‘Riverdale’: Who the Hell Is Betty’s Long-Lost Brother Chic Cooper?
Q&A
The Cooper family might just be the Duggars of Riverdale.
Last night’s episode saw Betty‘s (Lili Reinhart) brood grow by almost double as her sister Polly secretly gave birth to ginger corpse Jason Blossom’s twins and long-lost brother Chic—aka, Charles Smith, the baby Alice (Mädchen Amick) and Hal (Lochlyn Munro) gave up in high school—was discovered living two towns over.
So who is this guy and should we trust him? Please, this is Riverdale, where janitors are (alleged) killers, bikers are Samaritans, the mayor is banging the sheriff and Mama Blossom is banging everyone else. For money.
Since viewers only got a taste of Chic last night, we hit up Hart Denton, the cheekbones behind the cast-off Cooper, for some intel on what Archie and the gang should expect.
OK, so spill it.
Hart Denton: There’s a lot of layers to Chic! Riverdale, it’s such a strange dream like world, and then you plant someone inside this who has just the craziest upbringing and it’s this wonderful, beautiful, chaotic whirlwind of trying to find his way in this, you know, his “perfect place”. It’s been just the most amazing thing to get involved with.
And clearly he is angry, having been abandoned at birth.
Well, yeah! Thanks for that, Alice [laughs]. I’m excited for people to see my entrance, to see where I’ve come from, because it’s going to pull on some heartstrings…. Chic has basically grown up on his own.
What is his impact on Riverdale going forward?
Oh gosh… people are admiring but at arm’s length, because this is a character that comes in as part of such a respected family. The Coopers are, you know, most respected name in the town. And then they bring in somebody who is so foreign to things that when you look at all the kids, all the families around them, it’s this beautiful mess of them trying to figure out who and what I am and how they’re supposed to treat me. That’s what I’m most excited for, people seeing how different characters take to me because everybody’s got a different angle with Chic.
Hart Denton as Chic and Madchen Amick as Alice Cooper
What is your angle on him? Is he a good guy or does he have bad intentions?
You know, I don’t think good and bad exist in Chic. It’s definitely not black and white. There are so many different emotions and angles and layers to him that, you know, I think everybody is going to have their own relationship with Chic. And I mean that as in the viewers. Some people may think “This guy is bad” and some people may think “I feel bad for this guy” or “I love this guy.” It kind of matters almost what you were brought up with and how you were raised.
Who have you filmed with the most?It has been probably a tie with Mädchen and Lili, so Alice and Betty. I definitely worked with them the most and they have just taken me in. This is essentially my first big thing —I did a small guest star on something before and there was a little part in a movie—but this was essentially my first thing.
I had so many questions and there’s been so many different things I’ve had to learn how to do and cope with and handle. They have been just beautiful at taking me and being patient with me and showing me the ropes. I am forever grateful for their grace with me being in this situation. I know Lili is young, but they’re both just such veterans. They know what they’re doing, they handle their business, they’re very professional. It’s been amazing to see that at work and to try to emulate that.
Madchen Amick as Alice Cooper and Lili Reinhart as Betty Cooper
Nice. And because this is Riverdale, who sees Chic come to town and is like, “That one is mine!”?
Oh you have to see! [Laughs] Like I said, they’re all a bit of an at arm’s length, but people are very intrigued as well. Which makes for an interesting dynamic.
Riverdale, Wednesdays, 8/7c, The CW
