KJ Apa is looking back on his early years in Hollywood and sharing some candid details about life on the set of Riverdale.
The 28-year-old actor recently sat down with co-star Madelyn Cline for a joint interview while promoting their new Prime Video movie The Map That Leads to You. Both actors first found fame on teen dramas—KJ on The CW’s Riverdale and Madelyn on Netflix’s Outer Banks.
Talking about the atmosphere of those shows, KJ said: “Yeah, there’s a lot of drama that comes on shows like that. Not to say in like a gossipy kind of way, but it’s just part of the environment, I guess. Part of the deal.”
According to EW, KJ doubled down on the idea that cast members often get involved with each other off-screen. “You have sex with them and stuff, and then things start happening. And then things get a little complicated, and then you’re on set, and now you’re fighting with them,” he explained.
Madelyn jokingly chimed in: “So it’s the same in Vancouver [where Riverdale was filmed]?”
KJ laughed and continued, “You sort of just have sex with them, and then you just sort of see what happens. It’s just part of the deal.”
The actor then dropped a personal revelation: “I was a virgin when I started on that show, too, for the first couple years. I was a proud Christian boy. I was.”
For context, Riverdale premiered in early 2017 when KJ was 19. He starred alongside Cole Sprouse, Camila Mendes, and Lili Reinhart. While Cole and Lili famously dated in real life, KJ himself was never publicly linked to his castmates.
Madelyn, meanwhile, has her own teen drama history, having dated her Outer Banks co-star Chase Stokes for several years.
While KJ’s comments were lighthearted, they paint a vivid picture of the intense—and sometimes messy—relationships that can form on shows like Riverdale.
