Mark Consuelos made quite a splash in the 9-1-1 Season 9 premiere when his billionaire character was swallowed by a humpback whale, and the over-the-top moment earned him a hilarious text message from his former boss, Riverdale creator Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa.
Consuelos tells TVLine, “I don’t think he’ll mind me saying this, but Roberto, the creator of Riverdale, texted me: ‘Mark, a whale? We didn’t even do that on Riverdale!'”
Consuelos replied to the text by noting that 9-1-1 also used a cover of “Mad World” in his debut episode, a song that was previously (and iconically) used in an early episode of Riverdale.
“I said, ‘Hey, they did do ‘Mad World,’ Roberto, and you did it first,” Consuelos tells us with a laugh.
Consuelos’ three-episode arc as space enthusiast Tripp Hauser continues Thursday (ABC, 8/7c), and the actor is relishing every moment of playing 9-1-1‘s newest villain.
“I wear it well, I think, but maybe I have to do some introspection about who I am as a person to see why [these villainous characters] fit me like a glove,” Consuelos says. “No, these characters are so fun to play. It gives you the opportunity and the license to say and do things that you’d never actually say or do. Him getting eaten by a whale was one of the first things I read about this character. I was a little dubious about where they were going with this, but as I read further on, I was like, ‘Oh, this character is delicious.’ I thought I could have a lot of fun with it, and that’s why I decided to do it.”
Will Mark Consuelos Appear on Disney+’s Afterlife With Archie?
While discussing Riverdale, we couldn’t help but ask Consuelos if he might be open to reprising the role of Hiram Lodge in Disney+’s just-announced series Afterlife With Archie, based on Aguirre-Sacasa’s zombie-themed Archie comic books.
Consuelos says he hadn’t heard about the project, but he’d be down to step back into Hiram’s villainous shoes at a moment’s notice.
“Sign me up,” he tells TVLine. “I’d love to work with Roberto again. We had a blast together.”
Are you enjoying 9-1-1‘s space odyssey thus far? And Riverdale fans, would you like to see Consuelos play Hiram again on Afterlife With Archie? Drop a comment with your thoughts below.