Lili Reinhart Promises a ‘Horny’ Betty Will Heat Up the Final ‘Riverdale’ Season
Spoiler Alert
[Warning: The below contains spoilers for Season 7 Episode 1 of Riverdale, “Chapter One Hundred Eighteen: Don’t Worry Darling.”]
Happy days are here again. Or more like Happy Days. On jingle-jangle, that is. Because Riverdale returned tonight for its seventh and final season doing the time warp back to the ’50s. Thanks to the Bailey’s Comet catastrophe that was seemingly thwarted at the end of the supernatural-infused Season 6, our gang was transported to the era of James Dean’s death, Emmett Till’s trial, and hot-rodding teens, with only Jughead (Cole Sprouse) clued-in to the mix-up.
The rest were busy being typical teens (again), with the head-turning arrival of transfer student and Hollywood kid Veronica (Camila Mendes), the growing civil-rights movement, and the storybook romance of high-school sweethearts Betty Cooper (Lili Reinhart) and … future gay icon Kevin Keller (Casey Cott)?
Yeah, things are a little different this season. One thing that hasn’t changed, however, is that Betty remains a progressive stan for justice and a bundle of hormonal curiosity who is still being bullied into puritanical obedience by her domineering parents (Mädchen Amick and Lochlyn Munro). But according to Reinhart, the young lady won’t be “keeping it in her pants” for too long. So hide your boyfriends, girlfriends, husbands, wives, Serpents, whatever … Betty Cooper’s voracious libido is about to order the sampler platter!
The CW
It feels like the show went back into production ages ago. Have you wrapped yet?
Lili Reinhart: No. We film like nine months total, so we still have three months to go.
Wow, okay. At least this season, it kind of feels like you all have new-ish roles.
[Laughs] Yes. Agreed. To an extent … it is still the same people, it’s still Betty, but I like to say it’s Betty in a pressure cooker of her overbearing parents and her school and being told to keep her sexuality in check. So it’s sort of this heightened environment for everyone.
I think it’s been a great time and keep saying it feels like coming home in a way, like back to the basics for all of us and playing teenagers again. I mean, this is really the last time I can. Like there’s no way around it. I look in the mirror after I’m all dressed up and have the headband in my hair and I’m like, “I am a grown woman.” [Laughs] I’m a grown woman and I should not be playing 17. But then I look over at like Reggie, you know, Charles Melton and he’s a 32-year-old man…
No high-schooler has ever looked like that!
Right? If they had, high school would’ve been very different for me. [Laughs]
Same. But it is cool, like you said, to see the Betty from Season 1 with her overbearing parents and very ’50s mentality, actually getting to play her in that ’50s world.
Yeah. It’s just a little bit heightened. And she’s not only facing this repression from her parents, but from society and from her school advisors. Everyone’s telling her to keep it in her pants and she doesn’t want to. It’s great. And it’s been a very fun arc to play, exploring how this woman is trying to learn about sex because it’s the most exciting topic for young people in general. Obviously having not lived in that time but knowing that women were expected to behave this certain way and be a perfect housewife — get married young, sleep with one person you’re with forever, there’s no such thing as divorce — it’s been interesting to play that world and imagine how I would’ve reacted in that scenario, you know, being the woman I am today. I’m trying to bring my modern connection to my sexuality through Betty and through her feeling repressed in that environment.
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It’s actually a perfect design that when we re-meet these characters again in the first episode back, like, she’s dating Kevin, so there’s no real risk of her being sexually adventurous. He’s not interested!
This poor, poor girl. [Laughs] That is her first little arc and journey that we go through, her with Kevin. But the arc really carries on for her. The core of her storyline in Season 7 has been exploring her sexuality and fighting against everyone who is telling her to keep it in her pants. She’s like, “Nope, not going to.” And she’s pushing those boundaries and going up against people telling her that she should be ashamed. It’s a great story for young women, even today in general, who live in a society that loves to slut shame and get at women for dating or whatever. It’s been fun to play a girl who’s so hell-bent on having her own experiences and being seen and following her desire. I’ve had a great time playing that and I’ve gotten to make out with literally everyone on the show.
That’s what I want to know. Who did she push these boundaries with?
Everyone, really. Everyone. Wink, wink, wink, wink. Like everyone across the spectrum, for the most part. There are a couple people who are left out, but for the most part, Betty is fully sexually fantasizing about everyone. And I tried to play it where even in scenes where it’s not blankly stated that Betty is very much always thinking about people in a sexual way. So whenever Betty’s looking at men or looking at women, there’s this spark of sexuality in her eyes that I tried to bring. She could be turned on at any moment you see her. If I could describe Betty in one word this season, it would be horny. [Laughs]
Well, all of her friends are hot.
I know, are you kidding me?! Like, she’s surrounded by these hot, good-looking people. Especially in this environment where people are telling her, “You can’t touch and you can’t do anything about it,” of course she’s going to fantasize about everyone. Everyone. And you end up seeing it.
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Archie, I mean, he doesn’t even need an excuse to go shirtless anymore.
Always. Right? Yeah. I think he’s sick of it. I think he’s a little bit sick of it.
Does KJ want to get his dad bod going?
[Laughs] No, I don’t think he wants that. It’s more like he doesn’t want to have to cover up his tattoos. It’s a long process for him.
The one I have been waiting to get his time is Kevin’s father (Martin Cummins). Do the girls not recognize that Sheriff Keller is a smoke show?
You know what? I feel like maybe Martin is for the gay-male gaze. [Laughs]
The CW
Well, we appreciate it! Now, when do these characters start to realize that Jughead might be onto something about them not being from this time? Because they’ll all pretty much buy into anything.
I know! [Laughs] And that’s a good question. I don’t know. I don’t know how the show is ending at this point, we still have so much time left. We’re just over halfway done with the season and it’s all in [showrunner] Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa‘s hands. So you know he’s whittling away on his laptop and figuring it out. The show’s in good hands, and I think, to be honest, Roberto wants to end the show the way he wants to end the show and he’s not going to do any fan service just for the sake of fan service, right? That’s what he’s always been hell-bent on and I respect that and appreciate that. I know what people want to see and I know how they want things to end, but I don’t know how it’s gonna end. I would say I don’t think it’s gonna end in the traditional way that people want it to. I think it’s going to end in its own Riverdale sort of way.
Have you picked out what you’re taking home with you from set?
I’ve started a little list, so I don’t forget. And so far the only thing I have on there is a menu from Pop’s. I want to get that framed but I don’t know what else. I look around Betty’s bedroom and I’m like, “Don’t want that. And not that, either!” [Laughs] So yeah, I don’t know. I asked on my Instagram once, “What should I take home?” And people were just telling me to take home my co-stars.
I feel like the menu would be easier. It’s iconic and so perfectly Riverdale.
Yeah. And I’ll find some other little trinkets, I’m sure. But I also don’t wanna be a hoarder. I have my memories for seven years and if I ever wanna go watch the episodes, I can. It’s always there.
Riverdale, Wednesdays, 9/8c, The CW
