Lili Reinhart: Poet at Heart

by James Mottram

Tell me a bit about how you tapped into playing Grace, because she’s an extremely complex character and there’s a lot of emotion going on in that role?

It was a tough one, but also not, because I am an inherently emotional, I hate to say depressive, but depressive human being. And that sounds terrible, but it’s just true. It’s just the nature of it. I struggle with depression and that’s unfortunately something that I deal with on a daily basis. And so, playing someone who’s going through grief didn’t feel very foreign to me. She’s obviously experiencing it at a heightened level than I would, because I haven’t lost the love of my life. But I think it was easier than one would think to dive into that, because I am a very emotional person and I was reading sad poetry and poems about grief while I was filming and watching very intense, heavy heartbreak movies; and just to keep me in a little bit of a somber mood basically. And it works.

You’ve got a book of poetry out [Swimming Lessons]. Were you writing poetry while you were preparing for the role?

Yeah, I definitely was. My poetry book is coming out in September, but I already basically have a second one completely written because I’ve written so much in the past year, just from a lot that’s happened in the past year and a half of my life. And I’ve added a lot of poems to my collection. So, hopefully if my book does well and people enjoy it and yeah, I think hopefully I’ll have more poetry books coming on the horizon.

It’s quite an unusual form. It’s not a medium that a lot of people work in, let’s say, these days. Is it something that you find cathartic in a way?

Yeah, I think it’s weird for me to think like, “Oh yeah, actually not a lot of people are involved in poetry.” But I think a lot of people are. I think secretly a lot of people are, and some not. So, secretly, obviously there’s a lot of poems or poets on Instagram, a lot of tumbler poets and things like that. But I think from my own experience of writing and sharing my poems, people that I’ve not thought write poetry have come forward and been like, “Oh, I write poems too.”

And that’s been so interesting for me to see pretty much everyone has this poet inside of them or a writer who, maybe not everyone, but I think a lot of people have this romantic lofty poet inside of them that comes out whether it’s in their journal or in their notes on their phone that maybe they probably will never share with anyone. But I think we can all find a beauty in poetry because it’s universal truths. My poetry book focuses on love and heartache and depression and anxiety and fame and grief. Those are all such universal things that we feel as humans. And so, I think anyone can pick up a poetry book, read something and relate to it.

Chemical Hearts really digs into how painful first love is. Was it something you could really tap into, that pain of the first love?

I think it wasn’t my first love that caused me pain, but it was definitely a love that I have had in my life that brought me heartache. And I think that’s why a lot of people who aren’t teenagers are going to like this movie, because it just feels almost nostalgic about your first experience. I think everyone can relate to an unrequited love. And even though Henry [Austin Abrams] wants Grace to be the best version of herself so badly that he can’t see outside, and he can’t see the fact that she’s genuinely just not ready… And I think it’s a truth that a lot of us struggle to grasp. Sometimes you want someone to change, you want someone to be what you want them to be, but you can’t force someone’s hand into loving you and you certainly can’t force them to change if they’re not ready. It’s such a personal process, and I think we as human beings can be inherently selfish and want people to change because we’ll benefit from it.

But I think at the end of the day, Henry learns that a relationship with Grace would never be what he wanted it to be, because she’s not ready. And that’s something that I’ve definitely dealt with as well. I’ve wanted to be with someone and wanted them to be and feel what I feel, but you cannot force it. And even if someone did say, “Fuck it, okay. Yeah, let’s be in a relationship.” If they’re not ready on the inside, then it’s going to be a failed relationship. So, I think it’s a matter of, unfortunately, sometimes people just aren’t ready, the timing isn’t right. Or someone’s not in the right emotional space. And I think part of growing up is understanding that.

What was high school like for you particularly? Was it a difficult period?

