Heartstopper: Ending on a Hi

Hello! Is this recording?

Hi.

I've learned a lot about myself in the process of making this show.

Action.

It taught me so much. Being on a set like Heartstopper, you can't describe.

We love to see it, eh?

I've never had a bond like I do with the cast of Heartstopper.

We're like family.

Doo-doo-doo-doo-doo!

Oh my God.

Overnight, everything was different, and it would never be the same again.

Heartstopper!

I wish I could've had a show like this growing up.

I hope that it has helped people.

That's really the most blessed thing I can hope for as a creator.

Bye.

The origin story of Heartstopper is an interesting one.

When I was 19,

I wrote and published my first young adult novel called Solitaire.

That book is about Tori Spring,

who those who know Heartstopper will know is the older sister of Charlie.

I absolutely loved Nick and Charlie as characters in Solitaire.

As soon as I'd finished writing that book,

I knew I wanted to tell Nick and Charlie's story somehow.

I wanted to understand

how Nick and Charlie had got to this point so young,

where they're in such a beautiful, loving, supportive relationship,

and so I wanted to tell their origin story.

But when I first started planning it as a comic,

I didn't think traditional publishing was possible.

But I thought I could self-publish a book, I could do a crowdfunding campaign,

raise the money and create the book entirely by myself without a publisher.

When I did the crowdfunder, it truly shocked me.

It raised the goal amount in four hours,

and it ended up raising five or six times the goal.

And I took a step back and thought,

"People really like this comic."

It was a big surprise. Yeah.

So I read a little excerpt of Volume One, the graphic novel, and I was like, "Wow."

I loved a character of Charlie.

It reminded me a little bit of myself.

Oh my goodness.

This is the picture.

This was my sort of Charlie Spring moment. This is me at school.

And so when meeting with Alice,

I was like, maybe I should just get my phone out and show this picture

as a sort of like, you know, breaking the ice moment,

which I did probably in a very kind of flustered, nervous way.

I'd spoken to some other people who wanted to adapt it,

and I wasn't sure that they truly loved what Heartstopper was,

but I felt that instantly from Patrick.

-Now here we are. -That's great to hear.

You know, we were 17 when we met.

-16. I was 16. -You were 16. I was 17.

Heartstopper was my first audition I'd ever done. Um…

And I'll be honest, I don't really remember it that well.

I remember Joe's self-tape because he did the Charlie monologue

we'd sent to all the people who were auditioning for Charlie.

And then at the end, he spent 30 seconds to a minute

talking about how he personally related to Charlie

and he felt like he was Charlie at his school.

And that was the moment where,

for the first time, I saw Charlie in real life.

We had a chemistry read with Kit and Joe.

They'd never met each other at this point,

and they read the first big kissing scene in season one.

It was, like, electric.

I remember thinking to myself,

"This is Nick and Charlie. We've got it. They are the best that they can be."

-Hello. -Hi.

-Take a seat. -Perfect.

I was growing up in Manchester.

I was working at the supermarket.

I was at school. I was doing every club afterwards.

I was writing songs, making music.

I used to nanny for a very lovely family who, hello, if they're watching.

There was an open casting call on Instagram,

which I got sent by a friend.

And I was like, "That sounds a lot like me."

I never really could see myself in the industry,

never mind playing a role that is trans.

I was just about to give up.

I remember I looked at my phone, and it just went ping. "What is that?"

"Oh, that's a little bit of me!"

I remember practicing in the mirror the night before.

I almost didn't get in the car to go to audition,

telling myself if I was too scared to go, I didn't have to.

I remember being in the audition, the most nervous I've probably ever been.

I left my shift early and ran home as quick as I could to make the Zoom call.

I was on the bus and I got, like, a missed call from my agents.

And the casting director called me and was like, "You've got the part."

I couldn't believe it.

I tried to play it cool. "I'll do my best."

"Thank you. I really appreciate the opportunity."

My mum was off camera flapping and sort of jumping up and down.

It was an amazing moment.

