Real-Life “Riverdale” Bromance

K. J. Apa from Riverdale is hanging out with me. How about that intro, right? Haven't had that before.

Oh you haven't?

Well, well, we like to do it differently here. I'm young Hollywood. Welcome welcome welcome to our day. You've never been here before. So please take it all in.

I am. I've just been taking in for the last like two minutes. It's amazing in here. I like it.

Congratulations on the show by the way. You do a really good American accent. I gotta say.

Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it. That's just one of those things that I was kind of able to do like without like sound like it's I used to talk to myself as a kid and I used to like play like different characters as I like talked to myself and it would have just always been an American accent. I think that's probably got something to do with it.

Uh before before we get too into this, I got we got, you know, some milkshakes for you. Chocolate, vanilla, do you have a preference? I don't know if they're as good as the ones at Pop's but

This is like a chocolate and vanilla

Are you trying to get like a Betty Veronica kind of are you looking Are you looking to see like which one I'm going to pick?

Oh no, I do not. Oh my gosh. But now that you've, well, now that you put it out there, which one? I'll go chocolate.

Oh, okay. Not for any of those reasons. Just personal preference. Um, here. Let's let's try how are they by the way? Cheers.

That's all right. I've had a few today. This is definitely one of the good ones. And it's not bad. Better than Pop's. This is good. This is good.

Awesome. Awesome. Um, so signing on to this show. I mean, if you grew up in the US like Archie Comics were huge. But I wonder how much of that world you knew before signing on.

Yeah, so I wasn't that familiar with the comics or like the whole franchise before I auditioned for it. But um, as soon as I found out that I was going to go into the room and uh and and read for it. I obviously I searched it up and I realized well, this is a massive like Archie world out there and the fans are crazy as well. So I uh read up on it. I uh gave the old man a call as well. He he he'd been a fan when he was young too. So he uh he filled me in.

Your dad was a fan. Your dad was a fan of it. I still got to ask him who who he roots for. Like Is it Betty or Veronica? I was going to say, is he more of like a Betty or a Veronica?

I don't know. I don't know. I gotta ask him.

Yeah, and your dad is a Samoan chief. Is that right?

Yes. So I'm a quarter Samoan. My dad's half Samoan and he's a he's a high chief of Samoa. Um which is

As a chief's son, like what do you like what what does that entail?

Well, it's not like being like the son of a king or anything. But it is still like it's still kind of cool. You can't like roll up to the village and be like, hey guys. The thing is I can't speak Samoan. I can understand a little bit and say a few words. But like he's like proper like full Samoan. Like he can go over there and like And be like he has to go like all our family is over there too. So like

Oh, that's amazing.

Yeah, yeah. That's great.

Going back to the show. Uh your hair's a little different. I gotta say.

Yeah.

And it's a little high maintenance, right?

They bleach it and my eyebrows every two weeks, which is pretty gnarly. It's also kind of sore as well. Like it burnt the first time they did my eyebrows I had two holes in my They burnt through my skin.

No.

Yeah. But they had to just keep doing it. My my skin just I think I got used to it.

And were you just like, I'm suffering for my art. Like what

Kind of. This is more like suffering.

Okay, please explain this right here. Like

Okay. So the finale episode, there's like a sequence where I have a a kind of a stunt thing. And I I just went too hard and I just The thing is when you see it, you'll know exactly when it happened.

So you're doing your own stunts and and you're doing getting your own injuries.

Exactly. And you'll know exactly when it happened when you watch. And also there's only one take of it. So the take that you watch is going to be the take that I break it. Yeah, a little little little tough.

Well, I'm glad glad that you survived. One of the themes of this show is like not everything is as it appears.

Yeah.

Um, so what's something that that I that people would find surprising about you? In real life?

In real life, yeah. Um, I never even really wanted to act. I wanted to play rugby for a long time. And also music is a big passion of mine. But I also uh I had to sacrifice uh rugby. Kind of like how Archie had to sacrifice football. And my old man was like wanting me to play rugby as well.

