Camila Mendes Opens Up About 'Emotional' Experience Working With Riverdale Costar Charles Melton After Breakup
Working with your ex after you break up isn't exactly ideal, especially if they're your on-screen love interest. While appearing on a recent episode of Dax Shepard's Armchair Expert podcast, Camila Mendes opened up about the difficulties she faced working alongside Riverdale co-star, Charles Melton, 33, during their on and off relationship. The pair, who dated from 2018 to 2021 while filming the hit CW series, broke up and got back together a couple times over the course of the show. "We dated for a year and then broke up for about a year and then got back together for about a year," Mendes, 29, told Shepard, noting the second time around lasted for "like seven months" and was fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic. "It's 'cause it was COVID, that was a big catalyst. We broke up and then [it was] COVID and then the show was down for a long time so there was that big separation," she explained. But when they returned to Canada to film season 6 of the show, both stars were in "other relationships," further fueling the tension on set. The pair couldn't stay away from each other for too long though, with Mendes revealing that "naturally" the each got out of their own relationships "not knowing the other did," leading them to rekindle their romance. Mendes continued, "And we're in lockdown, we can’t leave Vancouver.... And it's, like, 'Maybe second time's the charm?' Maybe this time it will be different." But that time in between, where the pair were forced to shoot scenes together, was admittedly hard for Mendes, who said she's luckily "good" at handling breakups and is "good at keeping things professional." "Obviously, right when it happened, it's hard and it's emotional," the Upgraded actress said. "It's the worst. But it's hard because the timing of the show -- it was jokes --because it was like, any time we started to hook up off set and knew that something was brewing, our characters would start dating." "But they didn't know. No one knew," Mendes added. "The writers just would naturally make it happen." By the time Mendes and the May December actor called it quits on their fling for good, Mendes said the decision was "mutual." "It ended very peacefully and 'wish you all the best,'" Mendes shared. "But it still hurts, no matter what." When returning for the show's seventh and final season, Mendes said that both she and Melton had moved on from the back-and-forth qualities of their romantic relationship, and were able to keep it strictly professional. "There was definitely like an air of, 'Zen, we're past it.' We worked together a lot as well but not in a romantic capacity," Mendes explained. "It went super smoothly last season. I think the whole last season felt very different in that way where we all really came together in the last season, cause it's like this is the last time we're all gonna be together in this room who knows when something like this will happen again," she noted. Both Mendes and Melton have since dated other people, with the Golden Globe-nominated actor most recently linked to S.H.I.E.L.D. star, Chloe Bennet, and Mendes loved up with current boyfriend, Rudy Mancuso.
Moderated by Tomas Kauer 
"Any time we started to hook up off set and knew that something was brewing, our characters would start dating," Mendes recalled. "But they didn't know. No one knew. The writers just would naturally make it happen."
Working with your ex after you break up isn't exactly ideal, especially if they're your on-screen love interest.
While appearing on a recent episode of Dax Shepard's Armchair Expert podcast, Camila Mendes opened up about the difficulties she faced working alongside Riverdale co-star, Charles Melton, 33, during their on and off relationship.
The pair, who dated from 2018 to 2021 while filming the hit CW series, broke up and got back together a couple times over the course of the show.
"We dated for a year and then broke up for about a year and then got back together for about a year," Mendes, 29, told Shepard, noting the second time around lasted for "like seven months" and was fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic.
"It's 'cause it was COVID, that was a big catalyst. We broke up and then [it was] COVID and then the show was down for a long time so there was that big separation," she explained.
But when they returned to Canada to film season 6 of the show, both stars were in "other relationships," further fueling the tension on set.
The pair couldn't stay away from each other for too long though, with Mendes revealing that "naturally" the each got out of their own relationships "not knowing the other did," leading them to rekindle their romance.
Mendes continued, "And we're in lockdown, we can’t leave Vancouver.... And it's, like, 'Maybe second time's the charm?' Maybe this time it will be different."
But that time in between, where the pair were forced to shoot scenes together, was admittedly hard for Mendes, who said she's luckily "good" at handling breakups and is "good at keeping things professional."
"Obviously, right when it happened, it's hard and it's emotional," the Upgraded actress said. "It's the worst. But it's hard because the timing of the show -- it was jokes --because it was like, any time we started to hook up off set and knew that something was brewing, our characters would start dating."
"But they didn't know. No one knew," Mendes added. "The writers just would naturally make it happen."
By the time Mendes and the May December actor called it quits on their fling for good, Mendes said the decision was "mutual."
"It ended very peacefully and 'wish you all the best,'" Mendes shared. "But it still hurts, no matter what."
When returning for the show's seventh and final season, Mendes said that both she and Melton had moved on from the back-and-forth qualities of their romantic relationship, and were able to keep it strictly professional.
"There was definitely like an air of, 'Zen, we're past it.' We worked together a lot as well but not in a romantic capacity," Mendes explained.
"It went super smoothly last season. I think the whole last season felt very different in that way where we all really came together in the last season, cause it's like this is the last time we're all gonna be together in this room who knows when something like this will happen again," she noted.
Both Mendes and Melton have since dated other people, with the Golden Globe-nominated actor most recently linked to S.H.I.E.L.D. star, Chloe Bennet, and Mendes loved up with current boyfriend, Rudy Mancuso.
