Lili Reinhart on 'Look Both Ways' and Saying Goodbye to 'Riverdale'

Lili Reinhart was not really interested in playing in a "rom-com" with a happy ending, but she changed her mind after reading the script for the Netflix film Look Both Ways.

"I don't usually watch them, to be honest," she told Newsweek. "And I always want to make films that I personally will watch or that I know that I would watch. But I do remember my manager calling about this dual storyline situation."

Look Both Ways, a romantic dramedy directed by Kenyan film director Wanuri Kahiu that also stars Aisha Dee, Danny Ramirez and David Corenswet, is a heartfelt film that depicts what one girl's life would be like on different paths. The movie follows Natalie (Reinhart), a recent college grad and aspiring animator who takes a pregnancy test on the night of her graduation.

From that moment on, the movie shows two parallel realities, one in which Natalie moves to L.A. to pursue her dream career, and another in which she moves in with her parents and becomes a young mother.

"She finds love in both lives, she has heartbreak in both lives," Reinhart said. "It wasn't, you know, an abortion story. It was more so a story about a woman's decisions, when she was able to have the privilege."

Reinhart, who also executive produced the film, said that the message was not about a woman who was forced to choose between her career and her family, and that theme was only made possible with the right director.

"We wanted a female filmmaker as a director who was a mother, and so we got Wanuri (Kahiu)," she said. "She has two kids and is just a wonderful director and we wanted to make sure that, for Natalie, when she did have a baby, she didn't just drop her whole life and sit there and accept that she was a mom now so she couldn't do anything."

"It took her longer maybe to get to where she needed to be, but she was still actively...raising her child, pursuing her dreams, and that was one of the biggest points for us that we wanted to make is that, especially for young mothers, your life doesn't end the second you have a kid," said Reinhart.

She added that she hopes to also be a working mother someday: "Hopefully, I plan on it. And I will still be working when I am a mom. I know that I will still be actively in my career, taking my breaks when I can for my child and for myself, but I'm very ambitious, and that doesn't go away when you have a kid."

And Reinhart is excited for what's to come, but not without a little bit of grief over the upcoming finale of Riverdale.

After six seasons, the cast is preparing for season 7 to be the last, and Reinhart shared that saying goodbye to the show is going to be full of emotions.

"It's bittersweet to the definition of bittersweet and I truly will never have another experience like it in my life. So I don't take that for granted," she said. "I know that I will never spend seven years doing one project with the same people. And so the fact that I can go into the seventh season and look around at my co-stars and say, 'Hey, this is our final run. Let's give it everything we got and let's also enjoy each other.'"

"I really dread the day that it ends because I will be sobbing, but I told my team, I told my friends, when Riverdale ends and I come home, I'm going to need a good two weeks to just process and kind of be maybe left alone a little bit," she chuckled.

Reinhart said that she owes a lot to Riverdale for making her the actor she is today.

"I genuinely feel like I can do anything after playing Betty Cooper for six seasons," she said. "I think as crazy as Riverdale is, the scope of things that I have been able to do as an actor on one show is pretty miraculous."

And all of the variety within the show has prepared her for future endeavors, which she hopes will be nothing like one another: "I really am trying to spread my wings and play a variety of different women. One character is not like the next, and sort of just keep that, doing 180s for each character. And that's what's so fun to me. You know, I don't want to play the same character twice, and I don't want them to be kind of remotely similar."

"Career-wise, if I could choose, I would love to just have such an array of vastly different women that I get to play," Reinhart said.

Look Both Ways is streaming now on Netflix.