Charles Melton Credits Riverdale for Preparing Him for May December Role
Melton called The CW's series his "acting school."
The 2023 Oscar season is almost upon us, and movie fans certainly have a lot of feelings about who could possibly be nominated. One performance that has remained on the shortlist for Best Supporting Actor is Charles Melton, who portrayed Joe Yoo in Todd Haynes' drama May December. For a generation of viewers, Melton is best known for portraying Reggie Mantle on The CW's Riverdale — and apparently, that show had a formative impact on him. In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Melton revealed that Riverdale's intense production schedule provided him with an "acting school" experience, which prepared him in a unique way for May December.
"Ten months out of the year, 22 episodes, eight to 10 days to film one episode.… That's a lot of work in a short amount of time, and it really took everybody on set to come together to execute this process," Melton explained. "That experience alone, and working with nearly 100 directors on that show, really gave me this confidence and this foundation — as, like, my acting school in a way — to really be able to come to a set like Todd Haynes' and just completely let go."
What Is May December About?
In May December, twenty years after their notorious tabloid romance, a married couple buckle under the pressure when a Hollywood actress meets them to do research for a film about their past. The film also stars Natalie Portman, Julianne Moore, Cory Michael Smit, Elizabet Yu, Gabriel Chung, Piper Curda, D.W. Moffett, and Lawrence Arancio.
"There's just something about repression and tragedy and loneliness that I'm attracted to in characters, and Joe had a complex mix of all those things," Melton said elsewhere in the interview. "In spite of whatever the subject matter was, just understanding this human without any sort of formulated opinion or judgment and complete empathy really allowed me to just go to places that I always hoped are possible with Todd, Julie and Natalie."
Where Is Riverdale's Final Season Streaming?
In August of this year, Riverdale's seventh and final season was available to stream on Netflix. The final batch of episodes culminated the Archie Comics-inspired show with a lot of heart, surprises, and a touch of the supernatural.
"A lot of times on TV shows, you don't know when something's ending, so it's a privilege to know the end is here and be present in that," Riverdale executive producer Sarah Schechter said in an interview earlier this year. "It felt like the end of an era."
"I think it fits in with other iconic coming-of-age shows," Schechter added. "It's something we can be proud of and that will continue to be discovered. So many of my friends' kids are watching Gilmore Girls and just love being able to go into that world and spend time with all those characters. And I think that'll be part of the legacy of Riverdale as well. Also, it's a legacy of network television, making that many episodes, of having the chance to tell that many stories for that many characters."