VMEN Fall/Winter 2019: CHARLES MELTON

Actor Charles Melton and his upcoming role in Bad Boys For Life.

This article appears in the pages of VMAN 42: Turning Point, on newsstands now. Order your copy at shop.vmagazine.com.

“It was fun!” says Riverdale hunk Charles Melton of being a point on Ariana Grande’s pansexual love triangle in the “break up with your girlfriend, i’m bored” video. “And very organic. [Grande] is a mega-talent.”

Whether facing off with stars or stepping into the shoes of a previously-cast role, the 28-year-old model-actor remains unflappable. The second actor to play prankster jock Reggie, Melton was instantly magnetizing, helping shepherd the character from “recurring” to “regular” after season two. (A shirtless locker room scuffle didn’t hurt.) This summer, he delivered his first leading-man role, in The Sun Is Also A Star opposite Yara Shahidi. Though a bittersweet teen romance at heart, the film tackles genre-bending themes like deportation—an of-the-moment layer that struck a personal chord with Melton.

“America is founded on immigrants,” he says plainly. “In the media, we’re only getting information on policies and people getting deported, but we fail to empathize and to see that these are human beings.”

The son of a Korean mother, Melton grew up going to the movies and adoring Heath Ledger. “[I loved] the movies that the critics don’t always love,” he says with a laugh. Even so, blockbusters like A Knight’s Tale and The Matrix instilled a love of escapism in Melton, who waxes nostalgic about movie-theater- going, a “lost art,” he says. “It’s like listening to a record player.” Naturally, he gravitated to acting. “There’s an escapism in living in someone’s shoes,” he says.

Following his small screen breakthrough, he’ll be in multiplexes everywhere with Bad Boys for Life, a January 2020 update to the ’90s franchise. As a “badass” former DEA agent, Melton did all his own stunts, alongside founding “Bad Boy” Will Smith.

After lending his looks to both comic book and action-comedy franchises, Melton still harbors his own acting goal fantasies. Though he has a dream role in mind, he’s keeping schtum. “I don’t wanna jinx it!” he says. Suspicions aside, it seems that Melton’s A-list domination is written in the stars.

Charles wears top and pants Louis Vuitton, tank top Linder
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