Heartstopper star Kit Connor called for more bi representation on television during a recent Critics Choice Award panel. “It’s a huge community but we really don’t get much representation.”
Connor, who brought bisexual high school student Nick Nelson to life in the Netflix adaptation of Alice Oseman’s graphic novel of the same name, has become a phenomenon since the release of the series in April 2022. Heartstopper follows Nick and his budding romantic interest Charlie Spring (played by Joe Locke) as they navigate school and young love in this coming-of-age series. The series has earned a 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes and a 97% audience score.
Kit made headlines in late October via his own coming out story after social media trolls hounded him about his sexuality and accused him of “queerbaiting” in playing Nick. After months of online pressure, the 18-year-old returned from a self-imposed exile from Twitter to share with the world that he, like his series character, is bisexual. “I’m bi. Congrats for forcing an 18-year-old to out himself. I think some of you missed the point of the show. bye.”
So, Kit was actually bringing some real-world authenticity to the role.
Here’s Kit’s remarks about bi representation during a recent Critics Choice Award panel:
“I think that the bisexual community is the community that has really a shockingly low amount of representation, especially male bisexual characters. It is shocking because a huge amount of the LGBTQIA+ community is made up of bisexual people. It’s a huge community but we really don’t get much representation.”
“It was a real pleasure to be able to portray that journey and those experiences. Playing those kind of moments — it felt like the main arc of the character if that makes sense.”
“It’s not just so much of working out whether or not you are a boy attracted to another boy. It’s also, you know, discovering whether or not everything that he sort of previously thought about his sexuality is suddenly invalid, or whether or not it’s something that he wants to still acknowledge. And I think that’s something that isn’t seen very often.”
It’s worth noting that, according to the Williams Institute and the HRC Foundation’s research, studies suggest that about 50 percent of people who identify as either gay, lesbian or bisexual, identify as bisexual. This makes the bisexual population the single largest group within the LGBTQ community.
Below is most of the panel discussion, but it’s cued it up to Kit’s remarks on bi representation.
For fans of Heartstopper, the powers that be have announced that production on Season 2 of the acclaimed series wrapped this week. So, it looks like we may be getting more “Nick and Charlie” soon, perhaps as early as Spring 2023.
