Kit Connor, star of the upcoming Heartstopper series, has revealed that he originally auditioned for the role of Charlie Spring on the LGBTQ+ romance, despite feeling he wasn’t necessarily a good fit for the part.
The new Netflix series tells the blossoming love story between two school boys, popular rugby player Nick Nelson (Connor) and introverted outcast Charlie (Joe Locke), first chronicled in a celebrated series of graphic novels.
Not only are their personalities different but their physical appearance is too, with Nick illustrated as more athletic than Charlie, who opts primarily for artistic and musical pursuits.
With this in mind, Connor told RadioTimes.com and other press that he knew he didn’t match the description of Charlie, but couldn’t resist auditioning for the part anyway as the character’s writing was so strong.
He began: “I originally auditioned in a self-tape for Joe’s character, for Charlie, which literally whenever I tell people that they’re just like: ‘Why? Why would you do that?’
“It was just a stroke of luck really because I was thinking, especially sending that tape through, the real reason I was doing it is because I knew about the project – I thought it was an amazing project I’d like to be a part of.
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“But also, the audition tape they sent through was one of Charlie’s speeches where he’s really just at his most genuine, most stripped back point and it’s really beautifully written, and I thought, ‘I really want to do this.’”
Connor added: “I thought, ‘There’s no chance I’m going to get it,’ because physically there’s nothing about me that could fit this character, but then luckily there was Nick that I could sort of slot into quite well.”
The Heartstopper cast consists largely of newcomers, with Rocketman star Connor and Game of Thrones alum Sebastian Croft among the more established names.
Heartstopper is available to stream on Netflix from Friday 22nd April 2022. You can order the graphic novels on Amazon. Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide to see what’s on tonight.
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