By
Perri Nemiroff
Published 57 minutes ago
Perri Nemiroff is the 2025 Press Award winner at the ICG Publicists Awards.
She's the senior producer at Collider where she hosts and produces the interview series, Collider Ladies Night, a show geared towards highlighting the need-to-know female voices in film and television.
On top of that, Perri frequently moderates post-screening Q&As and panels at film festivals and conventions including San Diego Comic-Con and New York Comic Con, and can be seen on the big screen in the Noovie pre-show segment, Close-up with Perri Nemiroff. She’s also a Top Critic on Rotten Tomatoes, a proud member of the Critics Choice Association and is a Gold Derby Expert.
Perri splits her time between Los Angeles and New York. Wherever the film and television coverage takes her, she goes!
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Summary
- Welcome to a new episode of Collider Ladies Night with Hal & Harper star Lili Reinhart.
- During her Ladies Night conversation with Collider’s Perri Nemiroff, Reinhart revisits her experience trying to break into the industry, and how Riverdale changed the game.
- She also goes into detail on the making of her phenomenal new series, Hal & Harper, in which she stars opposite writer-director Cooper Raiff as well as Mark Ruffalo and Betty Gilpin.
Since wrapping her 137-episode run on Riverdale about two years ago, Lili Reinhart’s been determined to craft a filmography with intention. As she noted during our Collider Ladies Night conversation, she’s always been picky about the work she takes on, but in this next stage of her career, her time on Riverdale is giving her the opportunity to say no and only do films and shows “that make sense or speak to me in certain ways,” and she’s going to take it.
Thus far, that mentality is working in Reinhart’s favor big time. This year she celebrated the release of American Sweatshop, a wildly intense and deeply chilling tale of a social media moderator responsible for ridding the internet of the most offensive content, and the toll that job takes on her. That movie, which features a exceptional lead performance from Reinhart is available to buy or rent on digital platforms. Next year the one to keep an eye on is Forbidden Fruits, in which Reinhart plays Apple, the leader of a coven called The Fruits that operates out of a Free People-like store in the mall. With an ensemble that includes Reinhart, Victoria Pedretti, Alexandra Shipp, and Lola Tung, there’s no doubt Forbidden Fruits will make waves when it hits theaters in 2026.
But, a very special something you don’t have to wait for? Hal & Harper, a limited series that’s quietly one of the best new shows of 2026. From the mind of Cha Cha Real Smooth writer, director, and star, Cooper Raiff, Hal & Harper stars Reinhart opposite Raiff as the title brother and sister. Throughout eight episodes, the show explores Hal and Harper’s codependent relationship, digging into the benefits of having an impossibly loving and supportive sibling, while also showing how that dynamic is holding them back. In order to do that to the fullest, the show also cuts back to pivotal points in Hal and Harper’s childhood, scenes during which Raiff makes the bold decision to have him and Reinhart play the seven and nine-year-old versions of their characters — to great effect.
Between American Sweatshop and Hal & Harper, Reinhart doesn’t just go two-for-two in 2025, but she starts to lock in the fact that she’s an undeniable star, an actor with range that Riverdale only scratched the surface of. Plus, it also proves that that pickiness is paying off. “Where you have maybe 25% control of your career, in that industry, I want to feel that I milked that percentage of what I could control.” So far, so good in that respect.
Lili Reinhart Says No to a Lot of Projects — Here’s Why
"I don't want to work just to work, ever."
There’s countless high pressure moments in an actor’s journey, but an especially big one is making your first moves after the completion of a long-running TV series. That’s the situation Reinhart found herself in in 2023. How exactly does one figure out what to do after spending six years largely focused on one extremely popular show? And what happens when those plans are impacted by things that are totally out of your control? Here’s what happened to Reinhart:
“I thought right when Riverdale ended all I would do was back-to-back movies — and the first thing I shot was Hal & Harper, which is a limited series. So I think I had this idea that movies would be the thing, and it would be easy, and I would have all these opportunities, and I would get to really craft and shape, easily, what I do. And in reality, well, the strike happened right after Riverdale ended, and the effects of COVID and the strike really went into 2024, as well. So, 2023, I shot Hal & Harper, which was amazing, and then I didn't do anything the rest of the year, and 2024 was challenging for me and every other actor I know. Nothing was being made, nothing was getting money.”
The lasting effects of COVID and the strike certainly impacted the situation, but Reinhart also attributed her late 2023 and 2024 workload to something that was fully in her control — the ability to be able to say no to projects that don’t speak to her. She explained:
“I've always felt this way, and I really stand by it, I don't want to work just to work, ever. I love what I do, and I love acting, but I'm not gonna film something just because I need a job. And I'm very fortunate to be in that position, and one day I could definitely not be in that position, but for right now, and in 2024, I didn't feel compelled or like I needed to work just because I had the time to do it. I said no to everything except for American Sweatshop. I only really want to do projects that make sense or speak to me in certain ways.”
Lili Reinhart in American-Sweatshop Stills Photo by GuidoMarx-HQ-129-1
Reinhart continued by emphasizing, “I also understand it's because I have the privilege to do that, and that came from being on 137 episodes of Riverdale, and the success of that, and the movies that I shot, Look Both Ways and Hustlers and Chemical Hearts, while I was shooting Riverdale.” Now that she has that luxury, Reinhart is making the most of it, especially in an industry where actors don’t have full control over their careers.
