Key Points
Camila Mendes struggled with panic attacks and an eating disorder while starring on Riverdale.
The actress said she used lorazepam to “numb” herself and get through work days.
Despite her struggles, Mendes said she still looks back on Riverdale very “fondly.”
Camila Mendes is getting candid about why her mental health hit “rock bottom” while filming Riverdale.
The actress, who spent seven seasons scheming, saving her friends and starting random businesses as Veronica Lodge, has mixed emotions about her days on the CW show. During a visit to the On Purpose with Jay Shetty podcast, Mendes detailed how her mental health struggles made for a tumultuous experience.
“My perfectionism came up a lot,” Mendes said of her tenure on the series. “I needed to be on all the time and at my best and looking my best.”
Mendes noted that while filming the first seasons of the teen soap opera, much of her turmoil was fueled by the fact that she was also grappling with an eating disorder.
“I felt a lack of control because I’m wearing a costume for a character that dresses differently than I would want to dress in my daily life,” she explained. “She’s wearing tight dresses and mini skirts and heels and showing my stomach, my little midriff or whatever. And if I felt bloated or if I didn’t feel good about myself that day, I had to wear something that made me feel worse and made me feel super insecure.”
Camila Mendes as Veronica Lodge on ‘Riverdale’Credit: Dean Buscher/The CW
Mendes said she would find herself suffering with “panic attacks” over the dissonance — leading only to further anxiety as she worried about derailing production on the show, which typically spanned 20 episodes a season.
“I’d have someone knocking on my door and being like, ‘They’re ready for you on set!’ And I’m crying because of the situation that I’m dealing with,’” she told Shetty. “And now my makeup’s ruined, and that’s another 30 minutes in the makeup chair for them to fix me.”
She continued, “Everyone’s on set waiting, and now I feel the pressure that I’m the reason why we’re behind. Oh my God, it was like a pressure cooker environment — constantly. Because there is no time to deal with things.”
Taking time off also didn’t feel like an option, as Mendes knew it cost production “thousands of dollars” to reshoot a day if she called out sick.
Lili Reinhart as Betty, Cole Sprouse as Jughead, Camila Mendes as Veronica and KJ Apa as Archie on ‘Riverdale’Credit: Katie Yu/The CW
The actress said she was eventually prescribed anxiety medication, lorazepam, which she used to “numb” herself before work to show up without worrying about “crying and hyperventilating.” She noted that while she didn’t necessarily want to numb herself that way, she didn’t see another way through.
When Shetty asked how Mendes got to the other side of that feeling, she quipped, “The show ended.”
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She then clarified that her time with Riverdale wasn’t always that difficult.
“Not every day was like that,” she insisted. “I did love my experience on the show, don’t get me wrong. I look back on that time very fondly. It was just being young and not having control over your schedule in your life. That was really hard.”
Mendes ultimately stuck with Riverdale for all seven seasons, playing Veronica throughout the show’s entire run from 2017 to 2023.
If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health challenges, emotional distress, substance use problems, or just needs to talk, call or text 988, or chat at 988lifeline.org 24/7.
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