If you've ever thought, "Wow, Jughead is really annoying" while watching Riverdale, you're not alone. Cole Sprouse knows his character can be insufferable — and he thinks that makes him more relatable as a teen character.
In an interview with Terron Moore for Teen Vogue, Sprouse explained that Jughead's being "pretentious" is actually what originally drew him to the role.
"Jughead, to me, was reflective of a teen experience that made a lot of sense to me," Sprouse told Teen Vogue. "He's the narrator on the show. So that, to me, was interesting, because anybody who thinks they can write about their own town with the people living side-by-side right next to him… that's a super pretentious thing to think. And pretentiousness is kind of like the currency of the teenage experience. I think there's something so human about that and so understandable about that, that Jughead became really interesting to me. He's this character that strives for a kind of deepness in almost a cringe-y capacity, and that experience was really enjoyable to try and portray on screen."
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Sprouse also talked to Teen Vogue about his character's relationship with Archie (K.J. Apa), which is a different look at male friendship than we normally see on TV.
"The truth about male friendship is often left out of the media, and it's that it has a million different shades, because masculinity has a million different forms," Sprouse told the magazine. "I love the way Archie and Jughead's relationship is portrayed: It's very understanding, and there's open communication."
So in some ways, Jughead might be a stereotypically pretentious teen — but in other ways, like his friendship with Archie – he's totally breaking the mold. Sprouse perfectly captured the complexities of his character, giving us another reason to love Riverdale even more.
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