Tobie Donovan

In a heaving sigh, the last school bus of the morning departs down the street, lifting a dance of fallen oak leaves into a signature Heartstopper vignette. The soft familiarity of the atmosphere soothes my excited jitters as I engage in conversation with a fellow stranger an ocean away. My inaugural pumpkin spiced coffee of the season sends gentle plumes of curling steam into the air, scenting the scene with a mingling aroma of warm spices and the sweet cake batter of Tobie’s creation to come as he tells me about baking a cake for his best friend’s birthday To my relief, Tobie’s simple black hoodie mirrors the casualness of my denim shirt. While Isaac typically dons his school uniform or average teenage wear, Tobie polishes his looks with crisply tailored playfulness. At the end of our time together, I admit to Tobie that I worried I’d catch him in a high-fashion moment and feel wholly underdressed. His reply: “No, you’d never know I love fashion today. I’m very much wearing a horrible outfit.”

Tobie’s approach to life is steeped in enthusiasm, infusing moments both on and off screen with a sense of fun. Even through the distortion of my laptop screen thousands of miles away, his affable aura fills the space. This ease propels us forward into a chummy conversation without preamble, bobbing along like the exchanges of school friends. With candour, Tobie lets us into his daily routines and the experience of playing Isaac. The solid friend group of the show provides each other with a loving support system, and Tobie likewise reflects on the relationships with his castmates who share the same life-changing experience. Entering adulthood with the phenomenal reception of his first major role, Tobie realizes both the pressure and the privilege. He cares immensely about his work and honours the responsibility of portraying an asexual/aromantic character - an identity that isn’t granted frequent visibility. Through Isaac’s journey, we get to witness an ace character experiencing their strikingly colourful world in all its joy, isolation, friendship, fumbles, and laughter - a life in dimension.

Heartstopper season 3 premiers on Netflix on 3rd October 2024.

If your emotions today were visible as drawings in the air around you, like in a graphic novel, what would they look like?
What a fantastic question! [laughs] I can't believe I've never been asked that - that's a great Heartstopper question! All interviews should ask us that. I think there would probably be clouds around my head today. I feel quite unprepared, and a bit all over the place. It's my best friend's birthday tomorrow, so I'm making a cake, which is very much not in my wheelhouse. You’d probably see question marks as well. It would be messy, like cake batter smatters, drawings everywhere.

I just baked my first cheesecake, and I was so nervous, but it went really well. Hopefully, that good energy passes on to you!
I'm praying to the bakery gods that I get the same response!

When you do have days that feel like that cloudy grey is closing in around you, how do you clear that fog?
Having people around me that I love and trust is the most important thing. Whenever it gets a bit like that, I can message a friend and go out and get it all off my chest. It's sometimes a bit of a weird job, so I find it very helpful to have friends who have normal jobs. I can be like, “My job’s stressful” and they go, “Yeah, well, my job's stressful too.” And I realise okay, I'm not alone.

I can imagine being within the entertainment industry can feel like such a departure from the average job so it's nice to touch base with people who are going through the same thing, just in a different way. Do you have a daily routine or practice that brings you joy and keeps you grounded?
My gosh, I really enjoy playing the piano. I'm not very good at it at all, but I'm learning, and that's bringing me a lot of joy. So I try to learn a little bit more every day.

Amazing! Did you start just recently as an adult? Or did you play growing up?
I did it growing up, but I kind of was…I had lessons, and I never really enjoyed it. I always preferred to listen to a song and play it by ear, or learn my favourite things myself rather than doing things like scales and theory. I always found that quite boring, but I'm finding it more interesting now, and understanding it more.

