The Untold Truth Of Rainey Qualley
Sure, Margaret Qualley may have become a Quentin Tarantino favorite, multiple Emmy Award nominee and the face of none other than fashion powerhouse Chanel. But she's not the only offspring of "Four Weddings and a Funeral" star Andie MacDowell who's proving that talent runs in the family.
Indeed, middle child Rainey Qualley is something of a triple threat, having showcased her acting skills in everything from big screen girl power sequel "Ocean's 8" to small screen pandemic miniseries "Love in the Time of Corona," released several E.P.s of sultry synth-pop under the guise of Rainsford, and modeled for the ultimate Girlboss label known as Nasty Gal.
And just like her younger sister and Hollywood veteran mom, Rainey is also a tabloid favorite thanks to both her eventful love life and glamorous girl squad. With her star still very much in its ascendancy, what better time to look at the multi-talented A-lister's untold truth?
Rainey Qualley had a relatively normal childhood
You might think that being the daughter of an actor with monster hits such as "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and "Groundhog Day" on her resume, Rainey Qualley would have grown up in a high-tech luxury mansion in the Hollywood Hills. But the star, whose mom, of course, is Andie MacDowell, actually enjoyed a relatively rustic childhood thousands of miles away from the bright lights of Tinseltown.
In a joint Vanity Fair interview with sister Margaret Qualley, Rainey revealed how appreciative she was to have such an unstarry upbringing on a sprawling Montana ranch: "That was a really idyllic place to grow up. We didn't have TV or anything. It was kind of a culture shock moving to North Carolina. We had neighbors! We were just used to being wilderness children."
Rainey, who lived in the Treasure State until she was nine, expanded on the"no TV" rule in the MacDowell household in another interview, this time for AL.com: "We had a television, but we didn't have cable. We would watch movies, but we didn't watch TV. We did have some 'Barney' on VHS, but mostly we watched old, classic movies like 'The Wizard of Oz' and 'The Sound of Music.'"
She's in love with another Hollywood star's offspring
In 1997, Andie MacDowell and Bill Pullman played opposite each other in Wim Wenders' drama "The End of Violence." But although this would be the last time the Hollywood pair shared the screen, it wouldn't be the last time that they crossed paths.
Fast forward several decades later, and there's a good chance that MacDowell and Pullman may become in-laws, for the former's daughter Rainey Qualley and the latter's son Lewis Pullman have been an item since 2020. The pair, however, have kept a relatively low profile since getting together, only making their red carpet debut two years later at the premiere of world-conquering blockbuster "Top Gun: Maverick."
Lewis played trainee pilot Bob in the long-awaited sequel and Rainey couldn't have been prouder of her boyfriend's big break. Posting a number of snaps from the event on Instagram, the actor told her followers that she believed everyone would fall in love with Lewis' character. She'd previously taken to the same photo-sharing platform for her beau's 28th earlier that year, writing, "It's my baby's birthday! I love him, I love him, I love him!"
She uses the Taylor Swift approach to songwriting
Taylor Swift is renowned for writing about the state of her eventful love life — and for keeping fans guessing about who the guilty party is. It's a candid approach which appears to have inspired triple threat Rainey Qualley when it comes to her musical sideline under the moniker Rainsford.
In an interview with Hunger, the eldest daughter of Andie MacDowell revealed that she uses songwriting as a form of relationship therapy. And she has no qualms about baring her soul in such a public way: "Sometimes, I've written songs about guys that I've been seeing or been having a problem with, and then I'll send it to them and be like ... 'I wrote this about you.' And I've regretted that. But not really writing or releasing it in a public way, because I think being vulnerable is essential in any art-form where you have to express your humanity."
As you would probably expect, not all of Qualley's past boyfriends have appreciated being immortalized in song. The singer, whose sister Margaret is engaged to Swift producer Jack Antonoff, added, "There have been a lot of different reactions, but when me and one of my exes were breaking up, I wrote a song about it and sent it to him. He literally blocked me. Now, I don't care, whatever, but I was heartbroken at the time."
