'Riverdale' Star Reveals Inspiration Behind Penelope Blossom's New Career

This season of Riverdale has been full of surprising twists and turns, and one of the truly [...]

By Nicole Drum

This season of Riverdale has been full of surprising twists and turns, and one of the truly shocking ones involved Penelope Blossom.

After it was revealed last season that Clifford Blossom had not only killed his own son, Jason, but was involved in drugs and ultimately committed suicide, Cheryl Blossom (Madelaine Petsch) decided to burn her life down -- literally. Cheryl torched the family home, forcing she and her mother, Penelope (Nathalie Boltt) to dramatically change their lives. One of those changes? Mama Blossom had to take on a shocking new career as a sex worker. While this new career for Penelope stunned both Cheryl and audiences, Boltt recently told Seat 42f that she had a hand in the dramatic left turn her character took.

"Well, I got to talking with the showrunners and the writers because -- well, what do you do if you're a moneyed woman and you've only ever relied on your family income and your social standing, and then you lose absolutely everything, including your house?" Boltt said. "So, I thought it would be quite an interesting scene for Cheryl to say, 'You're not qualified to anything but the oldest occupation in the world.'"

Boltt also revealed that she had a hand in styling Penelope's new look as a madam.

"So, we brought that in, and I mean, I'm a huge fan of Boardwalk Empire, and I love the madam, the bordello owner in that, and I loved her style," Boltt explained. "So, I think that's where some of the styling influence came from, and although, the Blossoms have always been vintage and kind of stuck in their own time zone, I think it made sense for us to go that sort of 30s-40s look, which I think suits Penelope quite well."

Her work comforting the lonely men of Riverdale also seems to suit Penelope quite well. Penelope has openly flaunted her business in front of Cheryl, making no effort to hide either her illicit acts or how much she enjoys watching Cheryl squirm especially now that Cheryl has seemingly sent Hal Cooper (Lochlyn Munro) whom Penelope had been developing a relationship with, packing. It's a loss that Boltt is confident isn't the end of the affair.

"But who knows?" Boltt said. "Maybe those feelings will go dormant for a little while, and then they'll pop back up, because real feelings do."

Riverdale airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on The CW

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