The team behind Dallas Fan Days put together a Riverdale panel for actor Casey Cott’s appearance. The young actor plays Kevin Keller, an openly gay character on the hit CW TV series based off the Archie comics. The Casey Cott Q&A panel took place on the final day of the convention, Sunday Oct. 20.
Riverdale has become a pop culture favorite for so many young audiences. With leading faces such as Cole Sprouse and Lili Reinhart, the show’s take on the Archie comics has been a success. With four seasons, The CW delivers more drama and fun for one of its biggest teen shows.
Panel Summary
https://tenor.com/embed.jsCasey Cott discussed what it’s like being on a major television series and how he’s just a normal guy off and on the set of the show. Cott also talked about what he has learned from his first major role as his character Kevin and what’s in store for the rest of season four of Riverdale.
Panel Recap
https://tenor.com/embed.jsCasey says that Kevin’s character will be dealing with repercussions from his actions in season three. Gaining Betty’s (Lili Reinhart) friendship back and a new storyline for his character that he’s excited to see since it will be bringing a darker tone.
Fan Q&A
What is your favorite set or place to work on?
Casey brought up that his favorite set is the school hallways. The hallways bring him memories of his high school days and he said the set even smells like a high school hallway. He added on to say that it feels cool being in that environment minus the student lounge that seems to be way too cool!
I like the hallways, the student lounge is cool but I’m also like did anyone have a student lounge that looked like that when they were in high school..like no.
Casey Cott
How crazy do you expect Riverdale to get?
Casey responded by saying that Riverdale just gets “weirder and weirder and more and more confusing.” The writers are a major part of why the show seems to be so chaotic in a great way. He added that the script writers like to bring so much craziness to the show’s storylines. One major plot point he brought up as an example was when lead character Archie got attacked by a bear, seemingly out of the blue in season three.
I think the writers like that, I think they like to just be like, ‘oh my gosh what if Archie got ripped off by a bear.’ Like how would we do that and then they just do it!
Casey Cott
When talking about the balance of the show’s darkness and its melodramatic overall tone, Casey agreed that approaching the show’s style is fun and allows the audience to see what the cast wants to portray.
https://tenor.com/embed.js“I think as an actor approaching a show like Riverdale you have to realize it’s a style and part of the style is leaning in and like making fun of what you’re doing kind of and that allows, the audience, to then find joy and laughter watching it while also being like oh this is also a cool story, but also we’re all commenting on what we’re doing.”
How much of Casey is Kevin and how much of Kevin is Casey?
Casey explained that most of Kevin is him. And in the same way, that role can be reversed to him being a lot of Kevin. He added on by saying how the writers combine so many ideas for Kevin and then he has to translate all that work in to himself.
When you play a character for a long time you also start to generate some similarities with that character.
Casey Cott
Casey also brought up how he got the role of Kevin in Riverdale after a couple of auditions.
He gave the crowd insight on how he originally had auditioned for the role of Archie but never heard anything back. The same happened with his audition for the role of Jughead.
Casey explained that, after he auditioned for the role of Kevin, he eventually got tired of dealing with the show. He even told his agents to stop sending him stuff involving Riverdale.
He then revealed that two hours later after he spoke with his agents he got the part of Kevin!
What has it been like to represent an LGBTQ+ character on a TV show?
A fan asked this question to Casey and he stated that he likes the fact that Kevin is just himself and can be open with the rest of the characters in the series.
Kevin just being out, being accepted, being exactly what he is. His family loves him, his friends love him, and it’s just kind of who he is. And I think that’s been really cool playing Kevin.
Casey Cott
He also explained how the show isn’t afraid to pinpoint situations when they become uncomfortable or confusing for his character when it comes to his identity. The show does not use his LGBTQ+ character as a character to define the series. He is just a part of the Riverdale universe and it accepted as he is.
You can read more of our comic con panel recaps here.
Featured image credit: Natalie Bermudez/Geek Gals
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