KJ Apa Steps Out for Special ‘Jimmy’ Screening in NYC — See What He Said About Playing Jimmy Stewart

Two weeks before the rest of the world gets to meet Jimmy, New York got a head start. On Tuesday night, KJ Apa walked into the SAG-AFTRA Theater in Manhattan to celebrate his new movie at a special screening hosted by Burns & Co. Entertainment and The Cinema Society — and for one evening, the former Riverdale heartthrob wasn’t Archie Andrews anymore. He was Jimmy Stewart.

It’s a big swing, honestly. Stewart isn’t just any old-Hollywood leading man; he’s the leading man — the drawling, stammering, impossibly decent moral center of It’s a Wonderful Life, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and Rear Window. Taking that on is either brave or a little bit crazy. Apa, 29, seemed to understand the weight of it as he posed with his co-stars and director ahead of the screening.

And he wasn’t alone. Max Casella and Jen Lilley joined him on the step-and-repeat, along with director Aaron Burns and producers Angela Galgani Sullivan and Jack McClintock. After the film rolled, the whole crew kept the night going at an after-party at The Skylark. Not a bad way to spend a Tuesday in October, all things considered.

A Night Built for Movie People

The Cinema Society isn’t exactly known for throwing casual events. Their screenings tend to pull a crowd that actually knows — and cares about — the film being shown, and this one fit the mold. This wasn’t a studio junket with gift bags and small talk; it was a proper night for a proper biopic about one of Hollywood’s most beloved figures.

Apa cut a confident figure throughout the evening, working the room with the ease of someone who’s spent the last decade in front of cameras. Which, of course, he has. When you’re cast as Archie Andrews at 19 and become the face of a teen-drama phenomenon that ran for seven seasons, red carpets stop being intimidating somewhere around season three. But this felt different — less “promote the franchise” and more “stand behind the work.” There’s a distinction, and you could see it in how the night was structured: the screening first, the party after. The movie did the talking.

For a film about a man whose defining quality was decency, it seemed fitting that the evening had a certain old-fashioned polish to it. No gimmicks, no viral-stunt energy — just the cast, the filmmakers, and a room full of people ready to watch KJ Apa try to become James Maitland Stewart.

Not an Impression — An Interpretation

Here’s the thing about playing Jimmy Stewart: the voice. You know the voice. That hesitant, honeyed drawl with the famous stammer, the “well, uh, you see” cadence that’s been imitated by every impressionist since the 1940s. It’s probably the most imitable voice in film history, which makes it the hardest one to play straight.

Apa has clearly thought about this a lot. In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, he got into the difference between doing Stewart and being him — or at least, being his version of him.

“The goal is to give an honest performance while not being impressionistic,” the actor explained. “I think when you’re doing an impression or an impersonation, there isn’t as much happening behind the impression, and I think that’s where, when you interpret something, it’s more of an interpretation.”

It’s a slightly winding quote, but the point lands: mimicry is the easy part. Anyone can do the drawl. The hard part — the part that actually matters — is finding the person underneath the mannerisms. Stewart’s appeal was never really about how he talked; it was about the sincerity behind it. Audiences believed him because he seemed to believe everything he was saying. That’s a much tougher trick than nailing an accent, and it’s clearly where Apa has been focusing his energy.

It also suggests he knows exactly what the trap is. A Stewart impression gets laughs. A Stewart interpretation might get awards. There’s a big difference between the two, and he’d better be on the right side of it, because audiences will absolutely let him know if he isn’t.

The Cast Around Him Is Stacked

Apa may be carrying the title role, but the ensemble around him is genuinely fun — the kind of casting that suggests the filmmakers wanted to have a good time with Hollywood history while still taking Stewart himself seriously.

