Joe Locke battling imposter syndrome after Heartstopper success

Heartstopper‘s Joe Locke has opened up about struggling with imposter syndrome after being cast in the Netflix series that made him a household name.

The 21-year-old actor leads the series as Charlie Spring, a gay school child who falls in love with the older and more popular rugby boy, Nick Nelson (Kit Connor).

The role was a breakout success for Locke, who has gone on to star in the Disney+ Marvel series Agatha All Along, as well as perform on Broadway in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. He’s now preparing to take on his first West End role in Clarkston.

In a recent appearance on the podcast How to Fail with Elizabeth Day, Locke touched on his experiences of imposter syndrome, where people doubt their own abilities or accomplishments or feel like a ‘fraud’. He explained that he had felt this “for a long time,” and still does “a lot” to this day.

“I feel like an imposter in my career because I was not handed the job, I was just very lucky,” he said. “And I was very lucky that Heartstopper chose me and then I got a great agent and then I was lucky that other things fell into place,” he continued.

Locke continued: “For a long time I felt like I didn’t necessarily belong in the job that I’m in. And so therefore I didn’t really have a belief that I could make a career out of it. I think there’s quite a lot of the times that I still find myself just feeling so grateful to be in the spaces I’m in that I forget that like, ‘Oh no, I’ve actually worked quite hard to be here’.”

Elsewhere in the podcast Locke discussed how his success in Heartstopper stopped him living “a young person’s life.” After growing up on the Isle of Man and then going into the entertainment industry, Locke said he felt he was living a more grown up life than his friends.

“I realised last year that I was living the life of someone in their mid-thirties and I was 20. I would go and visit my friends at their unis, and I’d feel so out of place,” he said.

He went on to say that he had “resented” his job for depriving him of “young people things.” But ultimately he realised he’s living his dream job, adding: “I just need to enjoy the youth through that, the parts of it I can.”

Asked what parts of being young he would liked to have done Locke listed, “having a summer fling, or going to a club and kissing someone or going on a sh*t holiday to Majorca with my friends.”

Filming for Heartstopper Forever, the film that will conclude the series’ storylines, wrapped in July. At the time, Locke shared a behind the scenes photo of himself and Connor writing: “Bye Charlie x thank you<3.”

The plot is likely to follow Charlie and Nick navigating a long-distance relationship as Nick departs for university. It’s set for release in 2026.

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