Heartstopper's Intimacy Coordinator Spills on Filming Joe Locke & Kit Connor's Kiss Scenes
Joe Locke and Kit Connor‘s characters are so in love in Heartstopper, and they don’t hesitate to show it when enjoying private moments together.
Because of that, the stars filmed multiple scenes kissing in the Netflix series’ newly released second season.
In a recent interview, the show’s intimacy coordinator opened up about attempts to make each kiss look different. They also provided some backstory on one very iconic kiss that resulted in a hickey.
Read more about the kiss scenes in Heartstopper…
Speaking to Teen Vogue, intimacy coordinator David Thackeray revealed that they put a lot of effort into bringing “a different quality” each time the couple shared a moment.
“Because otherwise you as an audience member would be like, ‘This is boring. This is just another kiss. What is this,’” he explained.
He continued, saying, “So it would be very much like, ‘Okay, they’re doing some homework together, and then suddenly who makes that first move? Is it a playful moment of kissing? You have a moment on the bed — is this more heated? Is it more open-mouthed? Is it a longer kiss? Is it a playful fight kind of thing? Is it a kiss on the head?’ It is always trying to find different ways of telling that story; it is basically showing a whole relationship in two minutes. It’s a lot!”
As for the hickey scene, the goal was to make the scene and its aftermath very authentic.
“For me, the whole thing was, how can we make that motion believable so that we’re not questioning, ‘What’s he doing there? What’s happening there? Is he just snuggling into the neck? Is there a motion that we need to find?’ It is a little bit more technical, like, ‘Okay, maybe if you just move the head a little bit in this shot or [add] a little bit of tension…,’” he explained, adding, “But what sells [that moment] as well is Charlie’s reaction to the hickey, especially the reaction in the mirror of seeing it. And then, Tao’s [William Gao] reaction is just the best.”
If you missed it, Kit recently addressed questions about his sexuality.