‘Riverdale’ Preview: Ashleigh Murray on Josie’s Big Musical Moment
Last week’s episode of The CW’s Archie revamp Riverdale featured Josie and the Pussycats doing a sweet cover version of the classic Archies tune, “Sugar, Sugar” during a Riverdale High pep rally. But Ashleigh Murray, who plays resident songstress, Josie McCoy, tells Yahoo TV that the experience of shooting that sequence was a little sour, not to mention wet. “We didn’t expect it to rain as heavily as it did,” Murray says, laughing. “We performed for two to four hours in the cold and rain, trying not to slip while we were dancing and make it look like everything’s cool. It was a tough night!”
So it was a relief for the actress and her fellow Pussycats — bassist Valerie (Hayley Law) and drummer Melody (Asha Bromfield) — when they got to move indoors for their next big musical number. In this week’s episode, “Body Double,” the band is hired by Josie’s mom, and the town’s mayor, Sierra McCoy (Robin Givens) to serenade Riverdale’s foodies at a special Taste of Riverdale event. The gig means an upgrade from a rain-soaked football field to a lavish ballroom, and they use this well-decorated, fully dry stage to debut the first original Pussycats song heard on the show, “All For Me.” (Watch a clip from the performance below.)
The tune also marks the co-songwriting debut of one Archie Andrews (K.J. Apa), who Josie put in his place in the series premiere when he dared to ask her help with his own musical ambitions. But thanks to an intervention on behalf of Josie’s friend, Cheryl Blossom (Madelaine Petsch), our red-headed hero earns a rare invite to observe a Pussycats songwriting session. “Josie sees that not only does Archie have potential, but he also respects the craft she has and the life she tries to build for herself,” Murray explains. “At the same time, she doesn’t want him to think that because he likes music and can play the guitar, he can just have this success. You have to work for it.”
Related: ‘Riverdale’ Review: A Dark, Campy, and Compelling Archie
And, to his credit, Archie works hard to ensure that “All For Me” is the best song it can be, while also taking care not to overshadow Josie’s own voice — one that she’s still in the process of finding. “From a character standpoint, Josie is trying to figure out what her sound is, because her idea of music is very different from her mother’s. So she’s trying to find the happy medium between not sacrificing her art and making her mom proud. She wants to show that she’s got that edge, but it’s also got to be a little PC for Mama Bear and her political image.”
Murray says that the episode’s director, Lee Toland Krieger, tried to bring out more of Josie’s edge out during the performance of “All For Me.” “We had already done two or three takes, and then Lee came over and said, ‘I’m really feeling it, but this time do the Eddie Van Halen version — just go there and see what happens. I’m like, ‘I don’t think this song is that hardcore, but I’ll give it a shot!’” Channeling her inner Van Halen proved easier than channeling her inner Jay-Z for “Sugar, Sugar” though. “They wanted me to rap part of that song, and I was like ‘I sound like a 12-year-old [when I rap],’” Murray confesses. “I wasn’t sure how it was going to land. But everybody loves it! I’m always excited to see how we can revamp the originality of the characters and the songs.”
Riverdale airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. on The CW.
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