The actor suggested that he had been subjected to homophobic abuse and vile comments about his looks following the release of Heartstopper, which has taken the world by storm and been heralded as one of the most important queer TV shows in a generation.
Locke, who plays the loveable Charlie Spring in the show, posted a screenshot showing his name in the Twitter search bar, which was followed by “ugly” and “gay”.
He responded to trolls, saying “everyone should be entitled to an opinion, but just know we see most of the stuff people post online”.
Fans quickly rushed to Locke’s defence, calling him the “world’s cutest person”, and saying “Twitter is literally the worst place on the internet”.
Ahhh lovely pic.twitter.com/6epjlpYSEY
— Joe Locke (@joelocke03) May 2, 2022
Locke has said he would be keen to return for another series, pointing out that there are “already other graphic novels” in the series by Alice Oseman to pull inspiration from.
He said: “In them [the graphic novel series] Charlie deals with an eating disorder and his mental health, which I think would be quite interesting to look at… There are some moments in season one in which Charlie is starting to go on that journey.”
Locke added that Heartstopper author Oseman “is really clever” and “writes these subtle moments” that keep the audience guessing.
Kit Connor, who portrays Charlie’s rugby-playing love interest Nick, added that he would like to explore Nick’s family in any future seasons.
He said: “For Nick, I think there’s a lot more exploration to be done in terms of his family… It’s known to fans of the comics that he has an older brother who’s homophobic.
“I think that would be a really interesting route to go down, but I think there’s loads of material to go and explore.”
Earlier this month, Connor expertly put a halt to fans speculating about his sexuality on social media.
“Twitter is so funny man,” the actor wrote, “apparently some people on here know my sexuality better than I do…”