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\nAhead of the premiere of their film\u00a0The Map That Leads to You, KJ Apa and Madelyn Cline sat down with PEOPLE for an intimate lunchThe stars open up about filming their Prime Video movie in Spain and their instant chemistry off-screenThey also open up about their meteoric rises to fame on hit teen dramas and the highs and lows that have come with being in the spotlight<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re definitely a golden retriever,\u201d KJ Apa<\/a> tells his costar Madelyn Cline<\/a> as they discuss whether they give off golden retriever or black cat energy over plates of Spanish cuisine and black coffee.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n Hours before the premiere<\/a> of their Prime Video film The Map That Leads to You<\/a>, the stars are having an intimate lunch with PEOPLE at Malag\u00f3n<\/a> in Charleston, S.C., where Cline is currently filming her hit Netflix series Outer Banks<\/a>.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n As they share an arugula salad with peaches, a bone-in steak and beef cheeks, a go-to favorite of Cline\u2019s who grew up just outside of Charleston, the two candidly discuss everything from bonding on set to life purposes. Even as they pick off each other\u2019s plates, their chemistry is undeniable as they refer to each other by nonsensical nicknames and toss around inside jokes at the drop of a hat.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n Madelyn Cline and KJ Apa.<\/p>\n Todd Williamson\/January Images<\/p>\n Apa, 28, tells PEOPLE that things were instantly \u201ceasy\u201d between them<\/a> as soon as they met. \u201cWe just hit it off immediately \u2026 I mean, nothing is serious with us,\u201d he says, with Cline, 27, quickly affirming. As they catch up on their lives since wrapping filming in Terrassa, Spain, last year, she playfully points out that she\u2019s never seen Apa with arm hair.\n<\/p>\n He explains to me that he continuously has to shave his arms for projects to help with covering up his many tattoos, before pulling back the collar of his teal button-down shirt to reveal faded ink on his right shoulder. He’s currently in the process of getting most of his tattoos removed.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n This same playful chemistry, and several of Apa\u2019s tattoos, are on full display as they play Jack and Heather, two strangers who form an undeniable bond while traveling across Europe in the film, which also stars Sofia Wylie<\/a>, Madison Thompson, Orlando Norman and Josh Lucas.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n KJ Apa and Madelyn Cline in The Map That Leads to You.<\/p>\n Prime Video<\/p>\n For millennials, the project feels adjacent to a Disney Channel crossover episode given their shared background on hit teen dramas. Both Apa and Cline had their meteoric rises to fame on shows with just as massive followings, which they later point out can come with both highs and lows.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n For Apa, who played Archie Andrews on Riverdale<\/a> from 2017 to 2023, the journey ultimately led to a lot of self-growth and discovery.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n When The CW series first premiered, the New Zealand native was just 19 years old and completely new to Hollywood, scoring the coveted role after a four-month worldwide talent search. When he wrapped the series, his whole life had changed: he was 26 years old, he had over 15 million followers on social media and he was a new dad.\n<\/p>\n Apa first welcomed his son, Sasha Vai Keneti<\/a>, in September 2021, alongside his then-girlfriend Clara Berry<\/a>, amid filming for the show\u2019s sixth season. In fact, he tells PEOPLE, his costar Charles Melton<\/a> was in the delivery room when Berry gave birth and eventually became Sasha\u2019s godfather.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n KJ Apa, Camila Mendes, Cole Sprouse, Lili Reinhart on Riverdale.<\/p>\n Jack Rowand\/The CW\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n A year after Riverdale wrapped its seventh and final season<\/a>, Apa notes he went through a major identity crisis as he said goodbye to the hit series that he spent over six years of his life on. At the time, he was also adjusting to life as a dad while going through a breakup<\/a>, after splitting from Berry in early 2024.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I finished that show, I went through a year of really having to regather who I was, like re-remember who I was,\u201d he says. \u201cI definitely had this crisis of identity with a whole lot of other things that I was going through. Being a dad, my son being one year old at the time, going through a breakup with his mom and navigating all of that while trying to pick up the pieces of who I was.\u201d\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \u201cBut I look back and I’m so grateful for it because I asked for this life,\u201d he continues. \u201cI asked to be here and this is what it all comes with. And I am grateful for it and I’m glad that I went through it.\u201d\u00a0\n<\/p>\n Outer Banks cast.<\/p>\n JACKSON LEE DAVIS\/NETFLIX\u00a9 2021<\/p>\n For Cline, who landed her breakout role as Sarah Cameron<\/a> on Outer Banks in 2020, she\u2019s going through her own transformational period right now as she films the Netflix show\u2019s fifth and final season.\n<\/p>\n Though she notes the process has been incredibly \u201cemotional,\u201d she admits it feels like the right time to say goodbye, to both the show and Charleston.