Even the healthiest of long-term relationships require the occasional bit of effort to keep things from getting stale. It stands to reason that a cast for a show like the CW’s Riverdale — which you were either completely un- or immediately aware of its recent seventh season renewal — would need to find ways to stave off boredom while waiting to be called on set.
At the show’s PaleyFest 2022 panel on April 9, amid the backdrop of Beatlemania-tier screaming fans, we asked the heartthrob cast to divulge how they’ve stayed sane while “hurrying up and waiting” in the same spot for over six years straight. Once the prerequisite qualifiers praising the writing team and being “just grateful for the work” were out of the way, we finally got some truth from the folks who lie for a living.
K.J. Apa, who plays Archie on the series, has gone the classic route of on-set pranks. His Veronica co-star, Camila Mendes, has taken a thoroughly modern approach to time-killing by learning the latest viral TikTok dances. But Cole Sprouse, Riverdale’s lovable lunk Jughead — and with the original beanie he stole off the set to prove it — has chosen a far more masochistic path: Elden Ring.
“I take my video games into my trailer. It keeps me present,” said Sprouse before revealing that his current obsession is the notoriously punishing “Souls-Borne” game Elden Ring.
Sprouse griped that his goal of earning every possible PlayStation trophy for (a.k.a. “Platinuming”) the game was stymied on his first play after he “missed that giant sword, like the spear of Lansseanx, or whatever it was, in Leyndell and Leyndell changed.” Sprouse, who would minutes later contend with multiple marriage proposals from fanatical admirers, is likely referring to the only missable legendary armament in the game, the Bolt of Gransax, which becomes un-acquirable in the late game once the Capital City has been covered in ash.
“I started with a mage build, because I wanted easy mode,” began the 2018 Seventeen Magazine cover model. “Then I went dex[terity] build for the second [playthrough].”
When asked if he chose fan-favorite katana “Moonveil” for his subsequent campaign’s primary weapon, Sprouse got further into the weeds. “I mean, with the patch, [Moonveil] got … It’s still good, I guess,” he said, referring to the developers retroactively diminishing the power of the weapon with an update. The actor, who is currently dating Premier model Ari Fournier, further bemoaned the nerfing of the game-breakingly OP Mimic Tear spirit ash, but was whisked away by a handler. GG.
