Yasmin Finney says season 3 of Heartstopper ‘really challenged’ her
Heartstopper’s Elle Argent experiences sex for the first time in season three. (Netflix)
Heartstopper star Yasmin Finney explains how the latest season of the queer YA show gives audiences a “mature, fresh take” on both the gay and transgender experience – and this “challenged” her more so than previous seasons.
Heartstopper released its third season last Thursday (October 3) on Netflix, with the cast teasing for months that the show would go in a different direction by exploring Charlie’s (Joe Locke) eating disorder further as well as seeing the main couples explore sex.
Though the show was previously described by its show runner and creator Alice Oseman as “lighter, more hopeful and optimistic”, the new episodes see a bit of a shift for the LGBTQ+ teens which was more challenging for Finney.
Speaking to the Hollywood Reporter, Finney – who plays Elle – said: “This season, we’re more adults. It’s a very different kind of thing. This season, I don’t know what happened — I mean, I was in a relationship. But the season just really challenged me.”
She added that it was very different to filming season one because, back then, most of the cast had never “been on a set before” which made the experience “very, very pure”. They’ve all grown together since then so it stands to reason that their characters grow too.
“When I read the script, I saw there were a lot of things that I would tackle this season. I think the main thing for me was the relationship with Tao (William Gao) and how mature it is.”
“It grows and builds into this unbreakable bond, which I love, and I’ve never experienced as Yasmin. The audience gets to see a very mature, fresh take on not only the gay experience, but the transgender experience, and the experience of falling in love in a more adult way.”
Tao and Elle’s relationship has been a bit of a rollercoaster, moving from friends to lovers over two seasons and now exploring what it will be like to be with each other physically: “They’ve been friends for so many years. Picture it: They went to an all-boys school, Elle transitioned while there, Tao loved her through that time, and then she went to a girl’s school and their love story blossoms,” Finney explained.
As part of that, Elle and Tao have sex in the latest season of Heartstopper, an experience which Finney herself helped to shape as well: “We did have a couple moments where we went back and forth with ideas of how we think this scene should go, just from my lived experience as someone who basically is Elle in real life.”
Finney said that her own experience at school involved “getting bullied, left, right, and centre; people calling me this and that” but the show’s portrayal of Elle’s transness doesn’t focus on her being trans, nor does it make it an issue for Tao.
Gao said that this is part of “breaking boundaries with the show”.
“It is very important to show the effortlessness of it. There’s no taboo or any kind of unconscious bias, perhaps, that you see in other shows. It needs to be represented. Those stories do happen, and those stories will happen, hopefully, more,” he said.
Finney hopes that “people can feel inspired by [Elle] like they did in season one” and by the “positive” romantic relationship she has.
