Heartstopper’s Joe Locke calls out “gross” interest in his love life
The New Netflix series Heartstopper garnered acclaim from both critics and audiences upon release in April this year. This praise was for its LGBT+ representation in a coming-of-age genre. The show is adapted from Alice Oseman’s webcomics of the same name and stars Joe Locke and Kit Connor as two queer boys who develop a relationship.
Despite queer audiences openly praising and advocating for the show, lines have been inappropriately crossed when it comes to the personal lives of the two young stars. Locke, who plays gay teenager Charlie, has called out his distaste towards “the idea of a tabloid being interested in a teenager’s love life.”
This response follows how his co-star Connor, who plays Nick, who comes out as bisexual in the show, was forced to come out as bisexual himself. This follows scathing accusations of queer-baiting – a marketing technique for fiction and entertainment that creators hint at, but then do not depict, same-sex romance or other LGBTQ+ representation.
These accusations came after he was pictured holding hands with Maia Reficco in Paris, which some cited as odd since Connor plays someone in an MLM relationship for his job. As a result, Connor took to the public social media app Twitter to “come out”.
“Back for a minute. I’m bi. Congrats for forcing an 18-year-old to out himself,” the actor tweeted. “I think some of you missed the point of the show. Bye.”
As he explained to British GQ in an interview with both actors, Locke has also become frustrated by speculation about his and his co-stars’ love lives. The teen actor shared how “the idea of a tabloid being interested in a teenager’s love life is really gross. Someone making money out of rumours about who I – an 18-year-old boy – might be liking or talking to, it’s really gross and perverted. I’m 18, I don’t know who I am yet”.
Connor had also previously shared his views on the Reign with Josh Smith podcast in May, assuring that he didn’t need to explain his sexuality and that it is “dangerous” to speculate on social media.
“In the cast, I’m 18 and we have a few people in their early 20s, and even with those older members of the cast, we’re all so young, and to start speculating about our sexualities and maybe pressuring us to come out when maybe we’re not ready,” the actor states.
He proceeded with the statement: “I mean, for me, I just feel like I’m perfectly confident and comfortable in my sexuality, but I’m not too big on labels and things like that. I’m not massive about that. And I don’t feel like I need to label myself, especially not publicly.”
Connor has, fortunately, received support and appreciation from the show’s fans since revealing he’s bisexual. However, this can only make up for so much of the unnecessary criticism and inappropriate obsessive behaviour from others.
Heartstopper is available to stream on Netflix. The second and third seasons have been confirmed.
