American Sweatshop, TikTok, Acting & Future

No matter how you discovered Lili Reinhart, she swears the best is yet to come.

While the 28-year-old actress and entrepreneur rose to fame for her role as Betty on The CW’s Riverdale, she has since shown her talents in numerous other projects, even some that have yet to be released to wider audiences, such as American Sweatshop (just premiered at SXSW) and Hal & Harper (premiered at Sundance last month).

“People know me from Riverdale and they know me for making randomness on TikTok and that’s fine,” she tells The Hollywood Reporter, but “I’m hoping within the next few years when my projects start to come out, my fans will be able to have more content to grip onto that is of me as an actor, which is where my heart is.”

Aside from acting, Reinhart stays booked and busy between her beloved TikTok videos, her skincare brand Personal Day and her production company Small Victory Productions. Though she admits she’ll never be too busy for her comfort place. “I’m so unhealthily attached to my home that the projects that I do really have to be so special because I’m like, ‘I don’t wanna leave my house,’” she says.

Below, Reinhart gets candid about her future as an actor, upcoming projects, why she doesn’t make quite as many ASMR videos on TikTok anymore, her dream role and more.

What made you first want to pursue a career as an actor?

I was always into performing when I was a kid, so I did dance and singing lessons. I was always the one making my family sit and watch me perform for them, awkwardly. And that turned into me doing theater when I got a little bit older, and then that kind of just snowballed into pursuing film and television from Cleveland, which can only really get you so far. So my mom would drive me to New York for auditions and I would fly to L.A. whenever we could save up enough money to go do an acting camp or a course or something like that. So I Iuckily had very supportive parents who were willing to go the extra mile to help me pursue this dream that I had when I was so young.

With your new film American Sweatshop (which takes a look at the toll of social media through the eyes of Lili’s character Daisy, an online moderator) premiering at SXSW, what are you most excited about?

This one had a really quick turnaround. We just shot it in July, so to me, it’s quick. Not in a bad way, it happened really quickly. And it’s just been exciting for me, everything that kind of comes out or is going to come out post-Riverdale, I think it’s just kind of a different view of me as an actor, and so it’s been exciting for me to kind of enter that new chapter of my life, basically, and get more work out there, things that people haven’t seen me do before.

As someone with a presence on social media, what initially drew you to the project?

I really resonated with the disturbing things that people are exposed to on a daily basis on the internet. I was growing up when Facebook was just becoming a thing and Instagram was just becoming a thing — not that really Facebook and Instagram are where you see disturbing things — but just like I became more online and when you’re more online you’re more exposed to the dangers of what’s going on on there. And I remember seeing disturbing — whether they were sexual or violent — videos when I was incredibly young, not on purpose, but just because you stumble upon them as you’re browsing the internet. And I thought this movie was really interesting, without being preachy, through the lens of this woman’s job as an online moderator, a story of how desensitized we are today to the horrific things that we see. We’ve grown accustomed to seeing so much sexual content and violence at such a young age, and I don’t think it’s good for our brains and for our mental health. So I had never read a script that dealt with that specific topic, and so I really appreciated the idea that we were tapping into something that is not commonly talked about. Maybe in your inner circle, you talk about horrible violent things that you’re seeing, but not in sort of a movie context are you really speaking about that specific thing.

What do you hope people take away from American Sweatshop, and did you personally take anything away from the film?

In general, I’ve walked away from the app X [formerly known as Twitter]. I think it’s easy to spot negative platforms and inner circles within platforms. You know, if you’re on Reddit, you’re probably gonna see some nasty stuff on there. And so, me personally, I used to be much more active on Reddit, and now I’m not as active on that site. I don’t go out of my way to put myself on platforms that really have a lot of negativity, and I think it’s easy to figure out what those ones are. You know, no one’s forcing you to be scrolling online, and I think we get in these habits of scrolling and doom scrolling, and at the end of the day, you end your night by watching 300 videos flash before your eyes, and that’s something that we’re doing voluntarily. But I think there’s a point where you can say, I need to really be better at moderating what I’m looking at. Whether you start scrolling Pinterest rather than TikTok or whatever, you get off Twitter or whatever it is, there’s a way to sort of moderate your own online activities.

With Hal & Harper, which premiered at Sundance last month, what was it like being a part of a project so many people can relate to when it comes to navigating loss and trauma through different stages of life?

Hal & Harper is really such a special show that is so emotional and beautiful and heartbreaking, and I think it’s something that a lot of people would really connect with if they were given a chance to see it as an audience, and hopefully they will be if the show finds a home on a platform. But that was the most proud I feel of any work that I’ve done as an actor, so obviously, I hope people will see it because I’m so proud of it and what it stands for. And American Sweatshop as well, I’m also proud of. It’s a tough, weird time in the industry right now and making things that aren’t like typical kind of popcorn movies, I think it’s a harder sell for people and platforms when you’re trying to sell things on this market. But that’s not gonna stop us from making good indie projects, and I really connect with indie film and clearly indie television, which is what Hal & Harper was, and I’m about to go shoot an indie film in March, so I’m an indie girl at heart. People wouldn’t know that because I was on a CW show for seven years.

