Newcomer Joe Locke talks about his debut role in Heartstopper

Stephen: So what can you tell us about Heartstopper?
Joe: Heartstopper is a coming of age story about being queer, growing up queer and coming to terms with your sexuality. But I’d say it’s also about having a group of people around you who support and love you for you and allow you to go on that journey of accepting yourself and learning yourself. Because I think the shows teenagers growing up and teenagers coming to terms themselves. I think that the show really normalizes the idea that there is no normal and that everyone grows up in different ways and learns love themselves in different ways and everyone is different. That should be celebrated not seen as a negative factor.

What resonated the most with you?
I think probably, just to love and accept yourself for you, not for what the world wants you to be.

The casting process, sounded pretty intense. Did you did you ask what set you apart?
I didn’t. I mean, I’m not sure I want to know but I think it came the chemistry audition. I think there was a few Charlies left and it was who gets on whith who. I think the casting team thought that me and Kit who plays Nick, just had the most chemistry between us which in this occasion and it worked in my favour.

How much of yourself did you bring to your character, or was it mostly from the graphic novel?
The author Alice was there on set every single day and we had a two week rehearsal process, where we talk about character talked about intentions and we went through this for every scene in the script with like what the characters thinking feeling. I think that although, the characters are there in the graphic novels Alice said that she doesn’t want us to be carbon copy, she wants us to be able to make the characters, while still keeping, the same characteristics. You can’t change everything because that wouldn’t be the same story.

Did you have to learn all the traits/qualities that your character has like the drums?
Netflix send a drum kit to my house after my audition because I had to go home and isolate for two weeks. I had drum lessons over, zoom and I learned a few beats. When we got to set I’m like , I’m get it, I’m good at the drums now, I can do, it! They were like, okay, so we’ve got you a drum double, to make you look good, and I said, oh I don’t ned that… and then I saw him play the drums and I was like, you know what, I think I’ll leave it to him.

Where you eager to relive your high school experience?
While I’d say relieved, but I’m still there. As awful as that makes me feel, although I’m sur my school would say, I’m not there more than I am there, but technically, I’m still there. So I think that actually helps all of us create authentic ideas of what a teenager in high school today is like and how schools are. The director would have a few questions would be doing or how they’d act in school and then it was really helpful that we still have that fresh in our minds to act upon and create scenes on.

So you do think it is an accurate representation of LGBT kids?
I think so, I think the show although it’s still an optimistic, lovely story, it doesn’t shy away from the harder issues to talk about from the bullying and homophobia that Charlie faces or the stigma that Elle still finds herself experiencing. I think that’s the right way to do it because we can’t change and teach younger queer kids about themselves while purely focusing on the negatives. If we were to just create a series where everything was happy, and nothing bad ever happened, then it becomes unrealistic and I think that homophobia in schools is still a problem and as much as it’s probably far better than it was 30 years ago, there is still intolerance out there. We need to show that these are learned behaviours that inherit throughout generations and it’s about education and teaching people that’s not how you should act and that’s not how you should have an outlook of the world.

Did any of your cast mates give you advice on how you might handle your impending fame when this all comes out?
Well, impending pain I’m not sure I’d call it that but we got really great support from Netflix. We’ve had sessions on that and how to handle social media and how to make it a healthy relationship. We have such a great cast we’re such a close knit and friendly group that we all get on. We were talking about it a couple of weeks ago, no one else in the world can really fully understand what the experience of us all is, except each other. So we have that really close bond with each other that I think will be there the rest of our lives and, we’ll help each other if we’re ever struggling. Fingers crossed the show comes out and is a massive hit and then we get renewed for six more seasons.

Which character would be your best friend in real life?
I always say that I am as a person very like Tao in that I probably don’t think enought before I say something and am very protective of the people I care about. So if I was Tao, I think that Charlie would be a good friend to me, to keep me grounded. But then again I just love Isaac as a character and the way that Toby plays Isaac is just so funny and so I probably also Isaac as well.

So you guys still talk and hang out as much as you can?
We do and I see them as often as I can whenever I’m in London and not stuck in the Isle of Man. Even if we don’t, we have a cas group and we message all the time.

Did you have any hesitations on playing gay for your first mainstream role?
I don’t think I did, I think that Heartstopper is a series that matters so much and is really what the world needs right now. I would hope that the world is becoming a place where that doesn’t matter as much, and it’s becoming normal for queer shows to be at the forefront of TV and film. Heartstopper is so universal in its appeal across the ages. I really hope that it can start to help the journey to make queer shows, and stories of marginalized people come to the forefront of the industry.

Did you watch any older LGBT movies & TV shows to prepare for this?
I recently watched, It’s A Sin I adore that program. I think I’ve seen at like four times all the way through. It is just does an amazing job, the cast is all brillant. I think the Heartstopper is different from previous queer shows and it tackles things from a different lens and it shows a younger audience, a younger cast and younger sort of everything to do with it. I think that it’s really great that we have your own niche for other shows to sprout from and build upon.

Do you binge watch and do you think that’s a good way to watch Heartstopper?
I’m a massive binge watcher because if I’m in the right moods to watch a series I want to watch it all at once. I think Heartstopper is a perfect show to binge watch because it’s eight half an hour episodes. The episodes are so snappy and everything ends on a cliffhanger.

If you’re having dinner, would you order surf or turf?
Turf! I really don’t like fish. I’ve always struggled with I think as I’m getting older I’m realizing that it’s just like a picky child thing, but I still struggle with fishy fish.

Everything, ocean related.
I’ve starting eating prawns and that’s like the first step of my ladder. I had tuna pasta the first time the other night. I enjoyed it because it didn’t taste of fish just tomatoes.

No sushi either then?
That’s gonna be later on my journey to discovering the joys of fish.

Do you remember the first website you visited?
I think the first website is probably like Club Penguin or something like that.

What’s that ?
It was like a 2010 Disney, online kids… I don’t even known how to describe it. It was like a website, where you played games, and it was like I had a login… but yeah that would have been my first website.

Do you have a favourite network TV show?
I’m not sure, I don’t watch enought TV. I fell like my all-time favourite TV show would be Friends. It’s just a comfort watch if I’m ever stressed I’ll just stick it on.

So, would you rather balance some books or play Goalkeeper?
Balance some book. Me and sports, we’re not a mix. I had more notes in my planner to get out of PE than most people, all forged by me. My mom would never let me do it so I just got good at writing her signature.

So there wasn’t too much acting when you had to pretend you didn’t like rugby in the show?
Oh, no. There was one day where someone has come to tackle CHarlie and he runs away at the last second and the director was like that was really good, genuinely thought you were scared and I was like, yeah, I was that’s why, I wasn’t acting!

That team they were like actually men, those weren’t high school kids?
Yeah they train like four to five times a week, and me I have absolutely zero experience, no clue what was going on at all!