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SPOILER ALERT: This post contains spoilers for the new season of Netflix’s Heartstopper.
Dynamic duo Joe Locke and Kit Connor each had major emotional moments to take on as their Heartstopper characters Charlie Spring and Nick Nelson in Season 3 of the Netflix series, based on the graphic novels by Alice Oseman.
Season 2 watched Nick (Connor) start to notice Charlie’s eating habits, which were curbed by stress and anxiety. Nick also came out to several close friends and family members over the course of Season 2, and he asked Charlie more fully about where his eating disorder and its causes, setting up for the deeper layers that contribute to Season 3’s plot. Nick also has new obstacles to face as he looks to his future and university, as he is a year older than Charlie.
In the below interview, the pair discuss their approach to the more serious themes and tone this season, which moments still brough the signature joy of the series to light, working with guest stars Jonathan Bailey and Haley Atwell and more.
DEADLINE: How did you two approach the more serious tone of this season?
CONNOR (to Locke): Well you had a really serious storyline so why don’t you enlighten us?
LOCKE: Heartstopper is such a special show and that we can handle quite serious topics with quite a lighthearted tone in a way and the audience always knows that the characters are going to be okay in the end, which means that we can go to these dark places without feeling like we’re going to alienate the audience. So it was it was nice to be able to really delve into the darker sides and then the more serious topics.
Connor: It feels like it was a very natural progression in terms of the characters and the story and the environment and the vibe of the show. It felt like, as the audience are growing up with the show the show should in turn, grow up with them.
DEADLINE: Going back to that more lighthearted tone, there’s Charlie has a great 16th birthday party. What other scenes really captured the joy this season and were fun for you both to film?
LOCKE: New Year’s party is really like Charlie’s reintroduction to the friendship group. And you see a really how much they all love him and care about him, which is really nice. And it was fun to film as well.
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CONNOR: The Christmas episode scenes. were fun. Yeah, they were they were good and we could kind of just a lot of it, like kind of messing around and having fun. Yeah, those those kind of things are always always very fun, for sure.
DEADLINE: Kit, Olivia Coleman couldn’t reprise her role as your mom this season, but you got to film scenes with Haley Atwell as Aunt Diane, what was it like working with her? What kind of dynamic did you to want to establish?
CONNOR: Well, [Olivia]’s brilliant. She’s very talented and a real pro. When you get the news, Olivia Coleman can’t come back, that’s a hard pill to swallow, but then when you find out that Haley Atwell is going to be only playing your Aunt instead, tit’s still pretty great.
We wanted to have a slightly different dynamic between Nick and Diane versus Nick and his mom. She’s the cool aunt. He feels like he can be just a little bit more honest with her and more cheeky. That was a vibe that we wanted to have, and it was already in the writing anyway, for sure.
DEADLINE: How was working with Jonathan Bailey for both of you?
LOCKE: It was great. Johnny’s such a wonderful guy and amazing actor. We wanted him to be on the show for a while so it was really great to find a perfect part for him to have a little cameo.
CONNOR: That’s a tough job to, as a cameo, your first day on set and you’re there and you have to do a speech to this whole room of people pretending to be some kind of expert in the classics and things like that. I wouldn’t have enjoyed it, but he did with a lot of grace and with a lot of talent.
DEADLINE: That scene is one of the first inklings for Nick, you know, that there’s still a lot of growing for him to do and he’s not sure what he wants to do in uni, etc.Could you talk more about that arc?
CONNOR: There’s a real focus on the first half of the season that Nick is a support system to Charlie and then in the later episodes we start to explore this idea that that Nick needs to learn to be more content with himself and confident in himself and think about himself, basically, and not just always put Charlie in the forefront of his mind. That is a very true thing for a lot of people, especially in your first relationship. You feel like that person has to be your entire world and you can’t think about anyone else or anything else, let alone yourself. That is an important thing to remember, that, if you’re not content with yourself, if you can’t be on your own in a room and be happy, then it’s probably not going to go all that well if you’re pouring all of this love and weight and importance on one person.
DEADLINE: The last episode is titled ‘Apart,’ but they’re very much still together. There’s a fifth novel in this series are you two anticipating coming back for another season?
BOTH: We don’t know.
CONNOR: It’s it always was the unknown for us. They keep us out of the loop.
DEADLINE: Did you two have any music input this season for the soundtrack or any of the songs in the scenes?
CONNOR: I think we did. I think we did have an impact on the Olivia Dean music.
LOCKE: Yeah.
CONNOR: Because I think we talked a lot about Olivia Dean, and we played her music a lot.
LOCKE: And her song was in the show.
CONNOR: I did a Netflix BTS video while on set, and they were like, “Oh, What song do you think they should put in?” and I was like, something by Olivia Dean. Suddenly it was there so I don’t want to take all the credit, but I did have a part to play.
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