KJ Apa of Riverdale has appeared on screen topless plenty of times for his show, but apparently, it’s messed with his mental health.
KJ Apa, The Sex Symbol
Playing Archie in the dark drama is ending for Apa, but he is revealing that playing a sex symbol for all this time has made him feel a little weird. “It can mess with your head a little bit,” the 26-year-old actor shared with Vulture.
In the candid roundtable discussion, he says, “I’ve been through a lot of s**t with that.” He wants to be taken more seriously, and becoming a father changed him. Marrying the mother of his child Clara Berry was also a big changing point.
Plus, the maintenance was killing him. “You gotta consistently stay in incredible shape. It takes a toll,” he admits, saying he couldn’t speak up about his feelings. Even saying that I didn’t feel comfortable, I had a hard time with it. I thought people would be like, ‘Why not? Just f**king do it, bro.’”
KJ Apa Thought It Was Cool
The actor wasn’t so against it in the beginning. At 19, getting paid to take your shirt off is a dream job for some people. “At first, as a young child, which is what I was, I thought it was cool.”
He continues, “You almost want the opportunity to be shirtless. I was like, ‘Yeah, let me take my shirt off. Boom!’” The actor was willing to change himself for acting, and a six-pack was par for the course.
“There’s a part of my identity that I want to get back that I don’t feel connected to,” he shares, and that is his mission now that the show is ending.
KJ Apa Changed Other Things
Another physical feature that Apa had to change to play Archie’s lead character is his hair. The comic book character is known for his bright red hair, so Apa adjusted, but that doesn’t mean he wants to be a redhead for the rest of his life.
“I’ve walked around with red hair for the past seven years,” he says, and he is undoubtedly looking forward to “not having red hair.”
Body image issues are something that seems to play a significant role in the set of that show. Co-stars like Lili Reinhart have opened up about how the show has affected her body image. Playing Betty Cooper has been rough for her at times.
“It’s been trippy to grow up on this show and constantly see images of myself from when I was 19, 20, 21. My body no longer looks like that.” she is now 26 and wants something different.
Lili Reinhart and Madelaine Petsch Struggled
Reinhart, like Apa, wants to focus on being her age and playing someone more natural to her. “Just being an actor in general, you feel like you’re holding yourself to a consistent standard of ‘I must not age, and I must continue to look like I did.’”
Petsche plays Cheryl Blossom and finds that even now, she struggles to be happy with her body. “The other day, I had to do a lingerie shoot, and I felt so s****y about my body I cried,” she shared.
“I tried on six outfits and eventually found something that made me feel remotely okay.”
Yikes. It sounds like this show did a number on the actors.