Heartstopper's Joe Locke slams trolls calling him "ugly" on social media

3 May 2022, 15:25

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By Sam Prance

"Joe Locke ugly" and "Joe Locke gay" were trending online when the Charlie actor called out the trolls.

Heartstopper star Joe Locke has opened up about trolls calling him "ugly" online and how the comments have affected him.

Ever since Heartstopper debuted on Netflix last month (Apr 22), fans all around the world have fallen in love with the moving, LGBTQ+ teen drama. Set at the fictional Truham Grammar School, the new series tells the love story of Charlie (Joe Locke), a recently outed Year 10 student, and Nick (Kit Connor), a popular Year 11 rugby player who sits next to Charlie in class.

Viewers are obsessed with Joe Locke who plays Charlie but he's also received some hate online and he's now called it out.

READ MORE: Heartstopper's Kit Connor calls out people making assumptions about his sexuality

Taking to Twitter yesterday (May 2), Joe tweeted, "Ah lovely," alongside a screenshot revealing that the most tweeted search terms that come up alongside his name are "ugly" and "gay". Joe then added: "Everyone should be entitled to an opinion, but just know we see most of the stuff people post online :)".

Fans quickly rushed to defend Joe. One person tweeted: "it’s the fact that this is joe locke’s first big acting role, and you guys are ruining it by trending “joe locke ugly” “joe locke gay.” cant we appreciate the HUGE steps that heartstopper is making for the queer community?"

Joe's co-star Sebastian Croft (Ben) added: "It baffles me that anyone can watch heartstopper and then go on to do something like this. Clearly missing the entire point."

Kit Connor, who plays Nick, also defended Joe by tweeting: "primary school playground flashbacks."

It goes without saying that making fun of people's looks and calling them ugly is wrong. As fans have already said, this is an incredible time for Joe and he should be able to enjoy the success of Heartstopper in peace without seeing negative tweets about his appearance.

Read more about Heartstopper:

• Heartstopper's Yasmin Finney opens up about "rare" teenage trans representation in Netflix show
• Heartstopper season 2: Release date, cast, book spoilers and what happens next
• Heartstopper cast: Here's who plays who in the Netflix series
• Heartstopper soundtrack: Every song from the Netflix series

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