Camila Mendes says 'Riverdale' 'did everything you could imagine'

At South by Southwest, Camila Mendes reflected on her Riverdale roots. In an interview with Collider, she explained how the show gave the cast "creative autonomy." 

"Throughout the course of making Riverdale, every episode there's a new director, and so what becomes the throughline really is us. We're becoming co-creators with each other, making the show. I think in some ways we all kind of started to have agency over the creative choices in the show, whether or not that was in tandem with the showrunner. It was more just like we were crafting these characters, and we were crafting the stories that we wanted to tell with the characters."

The CW's Riverdale, based on the Archie comic books, came to an end after seven seasons, with Mendes starring as Veronica Lodge in all of them. The rest of the cast included KJ Apa, Cole Sprouse, Lili Reinhart, Madelaine Petsch, Vanessa Morgan, Charles Melton, and Casey Cott.

"We did everything you could imagine [on the show]. There wasn't a single thing we didn't do," the actress explained. "Every genre we played with and experimented with, every storyline. Every time someone says something, I'm like, 'Yeah, we did that on Riverdale.' Like superheroes? 'Yeah, we did that.' Harvesting organs? 'Yeah, we did that.' So, I think that just really opened up our minds to different creative avenues."