*Warning: This article contains spoilers from season one of Heartstopper.
Heartstopper has finally landed on Netflix and the secret is out: Nick Nelson’s mother is played by actual Oscar-winner and all around UK hun Olivia Colman.
Heartstopper follows Nick and Charlie, two school boys who fall in love and are surrounded by wonderful friends from all corners of the LGBTQ+ community in what really is based on the magical graphic novels by Alice Oseman.
Olivia’s casting has been kept a closely-guarded secret until the show’s release, with Alice and producer Patrick Walters telling us how they never imagined bagging the true icon of film and television for Heartstopper.
‘It was always the dream,’ said Patrick. ‘I was talking to Alice and suggested Oliva Colman to play Nick’s mum and it felt like a total fantasy. “That would be brilliant but that’s incredibly unlikely.” So we only sent the part to her and she said yes!’
‘I literally thought this was the stupidest idea ever,’ laughed Alice. ‘I thought there was no way she would want to be a part of this or anyone famous would want to be a part of this. I was proven wrong!’
Olivia squeezed in two days to film with Kit, and (to the surprise of no one) captures possibly the most poignant moment in Heartstopper when in the final episode.
The scene is a glorious gut-punch, if you can imagine such a thing. After a journey of self-discovery, Nick opens up to his mum who looks back with nothing but pride, reaching out to his hand to tell him she loves him.
The moment was just as moving to film for Olivia as it was to watch.
‘In their scene when he’s coming out to her in the rehearsal she was just looking at Kit and his performance was so moving she just burst into tears and forgot her lines. It was a kind of amazing dream,’ said Patrick.
‘In being there with her on those days, she seemed to really respond to Kit and what he was doing in those scenes and to feel like the open communication between a mother and a son of that age, she said that was really lovely and nice to play.’
Kit called working with Olivia an ‘incredible, enlightening experience’, obviously, and was also kept in the dark about the elusive star playing his mum even during filming.
‘There was a circle on the call sheet like. “Who is it gonna be?” I thought, “Okay, it’s got to be someone really interesting. They kept it secret because they weren’t sure if she was going be able to do or not.’
Even if you come for Oliva Colman you’ll stay for the wonderful cast that includes Joe Locke as Charlie, Kit as Nick, William Gao as Tao Xu, Yasmine Finney as Elle, Coirinna Brown as Tara, Kizzy Edgell as Darcy.
Heartstopper is available to stream on Netflix now.
