The Hollywood Reporter<\/a>, John ominously informed the journalist that \u201cthe \u2018silly actor boy TJ Apple\u2019 [should] not be brought up\u201d during the interview. So the writer gamely played it straight.<\/p>\n\n\tMr. Fantasy was inspired to seek a career in Hollywood due to his grandmother, he told THR. \u201cThat\u2019s where the story begins because she is my reason, and she fostered this gift that I had been given by the gods to create music.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tHe decided to cross the pond, he said, \u201cbecause America is this place, this magical place, where somehow, for some reason, you can be completely who you want to be. Any version of yourself seems to be accepted. \u2026 I mean, look at how many stars were made here. James Franco, for example, came to Los Angeles to pursue this dream, and I\u2019m just another artist who\u2019s out here doing his thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tHe goes on to extoll the talents of Franco myriad times, for some reason.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n
\n\tAs for his message? \u201cLove. That\u2019s really the main ingredient, and it\u2019s not a conscious thing that I\u2019m trying to concoct. It just sort of seeps out of me, like some kind of strange liquid. But that\u2019s where the music comes from, it\u2019s very natural.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tIn October, he continued to spread that message with \u201cWayuwanna,\u201d which my ace reading comprehension skills tell me could be about\u2026 sex? In the video, he sings about being \u201chot to trot\u201d in a castle, as one does. Around that time, he joined Tinder, presumably on a quest to find someone to have sex in a castle with.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tOn Nov. 27, though, Mr. Fantasy was introduced to the world \u2014 and my nine-year-old niece \u2014 during the Macy\u2019s Thanksgiving Day Parade, where he undulated once more to his signature song, this time on a pirate ship populated by children. My niece\u2019s review? \u201cThat was weird.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tHe followed up that triumph the following day with \u201cCatapult,\u201d in which he shimmied in somehow even shorter shorts \u2014 and a sports car that can drive on water, much like Jesus.<\/p>\n
\t\tThis Means War: Spring 2026\t<\/p>\n
\n\tThings were looking up for Mr. Fantasy at the top of 2026 \u2014 he has a real PR person now (they\u2019ve sent me emails!), and thus announced the premiere of his debut album, Fantasyland, due out on June 26.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tThen, on May 1, he premiered his new single and video, \u201cDo Me Right,\u201d with much fanfare \u2014 and a truly dizzying array of guest stars, including Alex Warren, Camila Mendes, Cody Simpson, Daniel Seavey, Dave Franco, Derek Hough, Frank Grillo, Isiah Hilt, Jimmy Tatro, Justice Smith, Kiernan Shipka, Lili Reinhart, Madelaine Petsch, Neal McDonough, Nick Jonas, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Pete Berg, Rob Lowe, Rufus Sewell, Sombr, Tyler Posey, and Zoey Deutch.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tEagle-eyed fans noted that the video \u2014 which sees Mr. Fantasy cavorting on horses, skates, and the beach \u2014 also included appearances from several Riverdale cast members. <\/p>\n
\n\tApa, it seems, took note. On May 6, he took to Instagram<\/a> to address the resemblance between him and Mr. Fantasy for the first time, alleging that the mop-top is \u201churting me and my career.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\tHe continued, \u201cThere was recently a music video that was released that included a bunch of people who are really close to me by a guy who\u2019s completely and utterly stolen my image and misappropriated my image and my likeness, and I think we all know who we\u2019re talking about, and it\u2019s fucked up.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n
\n\tHe continued in this vein: \u201cThis person advocates for positivity and for kindness and for all of this stuff. Look in the mirror and tell yourself that you\u2019re not a fucking liar and a thief, because that\u2019s exactly what you are.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThis video appeared mere days after I asked his publicist, point-blank, if Apa would like to reveal himself as Mr. Fantasy exclusively in the pages of Rolling Stone. At press time, Mr. Fantasy\u2019s reps had only gotten in touch to clarify that they do not represent KJ Apa. We\u2019ll keep you posted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Like Austin Powers with abs, Mr. Fantasy emerged from the depths of TikTok last summer, all mop-top bob,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":443969,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[93,61,60,71991,278,101393],"class_list":["post-443968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-kj-apa","tag-music","tag-riverdale"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=443968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/443969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=443968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=443968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=443968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}