Max Casella plays Frank Capra, the legendary director behind both It’s a Wonderful Life and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Casella — who generations of millennials will forever remember from Doogie Howser, M.D. and Newsies — has quietly become one of those character actors who makes everything better, and Capra is a terrific fit for him: a passionate, stubborn, deeply sentimental director who happened to be exactly the right collaborator for Stewart’s talents.

Jen Lilley plays Gloria Stewart, Jimmy’s wife of 45 years. Their marriage — which lasted from 1949 until Gloria’s death in 1994 — was one of those rare Hollywood unions that was famously, almost stubbornly stable. Stewart never remarried after she died. There’s a whole movie in that relationship alone, honestly.

Then the supporting cast reads like a who’s-who of Golden Age Hollywood: Jason Alexander as studio chief Louis B. Mayer, Christopher McDonald as Lionel Barrymore (yes, Mr. Potter himself), Sarah Drew as gossip columnist Hedda Hopper, Kara Killmer as Lady Julia, and Neal McDonough as Stewart’s father Alexander. Rob Riggle plays Colonel Terrill, Julian Works is Second Lieutenant Martinez, and Variety journalist Marc Malkin pops up in a cameo as bandleader Glenn Miller.

And then there’s the cameo that might steal the whole movie: Karolyn Grimes, who was five years old when she played Zuzu Bailey in It’s a Wonderful Life, appears in the film. If you’ve ever watched that movie — and at this point, who hasn’t — you know Zuzu. “Every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings.” Having Grimes show up in a Stewart biopic is the kind of touch that suggests the filmmakers know exactly which audience they’re courting. It’s fan service, sure. But it’s the good kind.

The Man Behind the Myth

Per Variety, Jimmy centers on the most remarkable chapter of Stewart’s life — the part that sounds almost too dramatic to be true. Fresh off winning the Best Actor Oscar for The Philadelphia Story, at the absolute peak of his fame, Stewart walked away from Hollywood and enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II. Not as a publicity-stunt officer shuffling papers at a desk, either. He became a combat pilot and commander, flying bombing missions over Europe and rising through the ranks on merit in an era when a movie star could have gotten away with just about anything.

Think about that for a second. In 2026, the idea of a 33-year-old at the top of his profession volunteering for active combat duty — knowing full well it could kill him — feels almost alien. But that’s what he did, and he did it without making a fuss about it. Stewart flew with genuine distinction, came home decorated, and kept serving in the Air Force Reserve for decades, eventually retiring as a brigadier general. When he came back to Hollywood, he brought the war with him — you can see it in the darker, haunted edge of his postwar performances. It’s a Wonderful Life is only the warm blanket people remember; George Bailey’s breakdown in that movie is genuinely frightening, and Stewart played it from a place he’d actually been.

That arc — the golden boy who chose duty over comfort, who came home changed — is rich material for a biopic. It’s the kind of story that explains why Stewart still matters, and why audiences still reach for him every December. He wasn’t just playing decent men. In the ways that counted, he actually was one.

What This Means for KJ Apa

For Apa, this is clearly a statement role. Since Riverdale wrapped its seven-season run, the New Zealand actor has been in that tricky post-teen-idol phase — the part of the career where you either graduate to serious leading-man territory or drift into nostalgia. He started on the New Zealand soap Shortland Street, broke through as Archie Andrews at 19, and carried film roles in A Dog’s Purpose, The Hate U Give, and I Still Believe along the way. Jimmy is the biggest bet of his career so far: a prestige biopic, a legendary subject, and a performance that will be measured against one of the most beloved screen personas in history.

The screening circuit is the first test. Cinema Society crowds are informed and opinionated — they don’t applaud out of obligation. If the word coming out of that SAG-AFTRA Theater is good, the film has real momentum heading into its theatrical release.

Jimmy hits theaters on November 6. The trailer is already out, and if the early buzz is anything to go by, this is one to watch — not just for what it says about Jimmy Stewart, but for what it says about whether KJ Apa is ready to leave Riverdale behind for good.

Source: Just Jared