Rainey Qualley has her own squad
It's not just her candid approach to songwriting where Rainey Qualley has drawn parallels with Taylor Swift. Just like the "Shake It Off" hitmaker, the multi-talent also has her own squad full of famous faces. Alongside her sister Margaret, members include Kaia Gerber, Tommy Dorfman and one of Swift's allies, Cara Delevingne.
And just like the chart-topper, Qualley isn't averse to roping in her pals to make music videos. In the early days of the pandemic, she asked Delevingne to direct the promo for Rainsford single "Crying in the Mirror" and Gerber to take center stage in it. And the star couldn't stop expressing her gratitude in an interview with BriefTake: "Cara is one of my best friends and she's so incredibly talented and has a great artistic vision, so I was really lucky that she wanted to direct it. I'm good friends with Kaia too and she's so beautiful and such a talented actor, so it came together so easily."
Qualley also starred opposite Dorfman that same year on the Amazon dramedy "Love in the Time of Corona," with the pair's scenes even filmed inside the latter's house. And the triple threat certainly enjoyed the experience, adding, "It was fun too because we were able to improvise and play with each other, especially because there's no one touching you — putting on makeup and adjusting your clothes ... So we felt very relaxed and it felt more like theatre than a typical TV production."
Rainey Qualley has a supportive mom
Rainey Qualley might have benefited from being the offspring of an actor that's been on the Hollywood scene since her star-making turn in "Sex, Lies and Videotape" back in the late 1980s, but she certainly wasn't pushed into the limelight by Andie MacDowell.
Indeed, the triple threat only made her acting debut in 2012's "Mighty Fine" playing Maddie, the daughter of MacDowell's leading lady Stella, at the age of 23. And in an interview with E! News, she revealed that her mom made it clear that a life in showbiz wasn't always a bed of roses: "She's very supportive. Of course, like any parents would be, she has moments where she's like, 'Don't you just want to have a normal life and be away from the spotlight?' But, especially now that things are really starting to happen, she's psyched."
MacDowell doesn't seem to have thrust her own fame into the faces of her kids, either. Speaking to Town and Country with the rest of her famous family, Qualley disclosed that she rarely saw her mom on screen during her childhood: "For a long time my mother wouldn't let me watch her movies, the grown-up ones at least. It's fun being able to see them now, especially 'Sex, Lies,' since she was pregnant with me at that time. And 'Green Card,' too — I just like seeing her then, because I never knew her when she was younger."
She was the instigator behind her family's quarantine rule-break
In 2020, Rainey Qualley, her younger sister Margaret and her mom Andie MacDowell were on the receiving end of a whole lot of "tut-tuts" when they were pictured breaking one particular quarantine rule. The family were caught sneakily crawling out of the iron gates of Debs Park in Los Angeles, a space that had been temporarily closed due to the pandemic.
A representative for the park later told Page Six that they would not be penalizing the trio for their trespassing. Of course, that didn't stop those who'd fastidiously kept to the rules from wagging their fingers in disapproval. But while the most famous of the guilty three, mom MacDowell, got it in the neck the most, it was actually the least-known who came up with the idea to go for a prohibited hike. And judging by her interview with Bustle about the controversy, Rainey doesn't seem too remorseful.
The actor, who later filmed pandemic drama "Love in the Time of Corona," couldn't stop laughing as she revealed, "My mom was so mad at me. [It was] totally my fault. We shouldn't have done it. But to be fair, everyone else was doing it too!"
Rainey Qualley was Miss Golden Globe 2012
Rainey Qualley might have since proved that she's a talented actor in her own right, but it's hard to deny that she didn't benefit from nepotism in the early stages of her career. This rings true for the fact that her first major role only came about because she was the child of a Hollywood star.
