If Lili Reinhart has a mantra; it might be “never give up.” The Cleveland, Ohio native, who has been acting, singing, and dancing since her tenth birthday, always knew she wanted a career in the performing arts. But after moving to Los Angeles when she was 18, months of rejection and frustration almost caused the now 24-year-old to turn around and go home. But February of 2016 turned out to be more than just a Valentine for her. Reinhart was cast as Betty Cooper in the TV series Riverdale, an updated adaptation of the classic Archie comic book series, which has since opened doors for her in the films Hustlers, Charlie’s Angels, and the new drama Chemical Hearts, a show about two teenagers navigating through high school, love and life.

Reinhart stars as Grace Town, a transfer student who immediately gets asked to help edit her new school newspaper. She meets her co-editor Henry Page, a hopeless romantic, who not only befriends her but helps navigate her back from a past that has both damaged her emotionally and physically.

This is such a poignant story about love and loss, especially during the teenage years. About who do we let into our lives?

Sure. 100%. As I have gotten older I realize how important it is to know when to learn to cut people out. People who aren’t serving you anymore. Just for me personally, life is short but it is also long so you have to make the decision to let the right people in.

Who are those people?

Those are the people who validate you. The people you can trust and lean on. In balancing that, you need to know, who isn’t serving you anymore.

Actors utilize props or wardrobe to help them draw themselves into a character. What did the cane do for you?

It brought about a constant reminder of the drama; the traumatic experience that Grace has gone through. I had to remind myself as I was filming that she just went through this. It was a change of her world in a blink of an eye and the cane was a constant reminder of that. I got very used to it. It wasn’t just a prop. It was part of the character.

As the executive producer of the film, what did that business responsibility mean to you?

It felt very natural to me. I have always wanted to be so involved in everything that I have ever done. I have always tried to have a connection with the director, even after we have finished filming because I wanted to be updated on everything. I want to be involved so this was an opportunity for me to do that and to have credit for it. It gave me a reason. It was so fun and such an amazing experience to be part of something from start to finish. It was very gratifying. It was a dream come true.

There is a sequence in the film when you are in the car, and you need to listen to a very specific song. If you took me in your car, what song would you be playing that would mean something special to you?

Oh, man. I think anything Tame Impala. That is my favorite artist. I would be playing their current album on repeat. It would just be constant.

So many people got to know you from Riverdale. What has that show done for you creatively, how has it made you the actor you are today?

Everything. Riverdale has given me everything. It has set me up to really settle into who I was as a performer and feel confident in myself I was very much in that struggling actor phase before I booked Riverdale. Over the course of these four seasons, it has been a really wonderful way for me to feel confident in my ability. Acting is a muscle you need to constantly work out and so to have a job, working over so many months during the year, is something I don’t take for granted. I appreciate being a working actress. I also do things on Riverdale that are so out of the box for me. I get to do so many crazy things on one show and that is such a cool opportunity. Not many people have that. It gives me such a wide range of things to play with and discover.