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KJ Apa Says Shirtless ‘Riverdale’ Scenes Took a Toll on Him: ‘It Can Mess with Your Head’

As Riverdale wraps up its darkish, spooky — and very horny — tales of Archie Andrews and the gang after seven seasons on The CW, the forged is trying again at their years on the present. 

And for KJ Apa, who performed good-looking, red-headed lead Archie, being a intercourse image didn’t at all times come simply.

“It may well mess together with your head a bit bit,” the actor, now 26, informed Vulture throughout a roundtable dialogue together with his castmates. “I’ve been via a variety of s— with that.” 

Apa says that, initially, he preferred the concept of exhibiting off his physique.

“At first, as a younger youngster, which is what I used to be, I believed it was cool,” says Apa, who was 19 when the present premiered in 2017. “You virtually need the chance to be shirtless. I used to be like, ‘Yeah, let me take my shirt off. Increase!’ ” 


Riverdale ends this yr after 7 seasons on The CW.

Nino Muñoz/The CW



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However shortly, the actor — whose son with mannequin Clara Berry, Sasha Vai Keneti Apa, turns 2 subsequent month — found the downsides to all of the shirtless scenes.

“You gotta persistently keep in unbelievable form. It takes a toll,” he admits, saying he felt like he couldn’t converse up about how he was feeling. 

“Even saying that I didn’t really feel comfy I had a tough time with. I believed individuals can be like, ‘Why not? Simply f–ing do it, bro.’ ”

His well-documented six-pack wasn’t the one bodily requirement of the function that Apa stated he discovered difficult.

“I’ve walked round with purple hair for the previous seven years,” he stated, including that he is trying ahead to “not having purple hair.”

“There’s part of my identification that I wish to get again that I don’t actually really feel linked to,” Apa stated.

KJ APA
KJ Apa performed redheaded Archie Andrews on Riverdale for 7 years.

Marc Hom/The CW, Sam Tabone/WireImage



Apa isn’t the one Riverdale resident who admitted to combating their physique picture. Costar Madelaine Petsch, who performed rich bombshell Cheryl Blossom, agreed. 

“The opposite day, I needed to do a lingerie shoot and I felt so sh—y about my physique I cried,” the actress, 28, shared. “I attempted on six completely different outfits and ultimately discovered one thing that made me really feel remotely okay.”

Lili Reinhart, who performed girl-next-door Betty Cooper, defined that “it’s been trippy to develop up on this present and continually see pictures of myself from after I was 19, 20, 21.”

“My physique doesn’t appear to be that anymore,” Reinhart, now 26, stated, including that it’s a part of the character of her enterprise.

“Simply being an actor usually, you are feeling such as you’re holding your self to a constant customary of ‘I need to not age, and I need to proceed to appear to be I did.’ ”

Camila Mendes, who was 22 when she started enjoying formidable New York transplant Veronica, had a distinct perspective. “Roberto [Aguirre-Sacasa, Chief Creative Officer of Archie Comics] is at all times very understanding of us, and there’s no person forcing us to do something.”

Mendes, now 29, added, “it’s simply the character of being on a teen present.”

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