Charles Melton is putting his ripped body on display for the new issue of Men’s Health!

The 35-year-old Riverdale actor, who is staring in season two of Netflix’s Beef, slipped into a speedo and bared his six-pack abs for his cover spread, shot by photographer Ture Lillegraven.

Here’s what Charles had to share with the mag:

On pivoting from football to acting: “I was driving to football practice when I was 19, and I heard on the radio: Do you want to be a star? Do you want to be an actor or a model? And I was like, Yeah! It was like 120 degrees outside, 4 o’clock in the morning, and I was driving to practice.Because of my sister, Patricia, we ended up going to this audition in Salina, Kansas, at this Marriott. And there’s people from all walks of life—ages 2 to 100—and I read this Twizzlers mock audition, and it was the most exciting thing.”

On being increasingly form-focused as he’s settled into his own dad bod, of sorts: “I’m getting older, and you realize you need functional movement, and you need to work on the ligaments and the tiny muscles that hold the other muscles together, right?.”

On celebrating when he hits 185 pounds five times, even though at 19 he would power-clean 345 pounds: “It’s harder to do it when you’re older because it requires form and focus. If your form isn’t right, you can hurt something.”

On why leading-man ambitions aren’t his focus: “For me, it’s just: I want to do great work, be part of something great…I’m an Eagles fan, and this past year people were shitting on the Eagles, but we were beating teams. We weren’t beating teams by 5, 10 touchdowns, but we won the game. Do you want the win or do you want the high stats for you?”

For more from Charles, visit MensHealth.com!