Kit Connor on Nick’s Coming Out Challenges & Why Paris is Important in Season 2
[This interview was conducted prior to the SAG-AFTRA strike authorization.]
When we someday look back on the best, most romantic TV couples, we’re betting Charlie Spring (Joe Locke) and Nick Nelson (Kit Connor) will be high on the list given the audience response to Netflix‘s popular Heartstopper series, which returns for its highly anticipated second season on August 3.
In the new season, Charlie and Nick are a bona fide couple, and while that’s worth shouting from the rooftops in the U.K.-based series, based on the webcomic and graphic novels by Alice Oseman (also an executive producer and creator of the show), that proves more difficult than originally thought. That’s because Nick, who came out to his mother Sarah (Olivia Colman) as bisexual in the first season finale, is unsure how much he wants — and needs — to share with the rest of the world.
After last week’s chat with Locke, Connor next opened up with us about his perspective on the show’s reception, what’s holding Nick back from wanting to tell everyone about his and Charlie’s coupling, and who Connor sees as Nick’s go-to pal (after Charlie, of course!).
One great thing about Heartstopper is that even though it’s set in high school, it has fans of all ages. What do you make of that?
Kit Connor: It’s a beautiful thing and really one of the great surprises of the reactions to the show, and it’s really a very nice surprise that anyone watches it. It’s been really lovely to see the reaction from some of the slightly older fans of the show because there’s something really beautiful in that reaction — it’s a real sense of joy and pride that young queer people are able to live that kind of life.
You shot Season 1 in such a bubble because nobody had seen it yet. Season 2 was probably a different experience, but what did you learn from that first season that actually helped you shoot Season 2 playing Nick?
That’s a really good question. I would say that probably the fact that we really weren’t expecting anyone to watch it the way that they would watch it. There was no pressure and nothing like that. We weren’t thinking about the perception of the show. So it was really important for Season 2 that even though suddenly there was this public perception of the show, the characters and us as actors, we were all keen to make sure that that didn’t have an impact on our performances and on the story that we were telling.
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At the end of Season 1, Nick comes out to his mother, Olivia Colman, and that goes really well. How does it go with Nick telling people at school and his rugby mates?
It’s a new obstacle in the beginning of Season 2. He’s tackled what seems like the biggest obstacle, telling his mom and telling the people that he loves. And now, suddenly, he realizes that there’s a new topic to tackle. We really get into the nitty-gritty of the morality and the questions around coming out and whether you need to and whether you owe it to anyone. And I think that’s a really interesting conversation to have.
How careful do Nick and Charlie have to be at school because they’re so in love with each other, they want to kiss all the time, but there’s a lot of eyes around them?
Super careful. That’s exactly something that we explore in the show is now these characters aren’t really as much these nervous, anxious, angsty teenagers. Now, they’re falling in love, and they’re in a relationship, and they want to be together all the time and trying to keep a relationship low-key is a challenge. So they do have to be very, very careful, and there are several points in the show where they almost get caught.
There’s a lot of talk about the upcoming Paris school trip. What does that mean for Nick? Because it’s more than just a school trip for him.
Nick’s got his dad who lives in Paris and that’s a really big aspect of the Paris trip in the sense of not only has he got a slightly fractured relationship with his father, but he’s also suddenly had this real shift in his life. He’s got a boyfriend, someone who he really deeply cares about and wants to share with the people that he loves. So it’s kind of navigating that as well and seeing how he can work on his relationship with his father and introduce him to Charlie.
Is it safe to say, at this point, you and Joe have a pretty good shorthand since the majority of your scenes are together?
Yeah. Joe and I are really, really impressively close now. In fact, I’ve just spent six months away from him, and we saw each other for the first time a couple days ago and just immediately snapped back into it. He really is a very, very, very close friend of mine, and it really comes across in Season 2. Again, we were very lucky in Season 1 that as we were getting to know each other, we were only having to play this slightly nervous, slightly shy relationship, and we were slightly nervous and slightly shy [in real life] because we were just getting to know each other. Whereas now we’re playing this much more at ease, much more comfortable relationship with each other, and luckily, we are just very at ease with each other and very comfortable. It comes across well in the show.
In the first episode of Season 2, there’s a scene where Charlie tells his parents about Nick being bisexual. And I thought it was such a great way to educate maybe the audience about being bi without being heavy-handed. Where does that come from in the show?
Oh, well, yeah, that’s absolutely all Alice [Oseman]. We all see the messages that Alice is trying to portray and send, and we’ll do our best to use the words that she gives us to convey that message and get that message across. Alice really, really loves these characters and wants people to be nice to them and look after them.
In Season 2, who would you say is Nick’s go-to person besides Charlie? Who does he go to to talk about stuff if he can’t go to Charlie?
Well, that’s an interesting one. There are actually a few but surprisingly, one of the characters who Nick really starts to form a bit of an unlikely bond is Tao [William Gao]. They share such a love for Charlie and just a deep admiration and care. They begin to find some similarities in that sense and are able to confide in one another, which I think is lovely. Will is one of my favorite people in the world and I love acting with him.
Is there a moment in this show, without spoiling too much, that was a challenge for you as an actor?
Oh, yeah. I found speaking French quite difficult, but that’s on a surface level. Also, one of the things that I found more difficult was there’s a scene in Episode 7 at the dinner table, a family dinner essentially, and there are some really interesting topics brought up. And I think there are some great performances all around, really. It was a challenging scene and quite a long scene, but we had a lot of fun with it, and I was quite happy with how it turned out.
Heartstopper, Season 2 Premiere, Thursday, August 3, Netflix
