Kit Connor on "sweet and tender" sex scenes in Heartstopper season 3
Kit Connor began acting as a child – now he’s holding his own on set, if not the rugby pitch…
This interview was originally published in Radio Times magazine.
When did you know you wanted to be an actor? Your first on-screen job was at the age of eight!
I had quite a peculiar but natural progression into the industry. I went to a Saturday acting club and they had an agency, so I started doing commercials.
You went from commercials to playing the young Elton John in the Hollywood biopic Rocketman and voicing Pantalaimon in His Dark Materials…
The thing is, every step you take in your career feels like the biggest you’re ever going to take. I remember when I did my first TV job that wasn’t a commercial — it was an episode of Casualty.
I went to a BBC office in Cardiff and they gave me a tag with my name on it, which I kept for years because it felt like a huge thing! Getting Rocketman was ridiculous. I’d worked with the director Dexter Fletcher on a B&Q commercial and apparently he thought that the kid from the B&Q ad might be good for the role… My whole career has been a whirlwind.
Have you ever had a Plan B?
It’s probably a bit of a risky mindset — but I do think if you rely too heavily on having a back-up plan, how do you expect Plan A to succeed? My parents have always been incredibly supportive.
They never pushed anything onto me; they’ve just enjoyed watching me be able to do what I love. I do think that they wanted me to get my A-levels, though…
How has landing Heartstopper changed your life?
It’s been a pretty extraordinary journey. It never felt like a surefire way to success. I don’t think many people expected it to do well. I was incredibly excited to get the role and it was my first chance to lead.
As a child actor, you can be sheltered. While you’re shooting a movie, people your age are going to parties! I wouldn’t have changed it, but it does hold you back in some respects. I feel like my life started when I did Heartstopper, which is beautiful.
Being on the top of the call sheet comes with responsibility. Do you enjoy that?
It’s really nice to be able to go into a job and feel that you can hold your own and you deserve your place there. I don’t always know my place in social spaces, but on set I know what I’m supposed to be doing.
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Are you not as outgoing as Nick?
Filming massive party scenes with lots of supporting actors in the room, feeling like all eyes are on you, is dreadful! They also brought in a real rugby team and no one was passing me the ball — because, why would they!
They had to tell them to pass to Kit and then in the next take, they started screaming, "Get it to Kit! Get it to Kit!" Then they had to cut again and say, "That’s great. But next time, call him Nick." That was pretty stressful!
There’s been controversy that the new series has sex scenes. How do you feel about them?
We still approach sex in a very Heartstopper way. It’s light-hearted and optimistic. The focus is on the difficulties of knowing when you’re ready and what it is to be a young queer person.
There isn’t as much representation in the industry of queer sex and often it’s represented as being much more advanced and very highly sexualised. This is really sweet and tender.
Heartstopper season 3 will stream on Netflix from 3rd October 2024, and seasons 1-2 are available to stream now. Sign up for Netflix from £4.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.
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