Madelaine Petsch would like to clear up any misconceptions about what she was doing with her time on the CW teen drama Riverdale.
After her costar KJ Apa‘s recent comments about the behind-the-scenes intrigue — including hookups — that tends to unfold on shows like theirs, Petsch said she wanted to clarify a thing or two when she appeared on the latest episode of the Call Her Daddy podcast.
“May I set the record straight about Riverdale, actually? I would love to do this on air,” Petsch, 31, began. “Recently, an article came out saying that we all f‑‑‑ ed each other on the show. I did not touch a single person on that show with a 10-foot pole.”
She emphasized, “May I just repeat that one more time? I did not f‑‑‑ a single person on Riverdale. I never touched them. That’s what happened. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.”
Madelaine Petsch and KJ Apa on ‘Riverdale’.
Dean Buscher/The CW
When host Alex Cooper inquired further, Petsch replied that she gleaned the article said the Riverdale cast members “all f‑‑‑ed each other all the time. And I was like, hey, no, I did not f‑‑‑ any of you. I don’t claim that s‑‑‑ at all.”
She added, “I don’t mix business and pleasure like that. I’ve never hooked up with a costar.”
Petsch was responding to a recent Entertainment Weekly interview with Apa and Madelyn Cline, his costar in the film The Map That Leads to You.
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Cline is also known for her work on the hit Netflix series Outer Banks, and the two were bonding over how much happens off-screen on sets when Apa said, “Yeah, there’s a lot of drama that comes on shows like that. Not to say in like a gossipy kind of way, but it’s just part of the environment, I guess. Part of the deal.”
Cline agreed, adding that young casts ultimately can’t help but get close while filming such shows: “It really is like family, and of course, you spend that much time with people, and you love them, and —”
Apa interrupted her, adding, “You hook up with them, people hook up with each other.”
Cline laughed harder as she said, “Wait, no, that’s Alabama. We’re in South Carolina.”
Apa didn’t name any names, and neither he nor Petsch have ever been romantically linked to any of their Riverdale costars. But he did double down and insist that castmates “have sex” with each other at the time.
“You have sex with them and stuff, and then things start happening,” Apa said. “And then things get a little complicated, and then you’re on set, and now you’re fighting with them.”
When Cline asked, “So it’s the same in Vancouver [where Riverdale was filmed]?”
Apa widened his eyes and let out a big breath.
“You sort of just have sex with them, and then you just sort of see what happens,” he said. “It’s just part of the deal.”
Madelaine Petsch at the L.A. premiere of ‘The Strangers: Chapter 2’.
Jon Kopaloff/Getty
Except it wasn’t part of Petsch’s deal. The actress — whose Riverdale character, Cheryl, maintained a fan-favorite romantic line with Vanessa Morgan’s Toni — told Cooper that costar Cole Sprouse offered her advice about never dating a scene partner.
“You know what’s really ironic about all this is Cole sat me down during the pilot and was like, ‘If I can give you one piece of advice, Mads,”‘ she recalled. “He was like, ‘Hey, don’t hook up with any of your costars, okay?’ I was like, ‘Okay I won’t.'”
The irony, of course, being that Sprouse famously dated Lili Reinhart, who played Betty Cooper on the show.
“Honestly, the best advice I’ve ever been given was from Cole Sprouse,” Petsch continued. “I never have and I never will.”
Watch Petsch’s full appearance on Call Her Daddy above.