Corinna Brown’s energy is palpable from the moment I step into the room. “You look so cute!” she says. She’s bubbly and warm, jumping out of her chair for what I think was intended to be a hug – but I misread and go for a handshake. Her compliments increase in their specificity: “Where did you get your shorts?” “I like your braids.”
Freshly back in the UK after partying it up at a music festival in Paris, the Heartstopper star – dressed in a black strappy top, black pleated skirt, luxe boho braids and silver accent jewellery – looks strikingly more mature than her character in the breakout queer coming-of-age Netflix series, Tara. But of course, Tara is a school pupil, and Brown is 27.
Centred on an unabashedly joyful queer romance between two teenage boys, Charlie (Joe Locke) and Nick (Kit Connor), and based on the webcomic by Alice Oseman, Heartstopper achieved instant, global attention when it debuted in 2022 and made stars of its young cast.
After three seasons, Heartstopper Forever, a film finale, will be released this month. Brown is tight-lipped about the feature, but says that it develops the plotline around Charlie’s eating disorder, the pressures of romantic relationships, and the burdens you may or may not feel from your partner.
