Joe Locke has admitted he had a rather embarrassing moment when watching the new season of Heartstopper with his mum – particularly when it came to the show’s first sex scenes.
The third season of the award-winning Netflix teen drama sees the show exploring more mature themes, including several characters grappling with sex for the first time.
But while the show has already won a wave of praise for the way it handles the new material, Joe is apparently in no rush to revisit it himself.
During a recent interview with IGV, the Agatha All Along star revealed he doesn’t actually “enjoy watching Heartstopper”, quickly adding: “Not because it’s not a good show, but because I hate watching myself.”
He explained: “The new season is coming out soon and there’s, like, a sex scene in it.
“They sent it to us early and I was watching it with my mum, and I was like, ‘I’ve got to turn this off, mum, I’m really sorry. I just can’t watch this with you, I just can’t even… no, I’m alright thank you. You watch it in your own time’.”
Joe continued: “We got to a few episodes before the sex scene where we even mentioned the word sex, and I was like, ‘I can’t watch it, please…’.
“We were saw on the couch really awkwardly and I was like, ‘I have to turn it off, sorry!’.”
Asked if his mum has watched the new season of Heartstopper without him, Joe admitted: “I actually don’t think she has! She was very excited to watch it and then suddenly…
As well as Heartstopper’s first ever sex scenes, the new batch of episodes also dives deeper into Joe’s character’s mental health and eating disorder, which was first explored in season two.
While Olivia Colman was unable to return due to scheduling conflicts, the new season welcomes some interesting new faces, including Hayley Atwell and Eddie Marsan, as well as a much-hyped cameo from another popular Netflix star.
All three seasons of Heartstopper are now streaming on Netflix.