Perfect Petsch

Playing the fans' favourite misunderstood mean girl, Cheryl Blossom, in the megahit show, Riverdale, Madelaine Petsch reveals to Azza Arif that she once struggled with bullying and loneliness, and had difficulty fitting in anywhere as a result of her fiery red hair and South African accent. Then, she landed the role that skyrocketed her career in television...

- Azza Arif

Clad in a dark hoodie sweater with an oversized cosy red plaid blanket wrapped around her, Madelaine Petsch enters the brightly-lit room in Palm Springs with a slight smile and a huge tumbler filled with hot coffee. All eyes were on the stunning red head, as she took off her oversized sunnies to get prepped up for hair and makeup.

On The CW's Riverdale show, which is based on the comic book classic Archie, Madelaine plays the ginger-haired Cheryl Blossom, a bona fide bad girl whose meanness is derived from her personal life that is rooted in tragedy after tragedy. "It was emotionally difficult to play Cheryl, because she has been through so much, especially with her family. Her brother, who was the only one who loved her unconditionally, was killed by her father, so she is stuck in purgatory with her mother who, as you can see in the second season, pushed out her sexuality. That was incredibly hard to identify with because I have such a loving and supportive family," the actress admits. "That being said, I think every person identifies with the loneliness of that character. I mean, that girl is continuing to go through a period of her life where she feels like she doesn't belong anywhere, and I think everybody can identify with that at some point in their lives. I definitely felt like that for the majority of my childhood. So I can identify with that part of her that felt very lonely and empty, and that made it easy to build up all those walls and the facade of this external bitch, whom you can see in the first season a lot."