Kit Connor opens up about thirst traps and feeling fan pressure to get buff

It’s been over a year since Netflix dropped the first season of Heartstopper and made us all believe in love again, but the sweet romance series hasn’t left our thoughts since.

That’s due, in part, to the hit’s charming young cast, who all became stars overnight. And that goes especially for leads Kit Connor and Joe Locke, who haven’t left the headlines since—for better or for worse.

Now, in anticipation of Heartstopper‘s second season on August 3, Connor is opening up about the whirlwind that has been his life after he was introduced to the world as Nick Nelson, from the coming out to the bulking up and everything in between.

In a new profile with Vulture, the 19-year old actor gets honest about his newfound fame and the relentless pressure and scrutiny he’s faced since.

Looking back on his coming out as bi last fall—after months of “fans” accusing him of queer-baiting and demanding he reveal his sexuality—Connor says he was “disappointed” by the way everything went down:

“I was really trying, you know,” he shares. “I really was trying to set that boundary. It was my private life, and I can understand why people would want to know, but I was also, you know, an 18-year-old kid.”

The good news is that, once he did come out, the response was “overwhelmingly positive.” Friends, family, his Heartstopper family—even big stars like Luke Evans (and a few more celebs he refuses to “name-drop”)—reached out to show their support, which Connor says gave him “a lot of hope for mankind.”

But that’s not the only instance where the young star felt pressure from fans to make a big change in his life. In fact, his newly hulking physique (the one everyone’s been gawking at since this past winter), was a response to comments that, when the Heartstopper cast was announced, he didn’t look as buff as the drawings of Nick Nelson in creator Alice Oseman’s web comics and graphic novels.

“I wouldn’t say I was forced into it by fans, but it was me as a young adult coming to terms with the body that I had and feeling I wasn’t completely equipped to play the role,” Connor shares. “That wasn’t a good way of thinking, but I was a teenager. I still am.”

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The upshot is that, now, Connor maintains time spent at the gym is good for his mental health, and that he has a much happier relationship with his body in general. He is, however, still trying to figure out the balance between body positivity and posting too many thirst traps.

“I saw that picture,” he says of a particular shirtless shot he had shared on social media, “and I posted it and then I immediately was like, ‘Oh my God, this is embarrassing.’”

what the hell pic.twitter.com/MVMpJz5IHE

— dilf posts  (@dilfshub) March 26, 2023

Connor even reveals a certain (unnamed) Heartstopper co-star messaged him after sharing that particular photo to cheekily ask, “Oh, are we posting thirst traps now?”

And to that we say: Thirst trap away, Kit!

Related:

What do all these new ‘Heartstopper’ images reveal about season 2?

The first official look at ‘Heartstopper’s’ second season has left us with a few big questions.

Will the new episodes of Heartstopper address the fact that we’re seeing a bigger and buffer Nick Nelson in season two? That’s yet to be determined. But the Vulture piece does tease we’ll get to see the character navigate coming out on his own terms, and see more of Nick’s relationship with his family outside Charlie’s perspective,” including more Olivia Colman as his mother (yay!) and “a tense dynamic with a homophobic brother” (uh-oh!).

Heartstopper season two is just around the corner—August 3 can’t come soon enough!

Related:

Kit Connor flaunts his “strong rugby arms” in fitted shirt and sets London Fashion Week on fire

The ‘Heartstopper’ star has graduated into the fashion big leagues.