That's so nice. Sometimes you need to come back to something as an adult. I wanted to get into your character, Isaac. I've always been a bookworm and a nerd myself, and Isaac leans heavily on books as a support system through both the happy and difficult times. I'm curious about what reading has meant to you in your life, if at all.
I've had an interesting relationship with reading. [laughs] I'm very heavily dyslexic, so especially when I was younger, I really struggled with getting through a whole book. It always felt like quite a mammoth task. It's quite ironic now that everyone just assumes that I'm the most incredible reader because Isaac reads these huge, ridiculously big books. But that's very much not the case. I enjoy reading a lot more now, and I think it's important. I find it helpful to get me off technology. I love watching movies, but then sometimes it's helpful to read a book to get different types of stories. So yeah, I didn't used to love it, but I'm learning to love it a lot more now because of this incredible part of my journey.

As someone with dyslexia, I imagine the experience of reading a graphic novel would be helpful. Or is that kind of overwhelming as well having the imagery?
Yeah, it was really helpful with the first season of Heartstopper to have that reference point. And yes, like you say, it was a lot more digestible for me. But with reading scripts and work material, I don't struggle with it as much. I get so invested and also know that I have to get it. So it might take me a little longer to read the script than some of my peers, but I make it through. [laughs] We all have our ways of dealing with these things.

Absolutely. I did hear you say in an interview that you eventually got to pick out some of the books that Isaac reads. Do you remember any particular one that held a special significance or the reasoning behind your choice?
Oh gosh. Well, I remember that I really heavily pushed for Les Miserables to be in season two because we were in Paris. We always try to link the books to what's going on in the scene because we just think that's really fun. I also pushed Les Mis because I am obsessed with the musical, and it was amazing because we were driving around in Paris one day on our way to the location, and the car pulled up to drop us off right on Hugo Place - a street in Paris that's named after the author. So I was like, “Oh, this is fab.” It all fell into place. I also pushed for Where’s Wally? I just thought that would be really funny.

[laughs] It was so funny and also, for me as an American, when you said “Wally,” I was like, “It's Waldo! What are we talking about?”
[laughs] Yeah, of course, yeah. I think I enjoy things that are quite silly. And to me, it was really silly that he's gone from reading, like, genuinely War and Peace and then, on the same day, Where's Wally?

I cracked up at that. What would you title this chapter of your story?
In my life, I guess this chapter is “Trying to be a Grown-Up.” I’m getting better with it, but it's taking a lot. Because of the success of the show, we had to grow up maybe quicker than I would have liked to. But it's also amazing because I’m a bit…not mature for my age, but I've always wanted to have independence and have my place in the world. Yeah, I guess this chapter is that - it's finding my grown-up place in the world.

I'm so glad that you brought that up because something that I want to ask you about is the fact that this show takes place during high school, and that's a time when a lot of us are just starting to explore gender, sexuality, and just figuring out our personhood. In my early 20s, I developed a stronger sense of groundedness in myself and just acceptance of the knowledge that I'll never be fully formed. How have you experienced the transitions of early adulthood within that context?
I think a lot of it happened through the show. I talk with the other guys [Heartstopper castmates] about it as well, that this is kind of our uni experience. Most of us didn't go to uni - I booked this when I was 18, and I was straight out of school. We've done three, almost four years of the show now, basically living with the same people, seeing the same people every day while we work together. So it has felt like a really warm and weird version of university. I've done a lot of that growing up and adulting that you would normally do at uni through this show, which has been amazing, and I'm so lucky to have gone through it with the people that I have.

It seems like such a solid group. I know I only see it from what the cast shares- I follow y'all on Instagram and whatnot - but I just feel like that would be a solid friend group to get to have through such a massive journey where you're all of a sudden on Netflix and your life changes completely.
Yeah, it's been wild. I genuinely don't think I could have done it without having these wonderful co-stars to lean on.

