KJ Apa is a jack of all trades. When he's not playing Riverdale heartthrob Archie Andrews, he's making music, creating new tattoo designs, and finding the next new character he can bring to life. As one of the faces of Fossil's new campaign, KJ can officially add designer into his list as he brings his ideas to life in the brands new watches.



Seventeen.com got to talk to KJ Apa about Riverdale, the new roles he's taking on, and his fear of being typecast as Archie Andrews.



Here's what he had to say...

17: Let's talk about Riverdale. In the new trailer for season 3, Archie talks about "the worst summer ever" and how he wants to just enjoy a normal Labor Day weekend. Talk to us a little bit of where we find Archie in the beginning of season 3.

KJ Apa: We start off with Archie on trial for the murder of Cassidy Bullock, and he didn’t kill him obviously because we saw Andre, Veronica’s chauffeur, kill him. So we start off [the season] in court. It’s a hot, sweaty courtroom. It’s the hottest summer Riverdale has ever seen, so we’re using the elements of Vancouver to our advantage. For Archie that’s definitely the meat for it for the first episode and we’ll see if he goes [to jail] or not.

17: Camila Mendes hinted at San Diego Comic-Con that Archie and Veronica will go through a rough patch. Can you talk a little more about that?

KJ: I think the chance of him going to jail for however many years, his relationship with everyone is gonna get kind of gnarly because he’s not going to be able to see anyone. There’s a confrontation between the two of them where she wants to visit him in prison and he doesn’t want her to do that just because that environment isn't best suited for someone like Veronica. Also, because of the distance, it might shake things up.

17: You have a lot of exciting cast members joining for season 3. How does it feel to see the cast grow?

KJ: It’s been epic! We have such a huge cast. It’s crazy to be constantly seeing these characters that we’re familiar with in the comics. Every day you’re working with these kind of iconic characters and watching them being played in real life is pretty surreal, because I’ve been reading the comics and stuff and it’s hard to even still now [believe] I’m a part of it.

Fossil

17: You also have The Last Summer and The Hate U Give coming out soon. How was it working on all these projects and how excited are you to see them come out?

KJ: I haven’t seen the completed versions of either project as of the yet. I’ve only been seeing little snippets other than the trailer for The Hate U Give, but we definitely got lucky this hiatus from shooting Riverdale. It’s so hard when you’re shooting 10 months out of the year, 22 episodes on a show, it’s hard to find time to do another project. Let alone, kind of – you know, there’s always the danger of being typecast as the characters, particularly Archie. It’s easy to fall into that trap, so the goal for me and my team is to always push hard for work during the hiatus. Whether it’s like a small movie or a big movie. We’ve managed [to book] two amazing movies and The Hate U Give was awesome. Amandla Sternberg is amazing in it. I haven’t seen the movie, but all I’ve heard about it is that it’s a really important film that I’m so happy to be a part of and I can’t wait to be able to see it.

17: We know about the controversy on the set of The Hate U Give [involving Kian Lawley losing his role]. After Kian left, you got to join the cast. Was it a little intimidating to show up after everything that had happened?

KJ: I wasn’t intimidated by it. I knew the circumstances when I walked into that film and I was picked for it. I knew what I had to do. I knew how to play the character, I can relate to the character. So, you know, all I was really worrying about is doing the character justice and being honest with it because it really is an important character in the film. Obviously, I was aware of the situation when I was on set, but it was pretty smooth runnings. It wasn’t as gnarly as people might think.

17: Are you afraid of being typecasted into YA adaptations or teen shows? Or is it exciting for you to be able to play these roles while you can?

KJ: I think it’s exciting to play these roles while I can, for sure. I mean, you can only be young for so long, right? So, I think, kind of embracing that is really my only option. It’s hard when you know a character for so long from a TV show and to be able to pull that person out of that character when you’re watching them on something else. I think the only way to divert from that is by utilizing the hiatus and playing as many characters as you can.

17: Did you get to talk with any of your older co-stars about how to avoid typecasting and did they offer you any advice?



KJ: I haven’t really talked about it with anyone else, but I know that Luke Perry was on the biggest, literally the biggest, show in the world and he went on to do movies and stuff like that. I believe that the only way to get out of that is just by working on other things. You can’t become complacent and just play the same character if you want to work your way up.

Fossil

17: Were you always a fan of Fossil? Did you always want a Fossil watch or always admired them growing up?

KJ: I’ve known the brand since I was like 6 or 7. My dad had Fossil watches and the brand has been around for such a long time, so I knew about it and we talked about what they wanted to do and I was immediately kind of excited to be a part of it. I feel like it’s a brand that is honest and I feel like the way we did this campaign was pretty unique.

17: You got to design your own watch, what was that like?

KJ: The people who are a part of this campaign [Mandy Moore, Izzy Blzu, and Darryl Westly], we kind of dive into like our passions and stuff, like what we do in our spare time. Like how we use our creativity and stuff like that. So, I was pretty stoked to know that I was going to be able to design a watch and we actually got to do a couple other things that kind of weaved its way through to doing that as well.

Tamara Fuentes is the Entertainment Editor at Seventeen.com. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram!

Tamara Fuentes Entertainment Editor Tamara Fuentes is the entertainment editor for Seventeen and covers celebrity news, pop culture, television, movies, music, and books.

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