Though you got a glimpse of him on the Riverdale season premiere, in this week’s episode we finally met Clay Walker, aka the man who is destined to marry Kevin Keller — at least in Archie Comics. In the groundbreaking Life With Archie #16, published back in 2012, Kevin and Clay got married; but so far the on-screen version of Kevin, played by Casey Cott, has had a rocky time with romance. And particularly with this season shunting the cast back in time to 1955, Kevin is even more repressed than usual, dating Betty Cooper (Lili Reinhart) and struggling with pretending to be straight in a time when homophobia was rampant and dangerous.

Enter Karl Walcott, a Vancouver-based actor probably best known for a role on Le Chalet, though he’s also had small parts in everything from X-Men: Apocalypse to Moonfall. As Walcott explained to Decider, his audition for Riverdale was just another self-tape task sent over by his agent. Little did he know that he would wow the Riverdale brass enough to get cast as Clay, an army brat and new student at Riverdale High who immediately strikes up a friendship with Kevin… And maybe something more.

“Being a Black student new to the school with what just happened to Emmett Till, he’s walking on eggshells,” Walcott explained. “But at the same time, he’s looking for friends so he’s like ‘hey good to meet you.’ Because of the history of the two characters, you can see how it’s romanticized. But at the beginning, it’s just seeing friendship.”

In “Chapter One Hundred Nineteen: Skip, Hop, and Thump!” Clay meets Kevin in the piano room and immediately bonds with the seeming all-American leader of Kevin and the Crooners, a barbershop quartet that is supposed to perform at Riverdale High’s sock hop. Later, at the sock hop (Kevin has been relieved of his duty thanks to some finagling from Vanessa Morgan’s Toni Topaz) Clay again approaches Kevin, saying that he’d love to see him sing. And while it’s all very innocent, but based on the way Clay is looking at Kevin dancing with Betty, and Kevin is looking at Clay, it’s clear there’s a lot more there.

To find out more about that, er, a lot more, we talked to Walcott about his audition process, playing that piano room and sock hop scenes, and whether we’re going to see Kevin and Clay double date with Cheryl (Madelaine Petsch) and Toni.

Decider: How much were you aware of Riverdale before you booked the role?

Karl Walcott: I knew of Riverdale because I live in Vancouver so there people speak about  it all the time, there are people that worked on it in the actors’ community, and I knew about it of course, I knew what it was, I watched a little of the first season back in the day, and I thought it was great… People look amazing in that show… It looked like a great show to be on.

What was the audition process like for Clay?

Well, self-tape. I sent in a tape.

I’m curious just because we see these tapes pop up sometimes, did they give you a side for it? Was it a particular piece of the script? Did you have an idea of the character?

I get a lot of tapes, I get a lot of scripts, my agent sends out for a lot of things and I get a lot of self-tapes that I have to do, and Riverdale was one of them. They sent me two scenes, and then I learned the scenes… I went and filmed them with the person I film with normally, and I did them just really straightforward and a week later, because you do so many tapes, and so many different shows go by, and it’s often, I’d say 99% of the time, “no.” Like, it’s always a no or almost always a no, so you don’t really think about it anymore. I’m at a point where when a tape comes in, I just learn the lines, check a little bit of the description, and then send it out, and see what happens. Riverdale was sort of that type of situation where I read it through, thought “probably not gonna get this, but I’ll do it anyways,” I sent it in, and then a week later my agent called me and he’s like “yeah Karl, you’re in the running to get the part for Clay Walker.” I was like “Clay Walker? What’s that?” “Riverdale.” I was like, “what? Riverdale? Holy mackerel, what the!” Yeah, it was fun, it was a fun experience to live that. And then it was just a few minutes later he confirmed me on the part, so it was really interesting.

Did you have to do a chemistry read with Casey Cott before you got the part, or did you first meet him on set?

I just met him on set. First day on set, I met him. 

Were you concerned about that at all? Because that’s such a huge part of it… If you and Casey don’t work together, ultimately the part doesn’t work. So what was your feeling meeting him for the first time, knowing you’d be playing together so often together?

I’m just going to put myself back into that moment. So I arrive to set. First of all, I see the set, it’s gigantic compared to what I’m used to back in Quebec… And then they call me in from my trailer, I think I heard like a “hey” and I turned around and it was Casey, and he was like “How are you doing man?” He’s walking up and he’s super comfortable with everything and he’s like: been there done that… He’s talking to everyone and I’m just like: whoa. And he’s like “nice to meet you man.” He was very professional, very genuine guy, super nice, and I knew that when we started talking when we had a break in the green room, when we spoke more and got to know each other more, and he really seemed like he was interested in getting to know who I was as a person… It was a great feeling, I was very… gratifying for me to be in that situation where he was actually interested in getting to know me so things rolled… We got to know each other, we spoke about our families, about where we’re from, and then it was on to the first scene that you saw in Episode 2 in the piano room. 