In 2012, Qualley followed in the footsteps of Rumer Willis, Laura Dern and Melanie Griffith when she was announced as Miss Golden Globe. This is the title given to the statuette-giver at the same-named ceremony and is traditionally only afforded to those with a famous parent.
But Qualley, whose younger sister Margaret would later be nominated for Best Actress in a Television Motion Picture for her turn in Netflix drama "Maid," was more concerned with her clumsiness than any leg-up accusations at the time. She told E! News, "I'm pretty nervous about tripping because that happens on a pretty regular basis for me. I'll try to be graceful." Luckily, the accident-prone star managed to survive the night without any Jennifer Lawrence-style falls.
Rainey Qualley dated her very first on-screen boyfriend
After being crowned Miss Golden Globe in 2012, Rainey Qualley proved she could well be winning one of those little statuettes in the future herself, when she made her acting debut in "Mighty Fine." But it turns out that she didn't need to do much acting when it came to falling madly in love with Richard Kohnke's Earl.
For Qualley fell head over heels for the actor himself, who's since appeared in the likes of "Pitch Perfect," "The Carrie Diaries" and "Billionaire Boys Club," during filming. And pretty soon, the loved-up couple were even living together in Los Angeles. So what did their fellow co-star and Qualley's mother Andie MacDowell make of the pair's on-screen romance spilling over into real life? Well, the multi-talent told Teen Vogue, "My mom was very weary of Richard at first because she thought he was too good looking to be nice. He's a great guy."
Unfortunately, despite being such a great guy, Kohnke and Qualley didn't last the distance. The latter, as we know, went on to enter into a relationship with Bill Pullman's son Lewis.
Rainey and Margaret Qualley had a strange morning ritual
Rainey Qualley and her fellow actor sister Margaret obviously don't subscribe to the argument that there's nothing more boring than hearing about other people's dreams. While sharing a home in the late 2010s, the siblings always started their day with vivid recollections of their respective nocturnal visions.
In a chat with New York Post while attending an Anna Sui fashion show, the singer revealed, "My sister and I both have a hard time sleep. We live together in Los Angeles, so we'll make coffee in the morning and tell each other stories about what happened in our dreams last night. It's kind of like a nice ritual."
Rainey, who adopted a dreamlike aesthetic in the video for Rainsford single "Crying in the Mirror," also added that her and Margaret's favorite topic of morning conversation had also inspired her musical career: "Most of my songs are deeply personal, so they're about relationships or depression or whatever I'm going through at the moment. I've been having a lot of f***** up dreams, so I've been writing about that. Sometimes f***** up good, sometimes f***** up bad. Just, like, really intense."
Rainey Qualley was the fur coat girl in Mad Men
If you watched all seven seasons of peak TV's most suave drama "Mad Men," then you'll no doubt remember the scene in which Jon Hamm's Don Draper flirts with an advertising model dressed in a $15,000 coat made entirely of chinchilla fur. You probably won't have known at the time, though, that the mystery girl was played by the daughter of a Hollywood favorite.
Yes, that was Andie MacDowell's middle child Rainey Qualley making a brief cameo as Cindy in the seventh season. And the actor told Autre that she was taken aback by the response: "I was only in one scene, so I really didn't expect people to react they way they did. But it's flattering that people liked the scene. And no it wasn't my first role."
Indeed, Qualley had previously appeared in comedy drama "Mighty Fine," modern western "Falcon Song" and short film "Pink and Baby Blue." "Mad Men" was, however, her first TV part — not that the triple threat was particularly au fait with the antics of the Sterling Cooper agency at the time. She told Autre, "Being on "Mad Men" was dope. I hadn't really watched the show before I got cast. But once I started, I couldn't stop. So it was cool to have been a part of, even though it was such a small role."
