It seems like only yesterday that a young Joe Locke and Kit Connor thawed our stone-cold hearts in Netflix‘s Heartstopper. Three years later, our boys are all grown up (and pumped up, as in Connor’s case), and expanding fans’ expectations of what they’re capable of.
Connor recently appeared on Broadway, opposite Rachel Zegler, as a shirtless Romeo in Romeo + Juliet. As for Locke, Agatha All Along has catapulted him back into the spotlight (as if he ever left). He plays Billy (aka Wiccan), identified by other characters merely as Teen, part of a motley witch coven. Newly crowned and with a heavy dose of eyeliner, a new Locke emerged.
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In a recent conversation with Charlie Cox for Variety, Locke admits that he auditioned for the role 12 times, initially identified as “Untitled Marvel Show.” The role and the show’s seasoned cast of pros have proven verdent training for Locke, who quickly established a friendship with co-star Patti LuPone.
LuPone has been lying low since her cynical comments in a recent New Yorker interview. The incident spurred an open letter signed by over 500 theater artists reprimanding her behavior, and the three-time Tony winner issued an apology. But Patti is like a cat with nine lives. Fans can’t get enough of her, including Locke, who invited her to see him during his run in the recent Broadway revival of Sweeney Todd.
“I’ve always been like a Broadway theater kid,” Locke told the TODAY Show. “And I think she’s like the epitome of class and talent. And I think she’s like the last of a dying breed of, like, actual icons. Theater legends. She’s everything I want to be. And she’s now one of my best friends, which is really amazing.” (Just don’t ask Audra McDonald what she thinks, Joe.)
There are no plans for a second season of Agatha All Along, which puts Locke back in business to continue sculpting a career trajectory beyond the “skinny gay twink.”
“At the moment, a lot of the auditions I get sent are for the same skinny gay twinks—which is great. And I’m really good at playing that, because I am a skinny gay twink,” Locke told Cox. “I’m struggling now [because] I want to do the opposite of that. I’ve been trying to put on weight recently. I just can’t do it. I know it’s like, ‘Oh, my metabolism’s too fast …’ In 10 years, I’m sure I’ll be like, ‘God, I wish!’ “
Boo hoo, Joe. Try lying around on the couch all weekend watching gay gay gay TV. That should help. Locke initially thought his Agatha character would require him to bulk up. But alas, showrunner Jac Schaeffer wanted to keep the skinny Locke we all adore.
Joe Locke 2.0
But it’s not just Locke’s physical self that he wants fans and casting directors to recognize.
“I’ve been a grown-up since I was eight years old,” Locke told GQ in 2024. “I’m an old soul.”
“Post-Heartstopper, whenever people would call me an actor, I would almost recoil a bit because I think in my head it was like, ‘Well, I’ve got this one part that’s very like me as a person, but doesn’t really make me an actor,’” Locke said. “It wasn’t until getting Marvel and doing that and then doing Sweeney [Todd on Broadway] that I was like, ‘Oh no, I actually am an actor. That’s weird.’”
@joelocke03 Its been a month i can post bootlegs if @Mia Gerachis ♬ original sound – Joelocke
Lupone agreed, telling GQ, “[Joe] embraces the responsibility of queerness, and the acceptance of that and the celebration of that … [but] it’s not a driving force with him. He has a much broader picture.”
Locke identifies other LGBTQ+ actors who have found crossover appeal in a variety of roles, including Colman Domingo and Jonathan Bailey. “I look at Colman Domingo. He is an incredible openly queer person, but his casting is so diverse and so different, which is so great,” said Locke.
Domingo has “played gay” in a breadth of roles from Netflix’s Four Seasons (recently renewed for a second season) to his Oscar-nominated turn in Rustin. But he’s equally as compelling in the film adaptation of The Color Purple. As a playwright, Domingo was most recently represented Off-Broadway in the critically acclaimed production of Lights Out: Nat “King” Cole.
Bailey, too, has vacillated between stage and screen, gay and straight. He won an Olivier Award (the West End’s equivalent of a Tony) for playing the high-strung gay groom Jamie in director Marianne Elliott’s gender-swapping revival of Company (which, coincidentally, co-starred Patti LuPone), but can turn on the straight charm, as evident in the film adaptation of Wicked.
“The whole point of representation is to change people’s opinions about things,” Locke said. “You can’t do that without positive representation where it’s just a part of them.”
For Locke, living in New York City during Sweeney Todd and filming on location in Atlanta provided moments of both personal and professional growth.
“It was the best six months of my life,” Locke told The Playlist of his time on set in Atlanta. “I had the best time. I learned so much. I felt I grew a lot as a person and as an actor during that time.”
So what’s next?
“I’d love to play something against type,” Locke said. “Something, I dunno, like a straight bro role, that sort of thing. I think I actually could do it quite well, but I don’t know if the world knows that.
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