ARCHIE MEETS TWIN PEAKS IN RIVERDALE
CW’s highly anticipated series has characters who struggle with poverty and mental health issues.
In the town of Riverdale, Archie Andrews is brawnier than Moose Mason. Jughead is a cynic. Veronica has lost all her money. And Betty has serious mental-health issues. And yes, there is a dead body.
This is not your father’s Archie Andrews. But the highly-anticipated CW series, which premieres on Netflix Canada Jan. 27, is a glimpse into an alternate Archie universe — a kind of Dawson’s Creek via Twin Peaks.
And standing in for Riverdale is the town of Langley, B.C.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the show is produced by Greg Berlanti, the showrunner of teen soap opera
Dawson’s Creek, along with Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, Archie Entertainment’s chief creative officer.
Riverdale stars New Zealander K.J. Apa as Archie, Cole Sprouse as Jughead, Camilla Mendes as Veronica Lodge and Luke Perry as Archie’s father Fred Andrews.
The Star spoke with Cleveland, Ohio-born actress Lili Reinhart, who plays Betty Cooper, about the darker, more adult vision for the show.
In the Archie Comics, Betty is typecast as the “good girl” who only has eyes for Archie. Your character is more nuanced than that.
In my discussions with first getting the role, I wanted to make sure this girl wasn’t just the simple, sweet blond girl next door. There was so much more going on with her, we were just building these layers. What I love about this show is that we’re taking something that was so happy- go-lucky and great and chipper to more about shining a light on the darkness to these characters or making them three-dimensional people. Betty struggles with mentalhealth issues with having anxiety and she actually goes through self-harm. She is a real person.
There seems to be a palpable vulner- ability in the way you’ve portrayed Betty.
Yeah, I 100-per-cent resonate with that. I struggle . . . I’m very open with my relationship with depression and anxiety and I channel that into Betty. There’s so much pressure on young women these days and young men to perform a certain way, to know what you want to do after high school and to find a boyfriend, to have that first kiss, to have good grades, to have your s--- together basically and we show that Betty certainly doesn’t have herself put together on the inside.
What do you think the reaction is going to be to this much darker Archie Universe?
You know what? Some people are like . . . “This is not Archie, this is not my Archie” and we’re like OK, it’s not your Archie, great, this is our version and not everyone is going to love it and we’re totally aware, but not everyone has to love it and yet, we are so proud of what we’re doing here and we all fell in love with the darker version of it because you know what? That’s real life.
Not everything is a sitcom and life certainly isn’t that way most of the time, especially for young adults and relationships between mother and daughter, or son and father.
I automatically was drawn to the darkness of it, and the mystery and the murder, but also just the characters are so deep and have real world problems, you know like one of our characters deals with poverty, and you know having a deadbeat dad and kind of having to take care of himself.
Or you have Betty with her mental health problems, anxieties, selfharm, that’s a very real thing for young women, and to kind of show that this girl that is seemingly perfect is so damaged and broken underneath.
Did you read the comics growing up?
I didn’t grow up in a household where people read comics.
I had two sisters and none of them were into it and my dad never really was so I wasn’t exactly introduced to that universe and I was Skype-ing with my friend when I first got the audition and I was like, “Archie, was that a superhero?”
I was so naive about it and he was like, “Archie, oh my God, are you making a show?” and he was so excited and I immediately started reading about Betty.
What was it like shooting in the (executive producer) Greg Berlanti world that Vancouver has become?
We film in Langley which is basically Riverdale. But it’s kind of far from Vancouver, so we have a bit of a drive.
But, we’ve all kind of had to pick up and move to a different country. I’m based out of L.A., to Canada, but it’s so nice that we all are such a close cast and I feel like we’re very lucky to have that so we all live very close to each other, we all hang out on the weekends, we all car pool to work, we’re like a little Archie family.
When you read the source material, who did you see yourself in? Are you a Veronica or a Betty?
No, I’m a Betty. I’m a Betty all the way, like honestly, I’m a Virgo, so I’m kind of a perfectionist and organized. I like to have, I like to take control and kind of be the leader sometimes, I feel like that’s my personality and so I’m really Betty.
“We are so proud . . . and we all fell in love with the darker version of it because you know what? That’s real life.” LILI REINHART PORTRAYS BETTY COOPER IN RIVERDALE