Terrible. I hated it, I really hated high school. I very much felt like a black sheep. I felt out of place. My whole life I’ve had a small group of close friends, and my close friends were all seemingly in their own little cliques. And so all of my friends had groups of people to go back to, but my group of people, it was hard to get all of my friends together because they were all from different, I don’t want to say cliques, but cliques. And so, I think I felt a little bit like a lone wolf. I struggled to feel okay going to high school. I knew I wanted to be an actress and sitting in math class studying fucking bullshit. So, it just felt dumb to me. Obviously, I’m very thankful for the education that I had and that I got, but I was very angsty in high school. I didn’t want to be there, I didn’t want to be stuck in a classroom. I didn’t want to be surrounded by people who didn’t understand me. And it wasn’t until I really immersed myself in feeder, which are the late high school years, where I felt like, “Yeah, these are my people. This is where I’m supposed to be.” And that just pushed me away from my own high school even further actually, and pushed me away from the people around me at school, because I was so focused on this other thing and this other aspect of my life.

Have you been blown away by the fandom around Riverdale?

Yeah. It’s insane. It really is. And I’m incredibly thankful for it because it’s one thing to be on a show and be a working actor, that’s something to be incredibly grateful for. But then another thing to be on a show that has a fan base like Riverdale. I have never experienced in my life such an outpour of support from so many people across the globe. It’s pretty mind blowing. Like I dropped the Chemical Hearts trailer and in one day the outpouring of support and people saying they’re proud of me for being an executive producer. It’s just a very beautiful thing and I’m incredibly grateful for it. And I’m incredibly grateful to Riverdale and what it’s given me. I just bought a house and that wouldn’t have happened without Riverdale. So, I’m incredibly, incredibly grateful for that experience. And the scale of the success is still, I don’t know what the word is, I guess I don’t really understand the scope of it yet. But maybe I have blinded myself to it a little bit because it’s scary to think how many people are watching me and paying attention to what I’m doing and everything I post, everything I say.

You’ve got 24 million Instagram followers. How do you cope with that? Is it strange? Is it strange or do you just think, “Well, it’s just a number…”

Honestly, I really don’t pay attention to it and I know that sounds dumb. Like, “Oh, how could you not pay attention to it?” But truly, it’s not something I stop and think about. I just try not to take social media too seriously in general. It makes it easier for me to go about being my normal self without having to perform or photoshop or think twice about whether, “Oh, my eyebrows don’t look perfect in this photo. Do I post it?” I don’t give a shit. Even though I have this number of people looking at what I do, it doesn’t give me a big head or an ego. I think I try not to think about it too much, because it doesn’t matter to me.

How was voicing on The Simpsons? That’s got to be a career high.

I was more excited for my dad, because I grew up watching The Simpsons with my dad, and knowing how much he loved that show. It felt like a full circle moment, like, “Oh wow, I’m doing something that my dad has been watching since the ‘90s,” or whatever the case may be. I felt cool doing that. I was like, “Damn, I’ve really done something here.” If I can voice a character on The Simpsons, it doesn’t get much cooler than that. It was really fun. I would love to do more voiceover.

You mentioned about being an exec producer on Chemical Hearts. Is that something now you’ve been through it once you want to do a lot more of as a way of gaining career control?

I do. Oh, 100%. I think inherently I’m just the kind of person who enjoys having control over things. I’m not over controlling by any means, but I like to know that my opinion is heard and matters. So, I really did enjoy being an executive producer and it’s something I want to continue doing. I think I’m good at it. And I’ve been told that I’m good at it. So was like, “Cool.” I didn’t expect that my career would take that turn. I think I was a little naive to what it actually meant. And then as I started doing it, I was like, “Oh, this is what I do anyways.” I like to share my opinions. I like to give my thoughts. I like to talk about the music in the film. I was already putting myself in that position before I was even in that position, just because I like to involve myself as much as I can in the projects that I do. So, actually, being credited for it was very nice. And it’s something I am going to continue doing.

Chemical Hearts is streaming on Prime Video from August 21, 2020