00:00Heartstopper has been an incredible learning curve for me.
00:03A really awesome thing to see it grow.
00:05I love the story of Nick and Charlie,
00:07I love the story of Heartstopper,
00:09and I will be very, very sad to say goodbye.
00:12Getting to see the ending of their story as a fan
00:15is just so satisfying.
00:17It's gonna be weird when it's over
00:19and also, like, say goodbye to these characters
00:21and this has been such a big part of our lives.
00:23Hi, I'm Kit Connor.
00:24And I'm Joe Locke.
00:25Come join us on a day of shooting
00:27the final chapter of Heartstopper.
00:28There we go.
00:39What is today's date?
00:40Today's date...
00:41Oh God, I've got no idea.
00:43I don't know.
00:45Oh, that is a hard question.
00:47You've put me on the spot.
00:48Scoopy too, I don't even know what month it is.
00:50Today's date is the...
00:52Today's date might be the 21st?
00:54It's the 21st of July.
00:56The 21st of July.
00:58The 21st of July, 2025.
01:00This is week seven.
01:02Day 29 of 35 today.
01:06Is that right?
01:07Well, we're doing a six day week
01:08and we're 35 shoot days,
01:10so this would be 30 of 35.
01:12He's the math guy, so I let him do that stuff.
01:15I know it's day 31, so that's all I go on.
01:18I still got it wrong, so I'm about to correct me.
01:21We are sort of over three quarters of the way through the shoot.
01:24We've shot for six weeks and we have one week to go.
01:28Today we're filming scenes at Nick's house,
01:31really focusing on Sarah's 50th birthday party,
01:34looking back into memories that are coming up for Nick about his childhood.
01:40Oh my God, you were so cute.
01:42Were?
01:43I'm not cute anymore.
01:44Yeah, not as cute as this.
01:47I mean, I protect him with my life.
01:50Yeah.
01:52Right, I should go and say hi to some people.
01:55Okay, I'm going to go to Lou and I'll come find you.
01:57Okay.
01:58A lot of the things in their life are kind of changing.
02:03Nick is on the brink of leaving and kind of going to uni and like finishing school.
02:07Charlie is really hitting his stride and he's head boy now
02:11and he's kind of achieving what he never thought he'd be able to.
02:15And they're both kind of trying to adjust to those changes,
02:19starting to worry as to whether or not those changes are going to affect their relationship.
02:24When I first met Alice, I was just a fan walking into the room
02:28and being like, let's make this TV series of this amazing graphic novel that you've done.
02:32We then went on this journey where she became a screenwriter
02:34and she wrote all of season one.
02:35And now she's like fully fledged.
02:37She's exec producing.
02:38She's doing the whole thing, show running.
02:40It's a massive journey.
02:41Half Stopper has always, in my mind,
02:44it's approached trying to capture authentic teenage experiences.
02:48And we've always looked at dark themes and things like Charlie's anorexia and bullying and homophobia.
02:57We are trying to continue on those ideas into the film.
03:01These things don't just wrap up neatly in a little bow at the end of each season
03:05and then are totally forgotten.
03:07Particularly, you know, Charlie experiencing mental illness.
03:10That's something that he will probably always carry with him in some way.
03:14That's just real life.
03:15And that's what I've always set out to try and capture.
03:18This is my first job.
03:19And so I often say that Kit really is like my acting teacher.
03:23He's an old pro.
03:24And so he's everything I know I've learned from Kit, basically.
03:27Me and Patti LuPone.
03:28Yeah, you and Patti LuPone.
03:29Yeah.
03:29Worst people to learn from.
03:31Part Stopper has been an incredible learning curve for me.
03:34Played some of my favorite scenes I've ever played with Joe.
03:37Our big breakup scene we shot like a week ago.
03:40I was kind of nervous about because I think it's just a really big scene.
03:44And I think one of the things that I enjoyed the most in that scene was being off camera.
03:47Getting to see Joe's range, we tried it a couple of different ways.
03:51And we're trying to bounce off each other and just stay really, really present.
03:54I feel like I learned a lot from doing that scene and from watching Joe do it.
04:00While we've been making this film, I have been working on Volume 6 at the same time,
04:04which has never happened before.
04:05I'd always had the book finished before we started.
04:08I had actually already written Volume 6, but I just hadn't drawn it.
04:12The biggest change this film has done to the graphic novel is the final third.
04:17The ending itself hasn't changed. That's kind of been the same.
04:20Because of the limited amount of resources and time and space we have to make a film,
04:25that encourages me to really pinpoint what is important and essential in the story.
04:31It's a really interesting challenge. How do you develop Heartstopper, an episodic TV show, into a movie?
04:37It has to kind of grow into a more cinematic entity.
04:40That's what I've really been doing in terms of the camera, in terms of the shots.
04:44And really in a film, I think you get more time to dive deep into an actor's performance.
04:48I've been working a lot, especially with Kit and Joe, to get to greater psychological depths in their performance.
04:53I think he's been great in trusting us with the characters.
04:57I think he's aware as much as we are that we know these characters so well now.
05:00Definitely takes our opinion and takes our suggestions for the characters very seriously, which is nice.
