'Riverdale''s Camila Mendes Is Living the Dream

Camila Mendes is living every 22-year-old’s fantasy. The recent NYU Tisch graduate graces the TV screen every week as vixen Veronica on the hit CW show Riverdale featuring characters from the iconic Archie comics. But really she gets to hang out with swoon-worthy K.J. Apa (see page 106) and Cole Sprouse. Not a bad first job.

Mendes luckily graduated a semester early from college, and after an “anxiety-ridden” casting process, she landed the lead role of sassy, complicated Veronica. “I lost a lot of sleep, shed a lot of tears,” Mendes joked. “It was very intense, but that is kind of what we sign up for when we decide to be actors.”

Just in its first season, Riverdale has already captured an entire millennial audience, filling the gap that Vampire Diaries and Gossip Girl left, as Mendes explained. A dark spin on Archie comics, the show features a modern interpretation of redheaded Archie (Apa) torn between seemingly-innocent Betty (Lili Reinhart) and sensual Veronica, with his best friend Jughead (Cole Sprouse, unrecognizable from his Suite Life of Zach and Cody days) standing by—all while Riverdale investigates a teen murder. Definitely not as happy as the 50s comics.

Read the rest of this article at New York Moves magazine.

Riverdale also stars KJ Apa, Lili Reinhart, Cole Sprouse and Ross Butler.