KJ Apa wanted to completely shed his Riverdale character Archie Andrews when he arrived on set to film motorcycle racing drama One Fast Move — so he decided to shave his head.
Since the upcoming Prime Video movie is his first role to come out since Riverdale ended last August, it doesn't seem like that would be a big deal, right? Apa, who is a natural brunette, had to dye his hair bright red to play the iconic Archie Comics character for over seven years. It's understandable that he'd want to celebrate the end of that extremely involved haircare routine. But One Fast Move was actually filmed in between seasons of his CW series, so shaving those instantly recognizable locks was actually a big decision.
Frank Masi/Prime Video
"I shot this movie between season 6 and season 7 — it feels like a long time ago because it was a long time ago, I shot it two years ago," Apa tells Entertainment Weekly, adding that filming in between seasons was actually "frustrating" for him as an actor because he was straddling two completely different roles.
"It was frustrating because I'd never been so connected to a film that I was about to shoot, while also working on Riverdale," he explains. "You'd find yourself on set of Riverdale, thinking about another character that you're about to play, and it can become frustrating, especially because I had to shoot very soon after finishing that season."
As soon as production on season 6 wrapped in Vancouver, Apa couldn't wait to get to the One Fast Move set and hop on a motorcycle. "I remember being in Atlanta and feeling so liberated to just be like, 'Okay, I can just focus on this now,'" he says. "And then we were talking about what my hair was going to be like for this movie, and then I ended up just being like, 'F--- it. I'm shaving my head.' And I shaved my head to get rid of all the red. I didn't want to see any red hair or anything. And it ended up being a good choice, I think."
In One Fast Move, Apa plays Wes, a young man down on his luck, fresh out of prison, and broke, so he decides to seek out his estranged father, Dean (played by Grey's Anatomy and Euphoria star Eric Dane), to help him pursue his dream of becoming a professional motorcycle racer. Wes is absolutely nothing like the clean cut, all-American Archie Andrews, and Apa wanted his appearance to fully reflect that.
"I mean, it just felt right to [shave my head]," he says. "It's so funny because Eric shows up on set and he had shaved his head, so we actually both shaved our heads without knowing that each other had done it for our characters." After pausing to laugh at how the father and son characters ended up accidentally rocking the same hairstyle, he adds, "We were like, 'Wait, is this bad?'"
When Apa returned to film the final season of Riverdale, he was back to red hair — albeit much shorter, since he had to grow it back first. But filming One Fast Move reignited his love of acting before he returned to his CW series.
"It found me at the right time through Kelly [Blatz], who directed it and wrote it," Apa says. "When I met him, I knew that I wanted to work with him, and I read the script and I really connected to it, and we ended up finding the time to make it happen. We really connected through the story and through our own lives, Kelly and I, which is why we chipped away at this thing so deeply because we both really, really, really, really cared about it. He's someone who will die for his work, and so am I, and we really cared about what we were making."
The experience of filming One Fast Move didn't end when he returned to Riverdale. In fact, Apa says that making movie "impacted" him in such a deep way that he'll carry it with him on all projects in the future.
"It's been the biggest impact of my life creatively so far, this movie, and particularly working with Kelly," he adds. "Because Kelly had introduced me to a new way of looking at the way that I work, through books that he shared with me, through the conversations that we've had, through his friendship with me, and the creation of this movie. I fell deeper in love with what I do as an actor and telling stories, and I fell more in love with my own life in a way and wanted to be more present in my own life."
Apa says that he now knows what his "values" are, "and that it's important to do things that align with those values, whatever projects I do next and whatever I decide to give my time to."
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It's something that he was really affected by while bringing to life Wes and Dean's struggles with their strained father-son relationship.
"A lot of the things that we were dealing with in the movie are things that I, at that point in my life, was going through, in terms of being a father and how to balance achievement with responsibility," Apa says. "Which I feel like as a parent, all parents go through that, and it doesn't have to be black and white. You don't have to sacrifice everything to be great. And then again, what is that meaning of greatness for somebody?"
Apa welcomed his first son, Sasha, with Clara Berry in 2021 and is now even more dedicated to being the best father he can be after making this movie. "I know my idea of being great is being able to invest into relationships because relationships is all we have," he says. "That's what I really learned from this movie, is that life is really about the relationships you have in life with the people you love."
One Fast Move races onto Prime Video on Aug. 8.
