my girl Katy Perry there. We were in Australia, it was super random, I didn't really know she was going to be there and we all just connected and we just danced all night long and it was so much fun… Thanks to Taylor, we had a good time.”
Could we ever see a collaboration between Rita and Katy? She answered, “I'd be honored, you know, Katy and I have known each other for a long time. She's actually a writer on ‘Black Widow,’ the song I did a long time ago with Iggy Azalea 10 years ago… so, we were always like, ‘When can we connect?’ Let's see, it's all about fate and the song and I love her, of course. I would do anything.”
Rita has her own new music, though! She said, “My new single, it's really fun. It's all about summer and, like, that's always been my music, so it's definitely going to come with a record and an album.”
Rita got to work with another singer Brandy on “Descendants: The Rise of Red.”
She shared, “Well, I actually went to see Brandy, back in 2013 in Asia. She was doing an Asia tour. As a fan, I went and gave her a teddy bear and I will never forget it and she actually remembered that and I was like, ‘Now I'm doing a movie with you. This is nuts.’”
Rita grew up watching Brandy. She commented, “I'm a '90s baby. I grew up with Bandy, loving her, watching her, copying her, trying to copy her, but I just had the best time, you know, and we really connected. She was so kind with her time and gave me so much advice and she actually told me to sing this live bit in the film and I didn't want to do it. I was super nervous, but she helped me through it… Brandy’s the queen.”
In the movie, Rita plays an evil queen, but in real life she’s anything but!
She quipped, “I'm very smiley, I'm a bit too nice, actually… Everybody’s been coming up to me being like, ‘Didn't know I needed this in my life, but I'm living for the villain,’ and I'm like, ‘You know what? I think I'm just going to play villains.’ I mean, I love it, just really, like, the glamour of it. I think ‘cause I'm inspired by fashion and I feel, like, all the sharpness and all the sort of,, like power comes from fashion and all the movements and it's almost regal meets kind of like mean.”
Of what inspired her for the role, Rita noted, “Growing up, I was more of like a villain fan, you know… I loved the villains, like Ursula and all of those really spicy characters, so I just went and researched, like, you know, like, Angelina Jolie and Charlize Theron... all these women that have this subtle sense of glamour, but they're really kind of strong in their presence. That really inspired me, so I really wanted to do subtle movements but something that felt very real."
For the premiere, Rita opted for a vintage Ellie Saab look. She said, “Red is my vibe. I've been wearing red this whole week I've been doing press for this movie, and I just can't wait. I love getting in my red bag."
Breaking down her look, Rita pointed out, “I just wanted to bring a bit of glamour but also sophistication to this red carpet."