Charles Melton: Boy Wonder

From his heartfelt performance in The Sun is Also A Star to a sultry cameo in Ariana Grande's 'Break Up With Your Girlfriend' to now, becoming a breakout star of the teen-drama Riverdale; Charles Melton isn't just challenging the cultural status quo, he's redefining it.

- Rahat Kapur

To say Charles Melton is the of charm would be to understate his charisma. We meet late on a Friday evening via Zoom, hopping on just before close to midnight in Singapore and nine am in Los Angeles, where Melton is currently based. The actor spends his time flying between New York and the West Coast most weeks, depending on his audition and filming schedules. He greets me by my name, with a dimpled smile, and instantly seems laidback in that effortlessly cool kind of way, that makes you want to be his friend in a flash. With his black glasses in tow, he's sitting in a sun-soaked room at his home in LA and sipping on his first coffee of the day.

What strikes me first about Charles is: that he's early to the interview. Not something I often get to experience when it comes to celebrity chats. I get it, they're busy people and I don't mind waiting; it's almost always worth it. But Melton arrives a whole five minutes before his allocated hour and when I point this out to him, he tells me he can't help but be particular when it comes to time management as a result of his former football days.

"When I used to play college football, we used to have this clock and it had a hand for minutes, but also for seconds. Everyone knew you were meant to show up 15 minutes early. So if it was 2:00 pm, you should be there by 1:45 pm. Then we'd all stand, wait and watch for the person who'd walk in at 1:59 pm and 59 seconds and laugh. So, I think that stuck with me, you know? Now I try always to be on time."