It was a moment of, like, "Yeah, maybe acting is possible."

Casting's incredible 'cause you had to cast a friendship group,

and now here we are, four years later, all in the same group chat.

Wow.

Oh, it's Heartstopper.

Aw, how cute.

We were really lucky to have about two weeks of rehearsals

for the first series.

It was during COVID, so we all had masks on.

And we all met in this church hall and just read through the scenes.

And that was so great in getting to know each other as a group.

It was so, so cool.

We heard everyone say their lines as their characters.

And it was really emotional.

Some of the stuff between Joe and Kit, between Nick and Charlie,

all of us just went silent and looked at them,

like, "Oh my God, this is gonna work."

Hey, guys, I'm here with Netflix's Joe Locke.

Hi. This is the set of Heartstopper.

My first day on set,

Alice and Patrick came up to me and could sense the nerves,

just held my hand and was like, "This is gonna be amazing."

"You're in a safe space."

Most of my scenes were just me and Joe.

I didn't really know the rest of the cast, and it was one lunch break

and I just remember hearing them all having a load of fun in one of the rooms.

I plucked up the courage, knocked on the door, and introduced myself.

And then after then, I was added to the WhatsApp group.

There was this feeling on set we were doing something special,

like inherently telling the story

of these young queer people falling in love and navigating life.

I was looking back at my photos from season one

like "You have no idea what's in store for you."

The magic of season one,

I think it just captured a lot of people's hearts.

I hope. Touch wood.

When I heard it was coming out on Netflix, I was a bit apprehensive.

I was like, "Oh no. What's this going to be like?"

It came at a time after lockdown

where people wanted something to really resonate with.

And then I saw the show,

and I think it changed my brain chemistry.

It's so true to what Alice was creating.

It's a perfect adaptation.

So I watched the first season, and I was, like, obsessed.

It's a story about finding your place and your people.

My mum's watched the show,

and her seeing it helped her understand my life a little bit more.

The first time I watched Heartstopper, I fell in love.

I fell in love with the characters. I fell in love with the world.

I fell in love with love again.

Heartstopper made me feel so proud

that finally we have a show

where queer characters are at the front and center.

This was something that was very, very different

and had love and care at its core.

People from all generations have connected with Heartstopper.

It's filled a gap that they might not have had

in their childhood and in their adolescence.

But also, young people now can connect to it

because they can see themselves in it.

I'm having a proper full-on gay crisis.

I was just so confused.

And now it's taken over the world.

It was kind of unheard of to have

a television show that was focusing on queer themes

that didn't lead with the kind of extreme level of trauma.

It made me feel so happy and proud

that this could be the experience for other people like me.

What we saw was just kids being kids.

Action.

It's lunchtime. We've climbed to the top of the helter-skelter.

And we're not allowed to be on here.

All the crew are down there.

Oh, come on, just do it.

Oh!

Hughie definitely saw me!

What helter-skelter? I never went on a helter-skelter.

We decided to take that to the grave with us.

No one's gonna ever know that we went on the helter-skelter.

If you were to reveal the biggest behind-the-scenes secret,

what would you say?

Oh my gosh, behind-the-scenes secrets?

Um…

I guess that…

Okay, any time that there is a sort of improvised scene

or there's dialogue happening on screen that you can't quite make out, we're…

the cast are almost certainly talking about willies and vaginas.

Exterior. Beach town.

Tara and Darcy are running towards the beach, racing, laughing and screaming.

I write the scripts,

and during that time I'm able to have conversations with the actors,

see how they're feeling about their characters' stories.

And often they will come to me with their own ideas

and differing opinions

and thoughts about particular scenes or even particular lines.

It's really helpful to get their perspective.

Alice is amazing at communicating and also being so vigilant.

I was bullied when I was growing up,

so I knew firsthand what it was like to experience transphobia.

So for Alice to sit me down and to say,

"What is your experience? How can we embed it in the role?"

It's just little questions like that that make the experience so much easier.

When the actor feels excited about what they're doing,