Heartstopper Forever Stars Kit Connor and Joe Locke on Saying Goodbye, and That Spicy Pier Scene

Connor speaks fondly about his scene with William Gao’s Tao Xu near the end of the film. They only had about 45 minutes to capture it, cross-shooting to save time, “which is always nice as an actor because it means the reactions are quite real,” Connor says. Of Gao, he adds, “He’s the best. I love—I adore him utterly.”

Heartstopper has, over the years, beeen mired in discourse about the role that sex plays in the story. In the film, sex is used as another language to tell the narrative of Nick and Charlie. We’re seeing the detail in their intimacy; Charlie is shirtless and Nick is clothed more often.

“You can feel that Nick, at this point, he’s the one who’s feeling slightly more closed off,” creator and writer Alice Oseman tells Teen Vogue, “and Charlie is feeling really relaxed and comfortable in himself. All of those moments, I think, tell us a little something new about where they’re at mentally.”

Oseman continues, “That final sex scene—when they come back together and they’re so in tune with each other, looking each other directly in the eyes—I think you really feel the beauty and power of that, without them having to necessarily have a big, open conversation about their feelings. You can just feel it in the moment.”

“The sex scenes were probably not hugely technically challenging for us,” Locke says. “We were so comfortable with each other by the time we were doing this. Obviously, it’s not the most comfortable experience doing that in a room full of people that you don’t know as well as we know each other,” he notes, but “I think that the sex scenes are so important in the film in a way of just bringing the closeness of them together, and I think that they’re some of the most beautiful scenes in the film.”

Early in the film, there is an exhilarating scene that Connor and I affectionately refer to as a “wank on the pier,” as sex is presented in a way that’s new for Heartstopper. “That happens. People do that, and I don’t think Heartstopper presents it as this crazy, messy thing,” Connor says. “It’s just, you know, they’re alone. There’s no one else around. I’m not saying that everyone should do it; I’m just saying that it doesn’t necessarily feel all that naughty when they’re doing it.”

Adds Locke, “Our show sometimes got the criticism of being unrealistic in some ways. And teenagers have sex—that’s probably the most realistic thing. So I think, especially with the pier scene, it’s this desire between these two people that they need to deal with in that moment, and I think that’s very realistic.”