So it sounds like this might not be as applicable in this particular part of your life, but through Isaac's journey, we really see him struggle with loneliness and feeling left out. And I do think we all experience loneliness to varying extents. How have those experiences informed your work?
Well, I think with Isaac, it's a weird form of isolation. I don't think he's necessarily lonely, but he's not fully seen yet at the start of the season by the people he loves. He's learned this truth about himself and is trying to figure out a way to share that, but in the difficulty of coming out, he keeps being confronted with these moments of his friends missing him. You know, they're not seeing him properly because they're all doing their own thing. They're absorbing their own lives, which is also totally normal. So I don't know if it's loneliness, but it's definitely an isolation in that he's there, he's a part of it, but at the start of the season, he's not fully there. He's not connected with everyone. But what I love about the journey this season is that we see that change towards the end, Isaac fully steps into himself. And I enjoy playing the joy in the latter half of the season.

What about Isaac resonates with you when you're playing him?
I've always said that I'm very much an introvert-extrovert person. I'm happy to be the life of the party and go, go, go, in the right scenarios. But also I need to go home and be quiet and sort of recharge after a social event. It's very much like, okay, I spent the whole weekend with friends, and now it's Monday, and I need to be on my own. And that's how I get into that Isaac headspace, of being “the quiet one.”

Since it requires such socialisation and an outpouring of that energy when you're in a position like acting, do you feel like at the end of a day after you've been on set, you really need that quiet time to recharge?
[laughs] I think it depends on the day. It's really lovely when we're working together because we all live in the same apartment block while we're shooting. We'll go home and make dinner as a group. We all have that sort of debrief, recharge moment, but it's nice that we get to do it together. But then, when it gets to a certain point, I'm kind of like, right - kick everyone out of my flat, have a shower, put the telly on, and not talk to anyone.

Totally. [laughs] That’s me too. Well, one of the reasons that I came in so excited and have been really looking forward to this conversation with you is because the outpouring of queer joy on the show feels so healing. I think a lot of us can relate to not really having that media growing up. Unfortunately, we have to focus on the painful experiences and the struggles of exploring sexuality because that's the world we live in. But what does it mean to you to work on a project that holds space for both and, especially in the earlier seasons, really focuses on that joy?
It's really important that we tell a variety of stories. I think it's a responsibility of the whole industry. There’s a place for shows like It's a Sin or Fellow Travelers that tell history because it's important for people that don't know to learn about those things, and it's important to be reminded about those aspects. There are so many rom-com with great people, and it's been a thing for so many years. And so I think of Heartstopper as a queer answer to that, which is nice. It's a special place to work within. The joy that you see on screen comes from the joy that we're having making it, so it's very special. I'm also interested in seeing queer stories that are angry and queer stories that aren’t just sad or happy. We don't have to tell stories that are specifically queer about one thing, and I think it would be exciting to have a multitude of stories.

I absolutely agree, and I do feel that as the show has progressed, especially as we'll see in season three, we do confront a lot of the heavier themes. But they don’t negate all of the happiness and joy and the sense of community. A lot of us hold on to our chosen family in life, and it's so special to see that within the cast of Heartstopper as well.
Yeah, definitely.

You mentioned that you went straight from high school into working - saving money for drama school, but then you landed Heartstopper. After seeing how much one job can change your trajectory, what does planning for the future look like for you?
My gosh, it's always really hard to plan in this industry because you never know what's coming. There could be a job that comes in tomorrow that means I have to move to Australia for six months, or there could be no job coming tomorrow at all. It's wonderfully unpredictable. Rather than plan, I like to dream and wish things into existence. So there are lots of things on the vision board. [laughs]

And as an actor, I bet it was very unpredictable for your first well-known role to receive such a huge, meaningful response.
It's totally crazy; none of us expected anything from it. The first season we did what we thought was a really cool show, and it was more about the experience of making it and having fun doing that. And then it became a big thing that none of us were ready for, and that was quite weird. But for me, I try to hold on to that joy of making it and having a nice experience with my friends. I don't ever really think about it going out to the rest of the world. If I spent too long on that, my worrying would explode. [laughs]

Oh my gosh [laughs], I can only imagine. Do you feel like that vulnerability between the friend group of characters created an inherent closeness for you as a cast? Or does the experience of working on a project with people all the time encourage that to form?
Well, it's never a guarantee that you're going to get on with your co-stars. It doesn't always happen, and that's what's so special about this job - we all really do. I think there's something about the naivety of all of us going into season one that we went to each other for support. It was all quite unknown and scary. I feel very grateful that we got to experience this all together, and it's now such a joy watching everyone's different careers and the parts that everyone's taking. It's really exciting to predict where people are going to be and block the different moves that people are making. I'm very proud of everyone.