“I think about my career as a whole and not as just these chapters of my career. I want to look back and be really proud of everything I've done and see the intention behind what I do. And I felt this way even as a kid, even though I didn't know how to articulate it. I didn't want to just do a project just to do a project, because eventually, when you only do that, you're suddenly having a career that you didn't want. And I think because I was so picky and because I'm so picky now, I feel really proud of the work that I've been able to do. I don't feel like I just said, ‘I just did that just to do it.’ I can stand by every project and know why I did it, the intention. I always get something out of it. I truly want to do this until I'm 90. In a career where you have maybe 25% control of your career, in that industry, I want to feel that I milked that percentage of what I could control, and that control comes from me being picky.”
Between American Sweatshop and Hal & Harper, it’s abundantly clear that Reinhart’s pickiness is paying off, and that she’s got an eye for hugely compelling storytelling.
‘Hal & Harper’ Was a Post-‘Riverdale’ Dream Project for Lili Reinhart
"I wanted to show people that I could do something else, and it was Hal & Harper.”
lili-reinhart-hal-and-harperImage via Mubi
Not only is Hal & Harper a phenomenal series overall, but it’s a downright brilliant next move for Reinhart, one that further highlights how much she has to offer as an artist as she wades into new territory. Now that Hal & Harper is available to stream in full, it’s easy to say that Reinhart was the perfect fit for the role, but while circling the opportunity, she had her own doubts.
The first call came in during a vacation to Hawaii while she was still making Riverdale. Her manager wanted her to have a general meeting with Raiff. On her flight home, she watched Raiff’s 2022 gem, Cha Cha Real Smooth, and then the two met to discuss Hal & Harper. Reinhart recalled:
“We had a general meeting, and he told me broadly about this show that he had where I would be playing his sister, and that’s kind of it. He kept his cards close to his chest, didn’t reveal much, and sent me just the pilot after the meeting, and I devoured it and loved it. I was like, ‘Okay, can I have the whole thing?’ And then I think a little bit of time went by. He was playing hard to get. He really was. Then he sent me the whole 300-page PDF of, at the time, 10 episodes, and now it's eight. But I read the whole thing. I read it on my flight from LA to Vancouver. I was still shooting Riverdale, so I read it on the flight, I finished it the night I got home, and I was so floored.”
Related
'Hal & Harper' Review: Mark Ruffalo and Lili Reinhart Are Tremendous in Cooper Raiff’s Brilliant Dramedy Series | Sundance 2025
Raiff's beautiful series finds just the right tone between comedy and drama, with a cast that is phenomenal across the board.
Posts By Ross Bonaime Jan 26, 2025Not only was she floored by the quality of the script, but also by the fact that Raiff came to her for the role at all. “I was like, ‘Wow. This opportunity is coming to me right now?’ I was shocked because I don't get scripts like that.” Given the work Reinhart had done at that point, it was already clear she was talented, but film and television tends to be a space that limits artists to the type of material they’ve already excelled with — and Hal & Harper is nothing like Riverdale. Reinhart continued:
“My body of work hadn't really pointed to, ‘Hey, she's the girl for this.’ So I was surprised. And it was also my own chip on my shoulder of, ‘Why are you thinking of me for this deeply beautiful part? You must be going out to bigger people or more established people.’ It was just insecurity. And he was like, ‘No. You're my first choice.’ And I fell in love with it. We were like, ‘We’re doing this together.’ And still, to this day, really, I could not have crafted something better for me at that time in my career than Hal & Harper. Coming off of a seven-year show, desperately wanting to do something next that felt tonally grounded, human, raw, could not be more different from Riverdale, because I wanted to show people that I could do something else, and it was Hal & Harper.”
Lili Reinhart Deserves to Be in the Awards Season Conversation for ‘Hal & Harper’
Lili Reinhart discussing Hal & Harper at Sundance 2025Image by Photagonist
In Hal & Harper, Reinhart seizes that opportunity to show the world her range to the fullest. Her work as both adult Harper and elementary school-aged Harper is astoundingly complex and soulful.
It’s not easy to capture conflicting wants to the maximum, but Reinhart manages to do so deftly in a number of respects. There’s the pull to remain close to her brother, but the growing understanding that their connection could be holding her back. She’s also tethered to a long-term romantic relationship. Harper does still love Jesse (Alyah Chanelle Scott), but their paths are diverging. And even with her new love interest, Addison Timlin’s Audrey, Harper is forced to decide between the newfound comfort and support she finds with her, and what feels like a necessary personal step forward. And bubbling under the surface of it all is the lingering pain of past wounds, and how it’s come to define her relationship with her father (Mark Ruffalo).
That’s a lot to cover in an eight-episode limited series, but Hal & Harper soars in that pursuit courtesy of Raiff’s staggeringly impressive screenplay, and his ensemble’s ability to navigate their storylines with an exquisite sense of humanity and heart. There’s no doubt Reinhart will continue to deliver standout work, but her performance as Harper could and should make an indelible impression as more catch the series.
Hal & Harper is available to stream on Mubi.
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Hal & Harper
Like Follow Followed Drama Comedy Release Date January 26, 2025 Runtime 110 minutes Director Cooper Raiff Producers Thomas HartmannCast
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Cooper Raiff
Hal
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Lili Reinhart
Harper
Hal & Harper follows two siblings as they navigate the challenges of growing up under the care of their single father, who pushes them to mature quickly, while they strive to cling to elements of their childhood.
Genres Drama, Comedy Powered by
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