Riverdale's Camila Mendes Spills on Jughead Kiss & The New Romantic With Brett Dier

Hey guys, it's Tracy here with Young Hollywood and I am sitting with the amazing Camila Mendes.

Brett Deer.

And we are in Austin. Hi. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hi. Hi. First of all, the new romantic. It's an interesting story because it's like kind of it's all about like adulting and like you get I I was terrified to graduate. I mean, were you?

Yeah, 100%. As as an actor, you're always terrified to graduate because you no longer have the safety net of school.

I hated school, so. I was really happy to be out of there. But stay in school.

Wait, why did you hate it?

Well, I just thought that everything I was learning there was just boring. Like I didn't care about history.

Did you study theater?

Yes, I liked that part. Cool. Theater was fun in gym class, but all the rest was just memorizing and I was like, what am I going to use this for like when I'm dead? You know what I mean?

Well, you're gym class in college?

Oh, and I don't I never went to college.

Oh, you're talking about high school.

Talking about high school. Hey, but you know what? Although, I was excited to be out of school, too. High school.

Yeah. So you went to college then?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Oh, okay. And you did too.

I did. Yeah. All right, so I actually knew sugar babies in college who were paying like, I actually knew a few that were paying their way through college with that. No way. Oh, wow. So like when I read this, I was like, oh my god, this is so real. Like I I know people who go through this sort of thing. And and I think that's kind of what I love about the film is it it kind of shows you the blurred lines of like, yes, it's business, but it gets personal, you know, and and it's hard to monitor that sort of thing cuz it's so new. But you had like an interesting story because you got your role on Riverdale like when you were in college, right?

Yeah, well, I was I was finishing up and I graduated a semester early, so the timing worked out really perfectly. But I was finishing up my last semester as I started auditioning, so by the time I graduated, I had to like go shoot the pilot. So the the it all just like and so that's kind of I was so scared to graduate, but then that happened and I never had to go through that post-college actor life, you know, which a lot of my friends go through and it's it's super stressful, you know. You get a lot of anxiety.

Wait, have you guys been to have you been to Austin before?

It's my first time in Texas ever. Yeah. Besides the airport.

So what's like the weirdest thing you guys have seen so far?

Something weird happened in my head. Want to hear this?

Yeah.

Okay. Cuz my character is like a writer guy, okay? So I had to read any love Bukowski, so I started reading a lot of Bukowski and I read probably like 5,000 poems in the span of two weeks. And I noticed it actually affected my thinking. I I read every poem Bukowski written, like literally books and books and books. Cuz I just wanted to see what it would be like just for fun. But anyway, and it made me bitter. Like I noticed my thoughts were bitter because he's kind of he has a very cynical way of

Yeah, totally.

And he's cynical and, you know, and I was reading books about spirituality and being positive and stuff before that. So I was all like, yeah. And then I started reading him and I was like, ah. So so that was interesting. So I I kind of found my thoughts.

That's why you're tired from being an adult.

Yeah, kind of. Exactly. But yeah, I felt I felt bitter. It was very strange. And it's amazing like what you what you consume in your mind can affect your personality.

Well, what was it like going cuz you guys have both been in the TV world for a long time and now going into like this movie. Was it challenging? Was it?

I think it was liberating. I mean, I've it was my first film. Um, yeah. And I I, you know, especially an indie film, like you just have so much more freedom to just like be creative and and I what I kept telling everybody was like, I didn't have to land on a mark. Like it like the character just found me and that to me was already it was almost so much freedom, it was uncomfortable. Yeah. Cuz I think Riverdale is also very stylized and and um sometimes the shots are very choreographed and everything is just like perfect. Right. You know, and even our our dialogue is very specific, so you don't have much room sometimes to like play with that. But with this, it was like I didn't have to get the lines perfect and we, you know, we just kept doing it till we found the scene and the camera would work with me and it was was really fun. Yeah.

Same, totally. That's what I love. And Carly would come up with different lines like on the spot and tell you to do it, but I and I love that because there's no time for the actor to think and get in their heads and be like, oh, how am I going to do that? You just had to just do it. Yeah. And I love that kind of working and Carly was so open with that kind of stuff and I I really like working with Carly. She she was awesome.

She's amazing. She's so chill and like I can't believe it's her first one. Yeah. Cuz she's a pro. That's awesome.

And then really quick, so Riverdale's back and

Yes.

what can we expect for season two? For season two. And can we also talk about that Jughead kiss just really quick?

It was a fun moment and I don't think we really wanted to make it make a meal out of it. You know, it was just like, we're all on a hot tub and they're kind of drunk and and Betty and and Archie have their kiss and Veronica and Jughead are going to get their payback. Oh. Just saying.