Fan support is great, but can be intense: Lili Reinhart

Actress Lili Reinhart, who plays Betty Cooper in "Riverdale", enjoys the fan support that she and the show gets, but says it can be "very intense" at times.

"Riverdale", which airs on Colors Infinity in India, has a strong fan base.

"The fan support is great, but it can be very intense. Sometimes, people get into verbal fights on Twitter and you just think 'Woah, guys...calm down. This is fiction. There's no need to argue'," Reinhart said in a statement to IANS.

"But on the flip side of that, there are no words to explain how it feels to see people so excited about our show. The support is immense. There's a weird moment of realisation when you remember people look up to you as Lili, not just as Betty. That's when I remind myself 'Oh, they are not just here for the show. They are here because they support us as human beings'. It's really touching," she added.

On what she thinks of fans' reaction to the musical episode in the show's season two, she said: "I feel like the reaction was 50/50. Some people really loved it, which is great. Some people were like 'Why is this a musical?' I can understand their questioning.

"It's funny because none of us had heard of 'Carrie: the Musical' before. None of us knew any of the songs - but we almost did 'Sweeney Todd' and we almost did 'Little Shop of Horrors'. If we did another musical episode, it could be anything. Who knows?"

She also spoke on the "darker side of Betty" in season three.

"I'll just say what ('Riverdale' executive producer) Roberto (Aguirre-Sacasa) said to me. He said that season one and season two were about Betty's inner darkness and season three is about the outer darkness," said Reinhart.

"I don't fully know what that means yet, but I think it has to do with the fact that all the darkness is out there now. Her dad is out there; the secrets are out there, so I don't really think you will see her battling with internal demons anymore. She's accepted it is what it is. She's got her friends, and now she's going to battle some more demons," she explained.

--IANS

nn/rb/sed