Having been a part of such a long-running show like Riverdale, did you take anything from that experience that’s helped you with your career today?

It’s interesting because I’m about to go shoot something for six weeks and that’s kind of a blip in time compared to when I was on a television show where I was going away from home for nine months. And now in my life, post-Riverdale, I’m such a homebody. I’m so unhealthily attached to my home that the projects that I do really have to be so special because I’m like, “I don’t wanna leave my house.” So I have to really make sure I love something in order to commit to leaving my comfort zone. And I haven’t had my new work that I’ve done come out post-Riverdale yet, so I feel that I’ve visibly sort of faded from public view as an actor the last few years, which is fine, but I’ve been very intentionally picky and selective about what I wanna do. I’m also in my late 20s and I’m pivoting what I’m doing with my career. I’m moving away from network television and into indie movies and that’s kind of a big pivot and it takes time. So I’ve been patient and I’m thanking my fans who have also been patient and sometimes wondering, where are you? It’s like, I want to make sure that I’m doing this until I’m 80 years old, and so each project has to have something special about it.

You also have a beloved presence on social media with your fun, lighthearted TikToks. What does creating that short-form content mean to you?

I have found my groove on TikTok, and I was actually just thinking about this the other day, if you follow me and I post something, you don’t know whether you’re gonna get an ASMR video, kind of a vlog, something about skincare, a lip-sync video, a video of my dog Milo. I really do not have a rhythm. I post when I feel like it and I delete a lot of things. So I’ll post something, leave it for sometimes five minutes and then delete it. So I’m kind of unorganized on there, but I’ve found my little corner. TikTok makes me laugh and it’s the only social media platform that actively brings me joy, so that’s an app that I want to invest in and that I wanna be a part of.

People were specifically obsessed with your ASMR videos. What was your reaction to that?

I started seeing these Crumbl Cookies ASMR [videos], and I was like, “Oh, I’ve never tried Crumbl Cookies. I’m gonna try it with ASMR,” and I didn’t expect it to turn into what it was. And then I kind of had to intentionally stop doing it because I did not want to be known as a Crumbl Cookie influencer. As much as I was having a fun time doing it just for kicks, I think people were getting confused and wondering if I was just a cookie ASMR influencer. So for my own sort of sanity, I had to be like, no, this is not what I’m doing. … I think it’s a fun little splash of randomness to have on my page, but I’m not an ASMR influencer, so I think I just had to politely step away a little bit from all of that. I get it, people know me from Riverdale and they know me for making randomness on TikTok and that’s fine. I’m hoping within the next few years, when my projects start to come out, my fans will be able to have more content to grip onto that is of me as an actor, which is where my heart is. 

Why is it also important for you to present yourself as authentic and vulnerable as possible on social media?

It’s never really been something I’ve thought too hard about. I’ve never felt like I needed to put a persona on. That’s so much work. I think if I had to try and put on this more refined, less Midwestern, classier version of myself, it would be impossible and I would be slipping through the cracks all the time. I really don’t try to put too much of a filter on me at any point, and it’s benefited me because I think people see me as a real person and they don’t hold me to this insanely high, perfectly eloquent, perfectly put-together person all the time. And that just allows me the flexibility and comfort to live my life and have there be a smoother transition between my actual personal life and then when I’m in the professional eye, doing press and interviews. There’s not this switch that needs to happen. … I can’t control how people perceive me, so I’m just gonna go for it and if I’m not someone’s cup of tea, totally fine because if I weren’t me, I probably wouldn’t be my cup of tea either. 

Is there a dream project or genre you have yet to do?

I’m a sucker for a period piece. I’ve always wanted to do an 18th-century period piece, along the lines of Atonement or Pride and Prejudice, like some sweeping, incredible, iconic romance, where I get to wear beautiful dresses and look like I’m frolicking through a field. I think that sounds really nice and it would be a fun experience. And I’m sure wearing a corset would be miserable and hard, but I’m down and I want to do that. But period pieces are few and far between because they’re so expensive, but I’m hoping one day at some point in my career, I’ll get to do something like that. 

What would you tell younger Lili seeing where you are today?

I think I would probably be like, “Wow, you own a house,” would be the first thing. And then it would be like, I’m so happy that it actually worked out and I believed in myself and my family believed in me enough for it to actually happen. 

If you had to describe what makes Lili Reinhart, Lili Reinhart, what would you say?

The beauty of being in my own space. I’ve really grown to love my space and I think it kind of comes from spending so many years in my 20s, being in a space that wasn’t really my home. Not that I have anything against Vancouver or Canada and Riverdale, but my home was in L.A. and I was trying to cultivate a life for myself here, but then I was having to go work for years. So I just really appreciate the opportunity to make a life for myself here, [which] has been really, really lovely.