Joe Locke and Kit Connor: the faces that launched a thousand stan accounts

We’ve never been to Buckingham Palace, nor have we met any royals, but we imagine that popping into Netflix HQ to meet two of Hollywood’s hottest young actors isn’t too dissimilar. And that’s exactly what we did, ushered through not one, not two but three waiting areas (and a tempting breakfast bar). At the final destination: Joe Locke and Kit Connor.

Dressed in a knitted salmon button down (Kit) and grey jumper (Joe), the two are cheerful and relaxed, despite a punishing junket schedule for the third season of Heartstopper – not to mention the glare of the studio lights above. Then again, they must be used to it by now. After all, Heartstopper is what catapulted their careers into the stratosphere.

For anyone in need of a refresher, the viral queer drama is set at a British boys school and follows the burgeoning, tender relationship between teenagers Nick and Charlie, played by Kit and Joe respectively. By the end of season two, we were left with a few big revelations (stop reading if you don’t want spoilers): Nick comes out on Instagram, close pal Elle (Yasmin Finney) decides to move to a girls’ school, Mr. Ajayi (Fisayo Akinade), aka Charlie’s lunchtime confidante, starts flirting with a colleague, Charlie admits to Nick that he has an eating disorder and hesitates over telling Nick he loves him. Whew.

Despite its YA aesthetics and unabashed wholesomeness, Heartstopper has been a stomping success, thanks to its deft ability to tell serious stories without falling into clichés and handling character arcs sensitively and convincingly.

After series one, the show nabbed itself a much sought-after 100 per cent Rotten Tomatoes rating and an Emmy in the Outstanding Teen Series category. Now in its third series, Kit and Joe are bonafide superstars, having gained legions of fans in their own right – magazine covers notwithstanding, they’ve provided comfort to thousands of teenagers navigating their own sexuality. Best of both worlds, really.

Hey guys, congratulations on the new series! What were your most memorable moments from filming?

Kit: It was the Halloween party for me. I got to dress like Captain America, which was weirdly less comfortable than I thought it was going to be, but still fun. Everyone was just dressed like an idiot.

Joe: Charlie’s birthday party was fun, it was [shot] over two days. It’s always nice having everyone on set, because we just have a laugh and act like naughty school kids. We’ve had the same crew for all three seasons of Heartstopper, so it’s almost like they can’t really control us anymore.

Do you feel like you learned anything about yourselves this time around?

KC: I learned that I don’t function very well on not that much sleep. I really learned to be like, I’m gonna get some sleep tonight before I have to wake up at 5:30am.

JL: I just learned how to work through being sick constantly. I was ill for most of the shoot – you never had time to get better because you’ve got two days off at the weekend and then back in at 5am.

Charlie goes through some quite challenging stuff in this series. How did you both prepare for that?

JL: I always find this a difficult question, because Charlie goes through such a personal thing for everyone who goes through something like that. But I think as a whole team, from writing to directing to acting, we just try to be as authentic as possible and tell the story in the best way. I think because it’s Heartstopper, you always know everything’s going to be okay at the end, so it allows us to go into the darker places.

KC: My character is really there as a support system for Charlie, so it didn’t require too much preparation or research because I think it’s something a lot of people have gone through. I think most people have experienced having this real sense of worry about someone that they love, feeling that they want to just protect them and keep them safe from the world. It was just a very human thing to play and wasn’t too tricky.

Charlie’s really lucky to have such a good support network.

KC: Yeah. Nick’s just great. He’s a good person.

Charlie also has Mr. Ajayi. Did either of you have that teacher at school who gave that support?

JL: I had a few of them. Always English teachers.

KC: I had a couple. There was a drama teacher that I really loved and a maths teacher. I missed quite a lot of school, so I would just pop in every so often and be like, ​“Hello, please give me good grades!”

If you had a dream guest on the show, who would it be?

KC: Johnny Bailey or Eddie Marsan or Hayley Atwell. Luckily, if you watch season three, they might be in it.

JL: Jennifer Coolidge. I think she’d be unbelievable.

KC: Nathan Lane!

JL: Ooh, that would be great.

What’s the nicest thing a friend has done for you both?

KC: On set we did some nice things for each other. We always cooked for each other which was nice. We’d get back and if someone was finishing slightly earlier than everyone else they’d cook dinner.

JL: I think we’ve both got lots of nice people around us that do a lot of nice things. We don’t do anything nice for anyone else.

KC: No, we just expect it from others.