For those who missed it, Camila Mendes — who fans may know best as Veronica Lodge on Riverdale — took on a brand new role in the movie Palm Springs. The recently released romantic comedy stars the 26-year-old as a woman on her wedding day, which is a total change from the high school student we’re used to seeing her play. While talking to Nylon about being cast as Tala in the Hulu Original film, Camila opened up about being “pigeonholed” into certain roles because of Riverdale.
“If you’re on a teen show, yeah, there’s an inherent pigeonhole that comes with that. But I’ve watched a bunch of people before me deal with that. I do think it takes some time after coming off a show to shake it off a little bit and reset to have people perceive you in a different way, but I do think that’s changing a lot,” the actress explained. “I don’t know if it’s because of social media and being able to control your image or if it’s this new wave of TV that people seem to find equally entertaining and as high-quality as film. I think people are now more open to perceiving TV actors as serious actors, period. It’s changing, but I do find that it’s kind of inevitable to be pigeonholed a little bit when you’re playing the same character for years.”
While talking about Palm Springs, Camila also dished on what it was like to play someone so different from Veronica.
“I loved it. It just felt like such a different role for me. Just even being able to play something that was a little bit more comedic in tone, it was very liberating,” she said.
Previously, Camila also talked about playing a high schooler on her Instagram Stories. Back in April, to celebrate the release of her Netflix film Dangerous Lies, she hared a selfie holding a thumbs up pose alongside the caption, “How I felt about portraying a character that has already graduated high school.”
As fans know, her character in the action-packed flick was also married.
By the look on her face, it’s pretty safe to say that Camila was totally making a joke about playing Veronica Lodge, although, she might not have to wait too long until her character leaves Riverdale High School because the teens are already seniors. Not to mention that the show is going to jump forward five years during the upcoming fifth season!
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