- Hi, I'm Joe Locke.
- And I'm Kit Connor.
- And this is "GQ Action Replay"
of "Heartstopper" season one.
[audio rattling]
[rain pattering]
- Hi. [upbeat music]
- Hi.
♪ 'Cause I can't really guess what you want ♪
- The idea was that my hair was gonna look
kinda sexy, kinda cool.
And it ended up kind of going in this weird way
where just it looks like there's a sort of
spider on my head [Joe chuckles]
because of the sort of single strands of hair.
This should be like this sort of
Ryan Gosling in "The Notebook,"
and instead I, you know,
sort of "Charlotte's Web" kind of vibes.
Reading the script and looking at the comments, I was like,
"Yeah, Nick looks cool. [Joe laughs]
Nick looks cool."
- When he would run here toward, it's like,
white suits underneath his costume,
so he wouldn't get, like, wet and cold.
He's like squelching. [chuckles]
- Oh yeah.
Well, 'cause we were obviously...
'cause it's a rain machine, which is kind of like,
a sprinkler- - You put the whole
[indistinct] so... - just all the way up.
- Did I forget something? [rain pattering]
♪ I don't wanna be that girl ♪
♪ I don't wanna be that girl ♪ - Yeah.
♪ I don't wanna give you up ♪
- No one actually kisses like that.
- No one really kisses like that, you know,
and it's a very sort of interesting thing,
especially with...
'cause that was our first one.
You can't really watch it without feeling like,
"Yeah, this is a win," you know?
We wanted to make sure that it looked good
and that was the main thing,
even though we were both freezing.
- [chuckles] Yeah.
I think it did get to a point in the day where I was like,
I literally don't care, I'm so cold
right now. - Yeah.
"Heartstopper" as a show
is rose-tinted spectacle view of life,
and it's how we really wish that life was,
in many ways, I think.
The portrayal of the characters in general,
is in many ways, very true to life.
Just the idea of Nick Nelson as a character,
the idea that he's sort of the person that no one expects
to be anything other than straight.
- You got a haircut.
- Um, is it, is it bad? [chuckles]
- No, no. You look...
It looks great.
- That was sort of one of the first points
where he just opens the door and thinks,
"Wow, that's a pretty human being right in front of me."
And I think when I was playing that scene, I was kind of
trying to have that layer of kind of confusion,
but also just an overwhelming feeling of,
"Wow, that's again,
that's a pretty human being. - I mean, not really hard
doing [indistinct] you're working with.
- When I'm working with someone
as beautiful as Joe Locke, it's very easy.
But also there's that moment where he sort of
slightly slips up and goes, you look,
"Your hair looks great." - Yeah.
- No, no. You look...
It looks great.
- I don't think as many people notice that as kind of-
- Yeah. - I thought it would be
really obvious,
but I think quite a lot of people sort of,
"That went straight over their heads."
- "Heartstopper," it sort of...
I always see as it tackles real world, real issues,
through an optimistic lens.
That you can always see the light end of the tunnel,
and I'm sure that we'll continue to do that.
- What would you say the most fun [chuckles]
scene to shoot was?
- Probably like, one of the days we were all together
and like, could just have fun.
Maybe milkshake.
- Well, that is not boring then.
- Why'd you agree to come if you thought it would be boring?
- Um, 'cause I'm a very nice
and supportive friend, obviously.
- [chuckles] No, he came for the milkshakes
and the milkshakes only.
- I said that to you in confidence.
- I see that milkshake, I can just instantly feel
a little bit sick. - I'm gonna say
these milkshakes were the most disgusting things
I've ever, ever, ever had. [Joe chuckles]
The first one was okay.
They refilled it each time for continuity with water.
- And I think we all made the novice actor's mistake.
Not that you're a novice, but like,
the classic actor's mistake
of drinking loads in the first take.
Which means that you then have to drink loads every take.
- There's a fight in episode...
I think it's episode seven- - It is.
- between Nick and Harry.
And he's kind of one of the main antagonists.
And there was one point
where I throw, Cormac, who plays Harry, into the wall
and the wall broke. [Joe chuckles]
We made a hole in the wall and I felt like I'm a superhero.
I was like, "My God this is really...
Obviously, it was a really, really hollow wall.
- Oh, you're getting so angry. [laughs]
Quite not one to protect him, can you?
[Nick groans] [fist thuds]
- Whoa, whoa. - Oh.
[people speaking indistinctly]
- It was that one.
- Crack. - We broke the wall,
and I felt just like a superhero.
Anyway, Cormac's great in that scene.
Real sort of very hateable and just an awful human being.
The opposite of Cormac obviously,
but he plays it brilliantly.
I think it's also just a very important moment
in Nick's sort of character act,
in that he really realizes
that these people are not good people.
There are many, many ways
to view masculinity in "Heartstopper."
The idea that you can tell someone's sexuality
based on the way that he look, the way that they talk,
the way that they walk, the way that they dress,
is quite frankly ridiculous
and it's really quite harmful.
"Heartstopper," one of the strong messages that it sends
is the fact that, to do that is frankly wrong.
- [Interviewer] So Joe, I heard in interviews before
that you said that this was one of your favorite scenes.
- This is my favorite scene. - Can you just explain why?
- It's just...
I remember reading in the script for the first time,
and it made me cry.
I made them show it to me in ADR when I was doing my ADR,
'cause I wanted to see it, and it made me cry again.
It's only just after watching about 25 times
I can stop myself crying when I watch the scene.
I just think it's...
Kit does such a wonderful job
and it's just very, very, very, very sweet.
- Thank you.
- [Mom] Oh, baby.
- I'm actually tearing up.
- You want to pause it now?
She's so, so good.
She's really, really- - You're so good.
- No, but honestly, being able to do that scene
with Olivia Colman was an honor,
and she is so unbelievably
effortlessly talented.
I think that scene is like such an important scene
in the show, especially, like,
it was kind of the point
where I really circled it in my script and was like,
"This is what I wanna get right.
And if I get everything else wrong,
and if I do a rubbish job, at least if I do this one right,
then I'll be happy."
Still to this date,
one of the most, sort of emotional moments
for me in my career, is hearing on Twitter,
hearing something so wonderful as a fan reaching out
and saying that they used this scene
to come out to their parents.
You can't really sort of put words to it.
It's quite an extraordinary feeling
to be able to have that kind of effect
on a person's life and give them the confidence
and the comfort to do that.
And I've also since then heard other people
doing similar things and, you know,
each time it's as insane to me
and just as emotional each time.
- Ow. [Kit exhales]
I went back to school after we finished shooting,
and when I went back to school, they had, like,
an LGBT group who meet up on a Monday, after school,
in the library.
And there were so many people there
and they were saying that, like,
"Heartstopper" has helped lots of younger people
in my own school feel more confident in who they are.
And I think to be a part of something
that has affected people so, like, close to home
is just so wonderful,
and like, out of what I ever expected.
- And recently, we were able to walk at London Pride,
and that was one of the most extraordinary sort of feelings
in my life that felt pretty incredible.
Thank you so much for watching this wonderful video.
- Thank you for watching us watch us.
- Yeah? - Yeah. [laughs]
- See you next time. - See you next time.