Camila Mendes says medication kept her ‘numb’ while making Riverdale

Here we go again, another ex-Riverdale star opening up about what actually went on behind the scenes—and this time it’s Camila Mendes getting real about her mental health on set. She popped up on the ‘On Purpose with Jay Shetty’ podcast recently and gave some pretty stark details about how rough things got during her six years as Veronica Lodge. I’ll warn you now: if you always thought those high school hallway dramas looked a bit too peppy, you weren’t wrong.

‘Pressure Cooker’ on Set

According to Mendes, being on Riverdale was less all-American daydream and more relentless slog—especially as the years piled up. For starters, she said her mental health was absolutely battered at one point, calling it "rock bottom". The pressure to look a certain way and play a character who dressed nothing like herself pushed her to the edge. In her own words on the podcast:

Here’s how Camila Mendes described the struggle on set: "My perfectionism came up a lot. I needed to be on all the time and at my best and looking my best. I felt a lack of control because I’m wearing a costume for a character that dresses differently than I would want to dress in my daily life. She’s wearing tight dresses and mini skirts and heels and showing my stomach, my little midriff or whatever. And if I felt bloated or if I didn’t feel good about myself that day, I had to wear something that made me feel worse and made me feel super insecure."

It wasn’t just about the wardrobe, either—turns out Mendes was also quietly dealing with an eating disorder at the time.

Meltdowns and Medication

The high-pressure environment meant regular panic attacks, with Mendes recalling moments where she’d be mid-breakdown, someone knocking to hustle her onto set while she was desperately trying to pull herself together. Not ideal, when you know everyone’s waiting and there’s a schedule to stick to. Mendes said it was "like a pressure cooker environment — constantly", where you could barely pause to sort yourself out.

To cope, she started relying on prescribed anxiety meds—specifically lorazepam—so she could get through the workdays. In her words:

"I’d have someone knocking on my door and being like, ‘They’re ready for you on set!’ And I’m crying because of the situation that I’m dealing with. And now my makeup’s ruined, and that’s another 30 minutes in the makeup chair for them to fix me. Everyone’s on set waiting, and now I feel the pressure that I’m the reason why we’re behind. Oh my God, it was like a pressure cooker environment — constantly. Because there is no time to deal with things."

• Riverdale ran for six seasons with Camila Mendes starring as Veronica Lodge throughout.

In case you’re wondering if all this soured the whole experience—it didn’t, at least not completely. Mendes made a point of saying it wasn’t all doom and gloom. She actually looks back fondly on her Riverdale years, despite the rough patches. Not every day was a nightmare, but the ones that were, definitely left a mark.