KJ Apa Reveals On-Set Hookups and Virginity Confession Amid Riverdale Drama
Sage Matthews: Another day, another reason to reconsider society. Of course this happened. KJ Apa, the actor best known for playing Archie Andrews on the CW’s Riverdale, has spilled the tea on the show’s behind-the-scenes chaos, and surprise, surprise—it involves romantic entanglements, youthful naivety, and a whole lot of drama. Because of course it does. This is a teen drama, after all. Not just one that aired on television, but apparently one that played out behind the scenes too.
In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Apa, now 28, reflected on his time filming the Archie Comics-inspired series that catapulted him into the spotlight. He wasn’t just playing a high school jock—he was one in real life, at least when it came to experience. “I was a virgin when I started on that show, too, for the first couple years,” he confessed. “I was a proud Christian boy. I was.” And yes, that’s a sentence that somehow exists in the real world. Because why not? Nothing says wholesome like a cast of young actors pretending to navigate high school while actually navigating Hollywood contracts, paparazzi, and each other.
But it wasn’t all purity pledges and awkward chemistry reads. Apa went on to describe how relationships formed between castmates off-camera, often complicating the already intense work environment. “You hook up with them, people hook up with each other,” he said, adding with a weary sigh that it’s “not the greatest decision.” He described the inevitable fallout: “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.”
Sound like high school? Sure. But with better lighting and worse boundaries. Several of Apa’s co-stars did, in fact, turn their on-screen chemistry into real-life relationships. Lili Reinhart and Cole Sprouse dated for roughly three years during filming. Camila Mendes and Charles Melton had an on-again, off-again romance for about two years. And Madelyn Cline, Apa’s co-star in the new Prime Video film The Map That Leads to You, chimed in with a knowing joke: “So it’s the same in Vancouver [where Riverdale was filmed]?”
It’s a wonder anyone got any acting done at all. Apa, ever the philosophical observer, responded with a shrug: “You sort of just have sex with them, and then you just sort of see what happens.” Because that’s a solid life strategy, right? Especially when you’re young, famous, and living in a pressure-cooked environment where every relationship is scrutinized by fans and tabloids alike.
And yet, despite all this, Apa and Cline claim their own relationship is “nothing serious.” They’ve got “easy chemistry,” as he told People—and Cline chalked it up to astrology: “He’s a Gemini. I’m a Sagittarius. We’re sister signs!” Because of course they are. Nothing says “no drama here” like a Gemini and a Sagittarius, two of the most notoriously chaotic signs in the zodiac.
In their film, The Map That Leads to You, the pair play lovers caught up in a whirlwind romance during a European adventure. The movie, based on JP Monninger’s novel, is available on Prime Video. So, if you’re into cinematic wish fulfillment where the drama is scripted and not real (or is it?), now’s your chance to stream it and pretend none of this behind-the-scenes mess ever happened.
Anyway, can’t wait to see how this gets worse.
Sources: Celebrity Storm and Entertainment Weekly, People Magazine, New York Post
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