Riverdale star Camila Mendes explains why she took another role as a high school student in her new movie Do Revenge. Mendes has played Veronica Lodge in the hit Archie Comics-inspired show since its debut in 2017. She was 23 at the time the series started airing. While Mendes was originally playing a teenager in Riverdale, the show took a seven-year time jump in season 5, helping the actors look more age appropriate.
Mendes, now 28, is back to back playing a high school student, Drea Torres, in Do Revenge, which releases on Netflix September 16. She appears alongside Stranger Things star Maya Hawke as Eleanor. Do Revenge is an homage to '90s high school movies like Clueless and 10 Things I Hate About You. It also takes inspiration from the 1951 Alfred Hitchcock movie Strangers on a Train. In Do Revenge, Drea and Eleanor have both been wronged in different ways and decide to help the other get revenge. In the Hitchcock movie, two strangers meet on a train and agree to murder someone for the other to avoid being suspected or caught.
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Given that Mendes played a high school student for several years on Riverdale, she was initially skeptical about taking on a similarly aged role. The New York Times asked why she accepted the part of Drea despite these concerns. Check out her response below:
You get this note so much in Hollywood that’s always like, ‘We don’t want her to be too unlikable. She’s got to be likable.’ And then what ends up happening is you get these really one-dimensional female characters. Drea is not that.
Drea offers Mendes a chance to play a role that is outside the Hollywood norm. Based on the Do Revenge trailer, her character gets to actively seek vengeance and enjoy herself while doing it. Even with Do Revenge being a throwback to '90s films, Mendes gets to break out of the mold of the one-dimensional characters often seen in those movies, which was clearly enough to convince her to take the part. Playing Drea in Do Revenge lets Mendes take a lead role in a film and find joy in playing a character that does not need to be liked. It makes sense that appealed to the actor.
While movies and TV shows do have a long history of casting older actors to play high school students, it's understandable that Mendes was a bit hesitant considering her career history. It's also worth noting that Riverdale has already allowed Mendes to play more than a typical high school character thanks to both its time jump and supernatural elements. The show has taken Veronica to some bizarre places in the past six seasons and allowed Mendes to show off her acting prowess as a result. It's likely her experience playing Veronica will only help elevate her performance in Do Revenge.