I'm excited to watch all the journeys branch off as well. Did you participate in theatre growing up?
I did, yeah, I love the theatre! I’m very much hoping to get back in the next few years.

There's sometimes a different approach for people who are interested in theatre versus film and TV, but for you, is it just acting in general? Do you have a draw to all different sorts of productions?
For me, it's the same job, just in very different circumstances. And that's exciting to me, because I can still tell stories, and I've always been excited about different ways of telling stories. So I would love to do some more theatre. I'm very passionate about it. I did a play last year and had the best time, and it was in this tiny theatre where a few people watched. That was really fun for me to get to play around every night without the pressure of being in a huge West End venue. I'm keen to get back into it now and to develop that skill alongside film and TV work. I also think that movies are the coolest thing in the world.

I would love to see you in a musical. You mentioned your love for Les Mis - would you be into a musical role?
I'd love to do that. We'll see what happens.

I’m taking a little bit of a turn because I want to ask you about the experience of playing an asexual character. Since we don't often…or seemingly ever…it's hard for me to recall getting to watch a story that explores asexuality. How has bringing awareness to that side of the queer community impacted you? Was that something you knew when you were accepting Isaac's role, or did that develop later on in, maybe in season two?
I knew from season one that this was the journey that we were going to go on, so it's been really nice to collaborate with the writers and producers about that journey over the three seasons. In season one, I didn't have loads to do, but I used every scene and every opportunity to plant a seed - either feeling different from his friends or feeling that he was starting to think about his asexuality and not knowing what that entailed. In season two, we see him find the vocabulary to describe how he's been feeling. Isaac shares the scene with James where he confronts those thoughts. In season 3, it’s really nice to watch him tell people about that and come into his own and feel confident. I was very excited and very nervous to do it; I wanted to make sure I got it right. I felt a lot of pressure in telling a story that, like you say, massively hasn’t been told before. As an actor, it's very exciting to get to play something completely new and a part that people don't see very often. Though all characters are different, you can generally follow a format depending on the job that you're doing. If you're doing a rom-com, you know that there's going to be, I don't know, trials and tribulations and the big kiss at the end. This part felt like a complete unknown, a story that I've not seen done before. I've just loved telling his story - I feel very passionately about it.

You read Loveless, another book by Alice Oseman, to prepare and as a resource for playing Isaac. Were there any other resources that you used to get in the mindset of an ace character?
Loads! It was very important to me that I did the research and put the work in. I spoke to a friend of mine - Yasmin Benoit, a famous asexual activist - and the book that I picked up at the end of season two is a fantastic resource for factual information about asexuality. Also for me, all of the info that I really needed was in the scripts because it's very much Alice's experience of being aromantic and asexual. It really jumped out of the page, which was great! It meant that I could gain understanding from both resources focused on a more brainy, academic place, and the scripts gave me the emotional leaps and understanding. We're telling a story that's not been told before, but it's also a story that's really universal. Everyone as a teenager feels different from everyone else, and everyone as a teenager has to come into their own and find their tribe. I think it's very universal.

I think that Isaac as a character, and the “A” in LGBTQIA+ as well helps complicate the notion of sexuality. The queer community is so expansive with sexuality but also gets categorized with such labels that it can feel like, “Oh, you're gay, I know what that means. You're bisexual - I know what that means and looks like for you.” In reality, what we all know and come to find is it's not that simple. It's different for everyone. Isaac comes in a few times and reminds the friend group like, “I'm not less than for not sharing that experience.” And it was reminding me - sorry, I am going on a bit of a tangent here...
You’re great.