Oh, wow.

And uh I I just had to pull the plug on it because I had You can't play rugby and turn up to set with like cuts and stuff.

Yeah. That's true. I mean, that would be way

Exactly. Way way worse. Yeah.

Um, for sure. You have a bromance with one of your cast mates. Uh Cole Sprouse. Aka Jughead.

Oh really? Wait, is this like news to you? Like am I breaking news to you here?

Yeah. Yeah. No. You guys get along really well. Right? You guys are friends.

Yeah. You're mates. It's funny. Uh before we started on the show, I watched him when I was a kid on on the show that he was on the Sweet Life.

Okay.

Uh him and his brother. So I was kind of

Like you were all like nervous.

I was kind of like, okay, I just got to play it cool. Like let's just like I'll be the man when I see him. Like what kind of like what am I going to say first up? I'll be like, Hey, what's up?

You were like running it through your head. Like okay, what am I going to say?

Yeah. And then when I met him in real life like we started talking. We started yarning and stuff and he goes like he was so scared that I was going to be like one of those classic like cuz I got tons of before I started on the show, like I had tons of like photos with my shirt off like on the beach like with the boys. He thought I'd be like one of those like hard out like punk kind of guys.

Sure.

And he was like scared that we wouldn't get along and stuff. But now we're we're been camping and stuff. He's a real good guy. I've been learning a lot off him as well. It's good to have someone who's been through all that.

I wanted to play a little game called Riverdale Rapid Fire. Okay. So I'm just going to throw out a couple of questions and I want you to name who from the cast uh you would pick for that. So who do you think is most likely to off an enemy?

Uh Cole.

You know that Cole that we don't know.

I reckon.

Okay. You don't want to mess

Trust me, you do not want to mess with Cole. No.

Oh my gosh. Yeah. Now I'm scared. Uh person you'd most likely to be stuck on a desert island with.

I'd love to say Cole. But Luke Perry.

Oh, okay. Yeah. Play's your dad on the show.

He could survive anywhere that guy. He knows he knows everything. Sweaty. He knows everything.

Right. Person most likely to get stuck on a desert island.

Um Camilla.

Really? Why?

You'll be driving with her and she just kind of isn't the best kind of gets lost.

No, please continue. Just kind of I love all this.

I don't know I don't know. I think no, she's not a bad driver. That was that was me. But like I don't know. That was the first person that came to mind.

Okay. All right. And I think other people might agree. What? Most like. Yeah. Most likely to have the most secrets.

I'd go Cole for that. I reckon he's got he's got secrets. Yeah. Yeah. And that Jughead uh beanie that we have right here. Yeah. You should check it out.

Well, I will. Yeah. It is. Uh, you are a long way from home. Um, but if I ever were to venture out to New Zealand where you're from Auckland, what what's like the thing that I have to do?

Uh, you would have to go bungee jumping. If you haven't done that.

I am not done That is actually one of my biggest fears. That's one of the

The thing is, you just have to do it once in your life. Like

Okay. Otherwise How many times have you done it?

I've done it a couple times. Okay. You only need to do it once. You don't need to do it again once you do it once. Yeah. Okay. Um, but yeah, bungee jumping. You gotta go to Waiheke Island. Okay. Beautiful place. Beautiful place. Probably my favorite place in New Zealand. Uh Queenstown. Another great place. Honestly, if anyone's going to go to New Zealand, get yourself three weeks over there. Don't go over there for a week or like a week and a half. You gotta give yourself a decent amount of time.

Okay. For sure. All right. You're ready to take me. Right? You're going to be my tour guide. Right?

I mean, yeah. Hit me up.

Amazing. I mean, I'm down there. I'll I'll give you a tour for sure. Let's do it. All right. So let's uh let's cheers to that. I think that's a good time to cheers, right? Okay. Here you go. Nice. good stuff. Cheers.