Cole Sprouse

The world of fashion and fine arts in New York really took me by surprise, and photography has helped me through a period of personal turmoil. I am glad when people like my portfolio, but its aim is - or was - to keep me at peace.

Whenever someone says, or whenever someone harkens back to, a golden age of the U.S. - usually the '40s or '50s - 90 percent of the time, they're a straight white man.

Y'know, I think, inherently, when you hear something like a teenage narrative come into play, even the idea that it's being called 'teenage' is a notion that it's being reduced to a problem that's not quite adult. That's a problematic thing to say about a narrative that could actually be dangerous, could be hurtful, could be upsetting.

I think Jughead's a selfish character. I think he really is.

The way Jughead talks to Archie and vice versa is very much the way I would talk to my twin.

To even be a working entertainer in Hollywood is such a rare privilege.

I don't regret anything about my younger career, mainly because we were children and didn't have too much power, but also because it gave us the privilege to be where we are now.

My background with acting is deeply interwoven with my family life and my childhood. It's a 'Peter Pan'-like narrative, something that was golden but could also be a bit dubious.

My closest friends are the ones who tell me that I'm being dumb or that I'm being wrong.

Jughead is one of those characters that takes the opinions of his father really seriously and probably seeks a bit of validation from him.

I've become obsessed with trying to figure out who I am against situations that make me uncomfortable and not settled, ensuring that that fear of stagnation doesn't allow me to flip into that bubble of privilege.

No man is an island, especially not Jughead.

I'm a believer that we should support various forms of representation because they clearly resonate with unheard groups of people, and for such a huge project like 'Riverdale,' this kind of representation is fundamentally important.

I believe every photographer is influenced by their sexual preference in a greater or lesser way, and it certainly has affected me.

Going to college made me realize you have to have real spaces of privacy, and you have to establish those early.

I had become obsessed with the control-freak aspect of photography and with the rising importance of the image in our social media age it ended up working.

I was sad and in a dark place, and I turned to a hobby to sort of take me out of that.

Disney is very much a child's theater - it's a very specific kind of acting. It's loud and boisterous with the goal to draw the attention of children and keep the attention of children, and it can kind of be cheesy and loud, and I had to unpack a lot of that, because as an actor, you kind of internalize, and you basically become a character.

If we were writing what the fans wanted to see, Betty and Jughead would be the most linear, monotonous narrative of all time.

I think sexuality, especially, is one of those fluid things where oftentimes we find who we are through certain things that happen in our lives.

I think there's still a lot of room in 'Riverdale' for that. Asexuality is not one of those things, in my research, that is so understood at face value, and I think maybe the development of that narrative could also be something very interesting and very unique and still resonate with people and not step on anyone's toes.

Being on set is the thing I love the most, and a lot of the things that come alongside acting and entertainment are the things I despise, to be quite honest.

Everyone loves twins.

It's one of those things that gets written off as humorous when you watch a child entertainer try to redefine themselves, but it can be an intense identity crisis.

When you're a child, and you're growing up, and you're mimicking a certain character, or you're trying to live and breathe a certain character on set for eight years that are also your formative years, you oftentimes take a lot of who you're playing into your real life and kind of become that thing.

I think Jughead is a pretty trustworthy character - not only a narrator. I think he might be selfish, but he's obviously selfish, and that is comforting to me. I also think he has a really strong moral fiber and a propensity for good, and he tries to cultivate that in other people.

I think the teenage sides of myself have informed my adult self.

I think, for many teens, a fundamental fact of the teenage experience is that you're in between this childlike state, in which you're told you're completely unqualified for just about anything in the adult world, and this adult world, where you're being told you have to be responsible, and you're just trying to figure out where you stand.

Jughead, to me, was reflective of a teen experience that made a lot of sense to me.

Oftentimes, the funniest comedians are people who've gone through personal torment.

I think we all have different ways with coming to terms with celebrity if you're raised within it. Everyone goes through it differently, and there's no one right answer.

I come from an educational environment that really praises, as do I, the forms of representation that are otherwise lacking in our public media.

I think as long as acting feels fulfilling and continues to feel fulfilling, it's worth it to me.

If you're a photographer, you end up being the raw creative force that allows other people to see what kind of narrative you want to be giving or what kind of art that you want people to see.

Photography is a pursuit that allows you to be very hands-on with what you show people of either yourself or the art you want to make, and acting is kind of the exact opposite. You do have a modicum of creative freedom as an actor, but you're still very much a cipher for other people's art.

I became obsessed with the storytelling of photography and going on little adventures.

Maybe it was escapism, but I had become obsessed with going to remote locations and keeping myself behind the camera.

There is no question I consider myself a feminist, but I also think the term 'feminist' has become a topical thing to say without backing it up with any real action.

My Twitter is a joke toilet, and I filter all these old, cringe-y parts of my brother and my childhood through that in an attempt to flush it down the drain forever.

I couldn't continue to live in a bubble and hope to be an empathic actor. It doesn't work.

Acting requires a great amount of empathy for real lived human experiences.

We chose NYU because their arts program was great, and they're a prestigious institution, but really because you're in a city. You're involved in a completely different way of life. You didn't feel trapped within a campus or in a bubble.

Because 'Friends' is on Netflix, there's a renewed interest from that... People can call me 'Ben' on the street, and I will turn around.

We went all dark and grimy for 'Riverdale.'

At first, when I received the script for the 'Archie' show, I was immediately turned off.

When I would read the 'Archie' comics when I was younger, I was rooting for Betty and Archie way over any alternative.

It's no new narrative to say that when people get out of child stardom, they oftentimes rebel in very serious ways.

I just survived a Disney career without singing. I don't want to, like, fall back in. I feel like I escaped, so if we could avoid it for as long as possible, that would be great.

I'm a firm believer that if you're nervous before you go into a scene, it means the scene is going to be good, and it means you're invested in making something special.

It's pretty inappropriate of fans to think they can expect any kind of narrative from showrunners or writers or actors. I just don't think that's the way you should engage with material that you're watching as a passive audience member.