I'm at a stage where I'm married, and people have really started with the questions about having children. And it's a similar thing where I could be so content and fulfilled and live the rest of my life without that experience. Yet the message is often, “You don't know love until you've loved your child.” And I can imagine the kind of isolation we were talking about with Isaac hearing, “When you're in love, it makes everything special. The colours are more vivid. Life is more beautiful.” And to really be that person saying, “That's not my experience, and I love that you get to have that, I love that joy that I'm seeing between my friends, and that's a very special thing to go through. But this isn't any less special.”
I totally agree, and I love that this season especially, we tell that story. Isaac doesn't experience romantic love, and he doesn't have an interest in that, but his life is full of love in abundance. We see that with his friends. I get some really lovely scenes at the start of the season with Joe and Will - Isaac having these difficult conversations with Charlie and Tao, and arguing somewhat with Charlie, really worrying about him. We also see them share such joy, and it's important to acknowledge that they are very real relationships, and he experiences a lot of love and mutual love with both of those characters and that love is just as colourful as any romantic love.

Absolutely. Navigating your early 20s and the momentum at the start of your career, do you feel a sense of pressure to grind and achieve as much as you can at this point?
Definitely, but I think that's something that I put on myself a lot. It's a pressure, yes, but it's also an excitement. I've got an incredible taste of this industry, and it's really made me thirsty for more. I want to keep working until I'm older than Ian McKellen, and I'm like, 700 years old. I watched an interview with him the other day where he said that he's going to keep going until his body, his mind, or his emotion…[laughs]. He said something great, but you get the effect that he will keep going until he physically can't. And I would love to do the same thing.

I love that, and it's such a nice feeling that the momentum is motivated by your passion for it. Feeling like you have to grind because of hustle culture can be tough.
I try not to come to that - I try to be so excited by it. Otherwise, if it gets too stressful, I tend to be a person who sticks my head in the sand when things get a bit stressful. So I try to hold on to excitement because I am excited! I want to do more.

It is exciting. This is my last question, and hopefully, we're bringing it full circle and you think this is a good Heartstopper question like where we started. What is one “heartstopper" moment you've had in your life that sticks out to you?
Oh my gosh, I've had lots. I've been very lucky, and I have the most incredible people around me and we get lovely heartstopper moments all the time. Probably one of the most comic book moments would have been…okay, I've got two. The first one, booking the job, and the most amazing experience of hearing I get to play this part, I get to do it! I definitely felt the sort of squiggly lightning sparks around my face when that happened. And the second one was in season two, I got to bring my mum and she played my mum in the show. I remember that just being a really weird experience. You're very used to parents’ “bring your kid to work day” or whatever, and this was very much the other way around, and it just made her very happy. It made me very happy to share this experience with someone that I love so much. To see how proud she was of me was lovely. That’s definitely a little “heartstopper” moment that stands out.

How amazing! What a fun Easter egg! I did not know that she was your mom, your real mom.
Yeah! The day before, they said, “We've got this scene with your mum tomorrow. We're just going to get one of the extras to do it.” I asked, “Can I actually ask my mum to do it?” Because she was completely coincidentally planning to come and visit the set the next day anyway. So the night before she drove up, bless her, I was like, “Do you want to actually be in the show?” And she did. So she has this, like, maybe three-second cameo where she makes a funny face at me in season two, and it was the most magical day.

Oh, that is such a good note to end on, I love that so much. Shout out to the supportive moms on the show as well. It’s such a great feeling when parents build up their kids and do what a parent ought to do. I’m so glad you got to share that experience.
It was amazing.

Thank you so much, Tobie. I had as much fun as I thought we were going to have. I’m hoping that this rollout of season 3 is so great for you and that you get a little time soon to just chill out as well. [laughs]
I hope so too, and I’m very excited for the world to see the show. I’m glad you enjoyed this season, and it’s been lovely to chat with you!