Was the first scene that you played on the show the piano room scene? Or was there stuff from Episode 1 before that?

It was the piano scene, my first ever scene

That’s a pretty intense scene to start with. Not only are you playing the piano, but you have this first meeting with Kevin… I also really liked the blocking there; Casey standing still, and you taking one step closer on every line. I thought it explained the character motivations very simply… How much did you work on that scene?

When I got there they asked me my opinion, that was one of the first things, and I had prepared it because that was actually my audition scene so I had a feeling about what I wanted to do with this scene already… Then [director] Ron Richard — he’s fantastic, he thought about the fact that every so often I move forward, I take steps forward, it was his idea. And we had a little bit of a discussion before that about how I would be on the piano and then when [Kevin] comes in and [me] looking up and seeing him… There were a lot of options on how to play it like, he’s the new kid on the block, Clay’s the new kid, so how is he going to react seeing this seasoned veteran at the school [who] everyone loves? How is he gonna react to that situation? We spoke about that a little bit and then we just went into it, we went into the first few, and I looked at the piano and looked at the lighting and was like, “wow, I’m here.” And then I just put my hand up. “I don’t play piano guys.” I just improvised.

You were playing piano, but that was just you improvising a song?

Wait, I don’t know what they ended up putting in the show, did they put me playing the piano?

You can hear the piano playing a little bit. It’s not like a sonata or anything like that, but there’s definitely a piano playing

I’ve seen the screening, but I don’t remember that part I was just on the piano, just dabbling, literally just dabbling on it because they asked me if I played and I said, “no.” Ron was like, “that’s good enough we’ll work with that just do whatever you gotta do it’s fine,” and I was like, “Okay.”

In the sock hop scene later on, it really does feel like from a viewer’s perspective that Clay is the one with the power in the situation, he’s the one with the confidence and he’s immediately throwing Kevin for a loop both times. Is that how you saw it?

We tried different approaches: play him more like you’re surprised to see him, he’s the big guy in school, and now be more confident, and now… They really wanted me to see a whole spectrum of how I would react to him and I think they went with… They chose the ones that fit better with the relationship, I guess. It’s touchy because back in the ’50s, [you] don’t want to put too much out, so we tried to do as many different options as possible.

I know he mentions that he’s an army brat in the first scene, is there more to it? Are we going to find out more about Clay’s backstory, or is the most important thing about him on the show his relationship with Kevin?

I guess anything can happen. I’m not sure, even myself I’m not too sure about that yet, so we’ll see

Clay clearly knows Kevin is with Betty. Even though he’s gunning directly for him, do you think Betty is a factor at all in Clay’s mind?

I think honestly, Clay being the new kid in school, I think he’s looking for friends. I don’t think his intentions are to– You just saw him bump into Kevin in the music room and from there a friendship is created.

I’m not trying to push you too much on this, but it’s pretty clear that he identifies, at least on some level, or suspects that Kevin is gay — and he’s seemingly more openly gay than Kevin. So there’s gotta be a little bit of pushing him to come out, or “we can both talk about this,” right?

I don’t think so because of the circumstances and the time, we’re not there yet, especially not in Episode 2. it’s really still uncertain I would say… Being a Black student new to the school with what just happened to Emmett Till, he’s walking on eggshells. But at the same time he’s looking for friends so he’s like “hey good to meet you.” Because of the history of the two characters, you can see how it’s romanticized. But at the beginning it’s just seeing friendship. And whatever Clay’s thinking in his mind is, you will see hopefully, during the rest of the show.

I did want to ask you about some of the new folks… It really seems like you, Nicholas Barasch, and Abby Ross really bonded, as the new kids. Was that your experience on set?

Yeah, we’re definitely the rookies on set, and we hang out together because obviously when you get to a place and you don’t know anyone and you see another new guy and you’re like “hey…” It just naturally happened. We chat about being there, we’re really happy to be there because when you’re there for seven years you don’t have the same excitement of being on set, it’s just day-to-day work. You love it, but it’s just day-to-day work, it’s fine. But we were there for the first time, doing all these things for the first time so we had that in common… Me, Abby, even Daniel [Yang], all of us were just really excited to be there, so it was great.

I was talking to Roberto last week and he said particularly for the LGBTQ characters there are going to be hardships, but there are going to be joyful things at the same time. So are joyful things coming for Clay and Kevin in the future?

Definitely. 

And more specifically, are we going to see a Cheryl and Toni, Kevin and Clay double date?

[Laughs] Maybe! You never know.

What can we expect as we continue to find out more about the character?

I can say that with the time he’s there, he grows in confidence and also chemistry… He builds chemistry with being the new kid in school, he’s opening up and getting more confidence and he’s coming out of his bubble or his shell, in comparison to Episodes 2 and 3, as you might have seen. He comes out of his shell, I would say.

And we’re going to see you playing the piano every episode from here on out, right?

[Laughs] Yeah actually, he has his own band.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Riverdale airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on The CW.