For years, fans of Riverdale watched KJ Apa and Cole Sprouse play friends and rivals on screen. Behind the scenes, however, their bond ran much deeper than many people realized—even if it occasionally involved an actual punch to the face.
During a recent appearance on Wildmen, the podcast hosted by Cole’s twin brother Dylan Sprouse and Brendon Columbus, Apa looked back on one unforgettable night in Vancouver that almost escalated into a full-blown fight before ultimately becoming a turning point in his life.
The story began with the trio recalling nights out during their Riverdale years, when the cast spent much of their time together while filming the hit CW series in Canada.
According to KJ, he and Cole often attracted attention whenever they went out around Vancouver.
“Cole and I would walk into places in Vancouver all the time and get called [names]. I remember we almost got into a fight,” KJ recalled.
Dylan wasn’t exactly surprised by the story.
Joking about his brother’s reputation, he chimed in by saying Cole “likes to get into fisticuffs.”
Apa laughed before adding an unexpected twist.
“Oh, I’ve been around,” he said. “He punched me in the face!”
As it turns out, Dylan had witnessed the entire incident unfold.
Remembering the aftermath, he couldn’t help but laugh at how quickly KJ disappeared after taking the hit.
“He punched you, then you ran away,” Dylan recalled. “Also, I looked at my brother after that, and I was like, ‘Dude, you could have just died.’ I made the mistake of trying to chase after [KJ]. I was like, ‘Oh, dude, I’m going to get him.’ You were three blocks away by the time I was like just getting my bearings. I called you. I was like, ‘My god.’ You might still have the voicemail.”
While the story sounds almost unbelievable at first, KJ explained that the punch came from a place of concern rather than anger.
Looking back, he admitted he was going through one of the most difficult periods of his life.
“He hit me because we were in a strip club and, at this time, I was doing a lot of drugs and a lot of my close friends were worried about me,” KJ shared. “And he had learned that I was doing drugs again… It was a love punch.”
Dylan immediately understood what his co-star meant.
“It was kind of a wake-up punch,” he added.
KJ agreed without hesitation.
“Yeah. No, it was a wake-up punch.”
The conversation soon shifted from the shocking moment itself to the friendship that developed between the two actors during Riverdale‘s seven-season run.
For Dylan, hearing his brother speak so highly of KJ over the years had always been reassuring.
“I thought you and Cole’s interaction, I always thought was like really beautiful as a brother,” he said. “Because I go, first off, you worry for your sibling when he goes out and he does a show where he’s not from and he lives there for years.”
He continued by explaining why KJ’s friendship meant so much.
“And I go, ‘Well, he’s not going to have anyone he’s really close to.’ And I worried about him,” Dylan continued. “But then he calls me, and he called me all the time, and he was like, ‘I got to tell you, I’m so glad KJ’s here.’”
For Dylan, that friendship became a source of comfort.
“I’m glad you guys had an interaction, which then I immediately knew as a brother, I was like, ‘Okay, he’s safe. He has at least someone who’s like of a similar mentality to him, the similar kind of person.’”
The conversation carries added weight in light of Apa’s openness about his personal journey in recent years.
Last year, the actor spoke candidly about embracing sobriety and credited becoming a father with changing the course of his life. Those experiences have reshaped how he looks back on his younger years, including the struggles he faced while balancing sudden fame, demanding work schedules and life far from home.