05:07I'm just so excited because I'm first and foremost a massive fan of Heartstopper, and I love these characters.
05:12Getting to see the ending of their story, we want to have the completeness out there,
05:17and we want it to be something that people go back and watch again and again.
05:20Every time we've come to a new season or this film, we've wanted to challenge ourselves to do things that
05:26we've not done before.
05:27So the film is going to feel very developed in terms of maturity, so the characters themselves are growing.
05:33And with that, we've kind of modulated some of the elements of the story so that it feels a bit
05:37more adult, a bit more mature.
05:38Nick and Charlie are teenagers and they're looking forward to the rest of their lives.
05:43I loved the beginning of the shoot because we were in Bray Studios.
05:47We've made our days perfectly in time. Everyone was happy. I was going to the gym after work. It was
05:52amazing.
05:52Now we're in the chaos of location shooting. You don't know what's going to happen.
05:56You don't know where you're going to be. But from location, you also get this spontaneity
06:00because you have to respond to what's there. You have to respond to what's happening around you.
06:04There's a thousand things that can go wrong at any moment. So location is always more stressful.
06:08What is the biggest challenge of filming on location?
06:12Planes.
06:13Planes.
06:14Cars for planes.
06:15This is what filming hospital is like.
06:17Yeah.
06:17Let's put them right next to Heathrow.
06:19It's clouds and planes.
06:22You've got a plane.
06:24Oh, it's just like making a film.
06:25Yeah.
06:27We're on location at Nick's house, which is great and looks amazing on screen, but it's quite a small location.
06:32There's a lot of people involved.
06:33Yeah.
06:34In a small space.
06:35Very small space.
06:35That's always difficult.
06:37We should have a week of party scenes.
06:38Yeah.
06:39Every day it was a different party, which is interesting.
06:42Yeah.
06:42And especially, Wash is very much in the details.
06:45He really focuses a lot on very small, minute details.
06:50And when you've got a lot of people in the room, those details are going to be right.
06:54We're doing a lovely little scene in a minute with myself and Kit, where I think they get to kind
06:59of,
06:59which, in some way, connect in their own way, I think.
07:02At least that's how I view it.
07:04I thought Dad was your hero.
07:06Yeah.
07:08Heroes and villains.
07:09That's the way your brain works, isn't it?
07:12We had a lot of discussions about whether Nick and David should have a sort of reconciliation,
07:17whether David should have any level of redemption as a character.
07:21I felt like there was a lot of possibility for a lot of nuance.
07:24The effects of Nick's relationship with his father, I felt like that also inherently touched on the relationship with his
07:31brother,
07:31because his brother was raised in the same household by the same parents and came out incredibly differently.
07:37It reflects in the script now.
07:40I think you see a little bit more light and dark in David.
07:42As siblings, you know, my personal view of it is that no matter how bad things get or how much
07:47difficulties you have between you,
07:48deep down there's always a knowledge that they are a sibling and there's a deep desire somewhere to connect in
07:53there for.
07:54You see Nick kind of maybe reaching out a little bit and trying to understand David a little bit,
07:59and then it's kind of misunderstood and they come to blows a little bit,
08:02but there's just maybe what's going wrong for David and for Nick from being unable to connect.
08:07I ultimately felt that there is a new sort of connection between them, but they're never going to be best
08:13friends.
08:14It's a more complex and real situation if David doesn't completely come around and him and Nick don't 100%
08:23heal their relationship.
08:26I get lots of messages from fans about how it's helped people come out, figure out who they are, find
08:33friends, find a community.
08:34And I feel really grateful and proud to have been part of that.
08:38I've had conversations with people, with parents of younger kids, teenagers,
08:42who've said they've watched the show with them and their child has been able to say,
08:46hey, I'm like someone in the show and kind of come out to them in that way.
08:49And that is the ultimate validation of the representation that is in Heartstopper.
08:54It's never forceful, it's never done in any way to be representation, it's just what the show is.
08:59Which I think is therefore the most positive representation because it's not in any way shaped to be that.
09:04They're just the characters.
09:06And I hope that going forward in the industry that can become the norm.
09:09We don't have representation for representation, it's not representation because we are telling these people's stories.
09:13I would hope is that it helps young people find themselves or feel more confident about who they are
09:21and believe that they can find that Heartstoppery joy that is the core essence of what Heartstopper is.
09:28The love and the friendship and the hope and the optimism.
09:33Everyone deserves to feel that about themselves and about their futures.
09:37I think Charlie has a real strong sense of what is wrong and right.
09:41I mean Nick's just an incredibly loving person, gives his everything when it comes to the people that he cares
09:47about
09:47and I think that that's a rather beautiful quality.
09:49I really feel that it's time for it to come to a close.
09:54I think the story will have said all that it needed to say.
09:59I want to end the story on that positive, joyful, uplifting note.
10:06I think it will be a really satisfying, beautiful ending for everyone,
10:10but it won't tell us everything about what's to come for Nick and Charlie in the future.
10:14We'll see you next time.
10:14Bye.
10:15Bye.
10:16Bye.
10:16Bye.
10:16Bye.
10:17Bye.
