Kit Connor

Heartstopper’s Kit Connor: ‘I wasn’t used to the idea of millions of people being interested in my private life’

He’s 19, lives at home with his mum and dad – and is a megastar thanks to Netflix’s take on the teen gay love story. The actor talks about accusations of ‘queerbaiting’, being outed at 18, and his pal Elton John

Saturday July 22 2023, 7.00am, The Guardian

We are walking in Borough Market, Kit Connor and I. It’s his favourite area of London, he says, then worries that might sound like a dumb cliche. No, but it’s cool, he continues, speaking aloud these thoughts as he untangles them, even if it is a cliche. This is the bit of London he knows best in that it’s 30 minutes from Croydon, where he lives. Yes, with his mum and dad. He’s still only 19, after all, even if we’ve been watching him on screen since eight. He likes that Borough is near the South Bank, the National Theatre, the British Film Institute. He’s going through a retro phase with films, incidentally; an exploration of the history of the leading men in cinema. He has gone all the way back to Marlon Brando’s early work. Also, James Dean. He was recently photographed for Vogue in Breton stripes invoking the famous Dean shotfrom the summer of 1955. He likes the brooding, the look. “I’m trying to do it a little bit,” he says. “What do you think?”

He turns to face me. He’s wearing a white T-shirt and battered Carhartt jacket, which he picked up in a vintage shop on a recent trip to New York. Yes, the hair has a touch of 50s, longish and swept back on top, cropped-ish on the sides. Come to think of it, that complexion does, too – milky, lightly freckled, slight ruddiness creeping up the cheeks. Although I can’t imagine him grimacing through the smoke of a dangling cigarette, or driving faster than the speed limit. Or throwing a punch in a state of existential rage. He’s just too sweet. Nor can I imagine hurting his feelings, so I say, “Yes, very brooding rebel.”

…read the full article in The Guardian