- Hi, I'm Yasmin Finney.
- I'm William Gao.
- And we play Tao and Elle in 'Heartstopper'.
- And this is our shoot for Attitude magazine.
- What advice did we get?
I think one thing Alice [Oseman] said to me
was just be myself.
Because, for me, Elle is a trans girl
in high school and I'm the same,
I'm very similar to Elle in many ways.
So, yeah, it was just be myself, don't overthink it
and smash it
and just know that we're all here
for the right reasons.
And this is a family
and we're here to have a good time.
- Yeah, I think the same thing.
Alice said to me,
basically, because there’s
such an expectation from the books,
obviously, the characters come from the comics.
There is an expectation of each character.
But Alice was like, "Do you make it your own
and put your own spin onto the character." And
gave us that, kind of, freedom
and she was like, "Oh, I just want you to be able
to express that freedom."
- Yeah.
And Alice made us feel so at home.
As well as [producer] Patrick [Walters]
like they are our mum and dad on set, literally.
- On set mum and dad.
- 'Heartstopper' been going on since 2012,
so I was a bit worried.
I was like, oh my God,
what if they don't like me?
Am I too, you know, different to Elle?
Then I was like, do you know what?
This is it
and the way they casted it,
it's so authentic.
It was like an open casting call
and I'm just really happy that I got Elle.
And I feel like the 'Heartstopper' fans
are very happy that, with the casting.
They, from Twitter anyway, like they're
just head over heels over us.
- There are a lot of fans of the books
and there's a lot of excitement for the show.
So, I'm kind of
apprehensive to see how they react
because they have so much love for the show.
But also I'm really excited thay're very welcoming.
And they're a lovely fan base.
- Very welcoming, so sweet.
- On social media.
I don't have Twitter, but they sound very nice.
- They’re amazing on Twitter.
I mean, they're mainly on Twitter, to be honest,
but they're just amazing.
I remember for Elle,
I seen the
casting call on Instagram, and that was
an international search
and they required it to be a trans girl of colour,
which I'd never seen before.
I never thought Netflix would ever do that.
So I'm just really happy that you know, we're
definitely coming to
a good place with casting
and we're getting more diversity and more queer people
in front of casting directors.
And, you know,
that's just the way it should be really.
That's the way that we're going.
- It was so interesting seeing the casting call
because it said they're looking for
an East Asian or half mixed East Asian actor to play Tao.
And I've never seen that in my life.
I’ve never seen that kind of casting in a sentence.
And that's was just indicative of how
specific they were.
And they were like,
"We really want this show to be diverse."
We're going to force this diversity to show just that,
you know, a real wholesome, diverse bunch of people,
which I think we all are.
- Yeah, we definitely are, for sure.
- Yeah, it's great.
- Oh, God.
I relate to
Elle in
so many ways
just because of high school,
because she moved high school,
because obviously
she transitioned, I moved
because I was getting bullied
and my hair length and also the same with her,
like, her hair length is a problem in school.
So there's just so many things
that it delves
into as a trans person in high school
that would never usually be seen on screen.
And yeah, there's
so many ways that I relate to her and
her high school journey.
And she found her
friendship group from high school, and I did
when I moved schools eventually.
And yeah, it's crazy how much we relate.
So, I think
from my experiences of being in school,
I think the biggest thing
that Tao faces is probably a change.
There's a lot of changes
happening in his life and in school.
And I think school is a time where you do,
all of us
change a lot,
and it's a big change of a group of people over
quite a short, intense period of time.
- Yeah, it's a lot of growing.
- A lot of growing.
And I think that's where I related
to Tao in that sense of that fear or that
that fear of change in life and changing friendship
and dynamic and the way friendships
change and develop over those years.
- In my first high school, I did experience bullying,
and that's why I moved to my second high school.
It was tough because I was
like the only queer person in my school
and I was kind of just seen as the outsider.
And I kind of incorporated that into 'Heartstopper'
a little bit with Elle.
And when we first see her
in the girl's high school, like she was just,
you know, I just
I remembered the days when I moved in my
first school, it was just
there was a lot of emotions that I was feeling
and I incorporate that into Elle.
- Was I bullied at school?
I think
in primary school, maybe a bit, I think I was.
And that made me relate to Tao a lot.
I think maybe being different and being
slightly out of the norm.
I didn't do sport at school.
I wasn't really a sporty kind of guy.
So maybe
not doing sport, made me, kind of, an outsider.
And I think I felt that.
- And that's another thing to me.
In high school,
I was kind of
forced to be in the boys teams and, you know,
doing boys activities, which I just knew
that wasn't for me, that wasn't who I was.
And I feel like they kind of knew that too,
but they just didn't understand
what was happening with me.
So they was like, OK, well,
you're just going to have to do that.
And you’re going to have to get changed
in the disabled toilets
and you know, it was just a lot of things
that just, yeah, there's a lot of things.
But I'm hoping that when 'Heartstopper' is out,
that the younger generation
can see it
and be inspired and see it as the new norm, you know.
- So many positives to bring out of it.
- So many positives.
- For anyone
that's struggling with there identity
or having a difficult time at school.
I would say
there is a group
and there are people that feel the same way
and there are people out there
and you're never alone and you will find that group.
And we will,
I think a lot of us have experienced
kind of finding that group and that community.
And I say to them,
you will find that community
and I know it's difficult, but-
- It's difficult, but you have to do it.
And being authentically yourself, unapologetically yourself
is the best way to live.
You can't live by
what anybody else thinks of you
and how other people view you as a person.
Just live for yourself.
And I know that's so hard in high school,
breaking through that barrier of what
other people think, but you have to do it.
And that's just the way to grow.
And trust me,
it will pay off in the future
because who wants to live,
who wants to live life by
what other people think about them?
Like, no, be yourself and be free and be liberated.
And that's the best way to be.