Riverdale Star Lili Reinhart Reveals On-Set Kissing Rule for The CW Series
Six seasons in, The CW's Riverdale is known for not only having some absolutely bananas plot twists — Season 6 included alternate dimensions, time travel, super powers, resurrection, and the actual apocalypse just to name a few — but also for its often-mature portrayal of its teen characters and their complex relationships. However, while there's no shortage of steamier moments in Riverdale, it turns out there is one on-set rule to keep things at least somewhat family-friendly. During a recent appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast (via EW), series star Lili Reinhart revealed that there is no tongue kissing scenes allowed, even in the timeline where the characters are actual adults.
"You can only be so much of an adult on a CW show, because you're not even really allowed to kiss with tongue," Reinhart, who plays Betty Cooper, said. "That aspect of things [is] a little different."
When it comes to things being "a little different" with Riverdale, in terms of the series' seventh and final season, the kinds of kissing going on is probably not going to be fans' main concern, however. The Season 6 finale saw Riverdale threatened with utter destruction thanks to Percival Pickens setting Bailey's Comet on a collision course with the Town with Pep, though Cheryl Blossom (Madelaine Petsch) was able to stop it using the combined super powers of herself and her friends. Riverdale was saved, but with a twist: everyone was sent back to high school and back in time — to 1955, specifically.
"It came from a couple of places. At various points in the season, we had talked about what our last season could be, and various people had been very nostalgic about when the kids were in high school," Aguirre-Sacasa told EW. "KJ Apa said to me at some point, 'Man, remember when we were in high school, and I was on the football team?' And Mark Pedowitz at the CW had a conversation with Jon Goldwater and said something like, "Oh remember when the kids were in high school?" We talked about it in the room, and we were sort of like, gosh, could we go back and put everyone back in high school? But we've done that. They were in high school for four-plus years. It would feel like a repeat. So, we were in a conundrum."
He continued, "It felt like all we're going to do for season 7 is sort of a lesser version of the high school years. But in thinking about nostalgia and then coming off of our big supernatural, mythic, Steven King-like season, we knew we needed to make our last season really, really special. One thing everyone can agree on is that whenever we have our characters in their iconic comic book outfits from the 1950s, people are delighted. Cole [Sprouse] was so happy when he didn't have to wear the beanie again, but he said to me, 'But, man, I'll wear that crown till the day I die.' So, we thought: What if we go back to high school, but instead of high school in the present, we make it high school in the 1950s which is how a lot of people think of the Archie characters."
Riverdale will return for its seventh and final season in 2023.
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