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s happy, sad,\u201d Cline says about leaving behind her hometown when the series wraps. \u201cI love Charleston. As long as my parents are here, I will probably always come back to Charleston. It is very much a part of me [but] home isn’t here anymore. I get homesick for L.A. or even New York. For me, home is where your friends are and that’s what makes me happy.\u201d\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \u201cSo I will miss it in a way, but I think we\u2019re all filled with such gratitude and we’re very, very happy and truly so lucky for the experience,\u201d she explains of her and her costars’ feelings about the final season, before adding, \u201cBut I think we all kind of feel like it’s time and we’ve been playing these characters for so long. We’re all very excited to step into some different shoes.\u201d\u00a0\n<\/p>\n Madelyn Cline and KJ Apa.<\/p>\n Todd Williamson\/January Images<\/p>\n Despite their shared background, Apa admits he doesn\u2019t have any advice to give Cline as she prepares to say goodbye to the hit series that catapulted her into fame.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \u201cI really don’t. It’s similar, but it’s different,\u201d he explains before giving more backstory on how the end of Riverdale affected him at the time.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \u201cI just think from my experience, I remembered feeling so resentful to this thing that had given me everything and I felt guilty for that,\u201d he admits. \u201cI think a lot of the identity crisis stuff that I was thinking about and going through at that time came from these feelings that I had that I didn’t feel were justified because I had to be grateful. And I allowed myself to just be like, \u2018You know what? I don’t have to be grateful all the time. I’m allowed to be f—— pissed off.\u2019 And people go, \u2018You’re so lucky. You should be blah, blah, blah.\u2019 I think the biggest thing for me is I had to just constantly remind myself that it was going to end because I really could not imagine an end of my life outside of that show. I really couldn’t.”\n<\/p>\n “So when it finally happened and you don’t have that call sheet every day or someone telling you where you got to be, what you got to do, you kind of have to start making decisions for yourself,” he continues. “And that’s when I really felt like my life kind of began from 17. It’s a weird one. I felt like my emotional growth was stunted as soon as I started on that show.\u201d\u00a0\n<\/p>\n KJ Apa.<\/p>\n Todd Williamson\/January Images<\/p>\n Cline points out that the high pressure of their jobs can certainly take a toll after a while.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \u201cWe have people who are herding us all the time,\u201d she explains. \u201cIt’s like you show up and then you get whisked over this way and that way. Sometimes it feels like we can’t make decisions for ourselves, which I know is not true, but when you have this one thing after another, there’s the schedule, and this is what you have to do, you get so used to it after a while, it feels like you’re on autopilot. And after a while, you’re so used to doing it, it does kind of become your identity. Stepping out of it now, I’m like, \u2018Oh my God, who am I? What do I want?\u2019\u201d\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \u201cThese next couple of years will be very interesting, but also we’ll always look back upon this experience with a lot of fun and a certain fondness,\u201d she continues. “But it’s interesting too because it has been high highs and low lows. I have experienced so much, we felt so much, and just experienced so much of the human experience. I’m eternally grateful for it. What a blessing, what a privilege.\u201d\u00a0\n<\/p>\n Apa adds that one of the biggest lessons he\u2019s learned from being a person in the spotlight is not to take any compliments too seriously.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \u201cThis industry is very quick to praise you when you’re hot and then just as quick to turn its head when you’re not,\u201d he explains. “That was also something else when I came off Riverdale, is you experienced all of this attention at a really unnatural level, and it affects you in a way where you end up looking for it in other places when you’re not getting it.\u201d\u00a0\n<\/p>\n “I’m scared,\u201d Cline interjects.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \u201cSorry, I’ll speak for myself,\u201d Apa continues. \u201cIt’s weird. It’s like I’m the same person I was before I started the show and then I’m on the show and suddenly all these people are paying attention to me, but I haven’t actually changed as a person. So what is the fame and what is the attention? That was something that I couldn’t quite figure out because KJ was still the same guy. And so I think now when people are complimentary about anything, I really don’t \u2014 I mean, I acknowledge it \u2014 but it doesn’t go anywhere in my soul, in my body or anything. It lands and then it gets thrown away.\u201d\u00a0\n<\/p>\n For Cline, the biggest lesson has been that there truly is \u201cno arrival\u201d to making it in Hollywood. \u201cYou’re on a stair climber,” the Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery actress shares. “Sometimes it’s really tough. Sometimes it goes really fast, sometimes it’s slow. Then you catch a moment, and it’s amazing, but then you have to continue. It’s more of a journey for sure.\u201d\u00a0\n<\/p>\n Madelyn Cline.<\/p>\n Todd Williamson\/January Images<\/p>\n As their new film releases on Aug. 20, both actors find themselves at a crossroads in their careers. While Cline is coming off a huge summer following the release of I Know What You Did Last Summer<\/a>, Apa is preparing to play Jimmy Stewart<\/a> in a new biopic titled Jimmy, which begins filming in Ireland in just a few weeks.\n<\/p>\n