Rainey Qualley was initially a country girl
Rainey Qualley the singer-songwriter might now be better known for her electro-pop material under the guise of Rainsford. But back when she was starting out, her style of music was a little more Nashville. In fact, she even recorded a song titled "Me and Johnny Cash."
Qualley, who learned to play the guitar from her dad Paul, actually studied music history and theory at the city's Belmont University where she started penning tracks steeped in the country genre. The multi-talent later told WWD, however, that she soon realized her heart lay elsewhere: "I think it was a great growth period and I got to open for Willie Nelson and play the Grand Ole Opry, so it was incredible for a lot of reasons. But it wasn't ultimately the music that I really loved and [wasn't] what was fulfilling for me as an artist."
Thankfully, the "Love in the Time of Corona" star became much more fulfilled when she changed her recording name and started taking charge of every aspect of her music career: "I have been doing everything entirely independently. I've been reaching out to different producers that I like, and everything from the aesthetic of photos to the web site, I've been totally in control of. For me, it's awesome because I feel like I'm capable of a lot more than I had been given the opportunity to be in control of."
She believes there's a downside to being an A-list offspring
Rainey Qualley has undoubtedly benefited from having a parent in the entertainment industry. She only got her first major gig, Miss Golden Globe 2012, because she was the child of "Four Weddings and a Funeral" star Andie MacDowell. And her first film role later that same year just happened to be appearing alongside her famous mom in comedy drama "Mighty Fine."
But in a chat with Fox News' 411 Country, Qualley argued that being the daughter of an established star can have its drawbacks, too. Referring to her famous family, the actor said, "Well I think people kind of have a preconceived idea of who you are, what your life has been like, and I don't know if that's necessarily detrimental or positive."
Qualley, whose younger sister Margaret is also in the fame game, continued, "I think it probably depends on, the person's perspective. I mean, I think in some ways people kind of hold you to a different standard or assume that anything that you attain was just handed to you. But I don't know ... I'm happy to be in the circumstance I'm in and I've worked hard."
Rainey Qualley is a keen environmentalist
Had Rainey Qualley been more of an established star at the time, then she'd no doubt have been perfect for a role in Hollywood's apocalyptic satire "Don't Look Up," for the youngest daughter of Andie MacDowell is firmly committed to the idea of saving the planet whichever way she can.
Speaking to As If, the "Ultrasound" lead revealed how she does her bit and how she believes big businesses can do theirs: "I try to do as much as I can personally to help the Earth out and have a positive impact and that can be challenging, especially within the structure that exists. I think it's important for everyone to do what they can individually, but ultimately it's up to these huge corporations that are responsible for almost 70% of all the pollution in the world, and we have the opportunity to switch to green energy and to offer vegetarian options that are way less terrible for the environment."
Qualley also admitted that the current state of the planet has left her constantly on edge: "I think, especially right now, the world is in such a crazy place and I'm constantly stressed-out and worried about the demise of humanity, and global warming, and animals becoming extinct, and people treating each other terribly." Let's just hope that chinchilla coat she wore in "Mad Men" wasn't real!
Rainey Qualley is a neat freak
It doesn't seem as though Marie Kondo will be needing to pay a visit to Rainey Qualley any time soon. During a joint Vogue interview with her mom Andie MacDowell in 2021, the "Shut In" star fully admitted that she's a stickler for tidiness.
And it's not just her own stuff that Qualley likes putting in order too: "I actually love helping my mom fit out her closet. I'm a neat freak and hyper-organized, and I love going through and getting rid of stuff that I don't wear or use in my house. I like to have the bare minimum. So it feels very satisfying to help my mother clean out her home and her closet."
So does Qualley ever sneak a few items for herself whenever she's deciding which items in her mother's wardrobe no longer sparks joy? Well, there's one area she wishes she could: "We're all very generous with one another and willing to share. The biggest loss to me is that my feet are too small for my mom's shoes. My sister's feet are too big for my mom's shoes. I cannot tell you how incredible her shoe collection is."