Hello and welcome to Big Gay Energy. I'm Caitlin. And I'm Fiora. Come along with us while we dive into the fun and nuances of queer media. Representation matters. And we're here to talk about it. Cheers, queers. Today, on the Big Gay agenda, we are. Talking to the. Wonderful Kizzy Edgle, who portrays Darcy in the Netflix series Heartstopper. Welcome to the podcast, Kizzy. Thank you so much for having me. We're so, so excited to talk to you.
Darcy is one of our favorite characters, like ever, and especially from Heartstopper. And one of our favorite aspects of Darcy is humor. Darcy like the light in darkness sometimes and has like the best one liners in the show. And so we wanted to know if you had a favorite one liner or moment from Darcy that just sticks out to you. I I really like the lion. Do you think they're a gay fish? It's my favorite. It's it's so good. I also love the I thought we would see fish.
It's just like a great big. End. That was so funny in the tunnel. Yeah, I used to think that too. Anyway I. Love that scene. I mean, all of Darcy scenes are my favorite. I just got to say that you have been embodying Darcy for years now and know them better than anyone else. Is there anything about Darcy that you don't think that people talk about enough? I guess like, well, Darcy is very funny. It makes it hard for other people to connect with her, like on the way that they want to.
It's kind of like a like an avoidance tactic to feel like, like to stop people from getting to know how to stop people from understanding her and actually the stress that is her life. She'll just make a joke and the situation is diffused and it's good and it's helpful. Well, it's tense, but it's also, it means that, yeah, people, especially Tara, don't get as close to her as they'd like to. Be well, it's a good thing that Darcy has a bunch of friends who are super persistent and getting
to know them. For sure. We all need that. OK, so we we asked our listeners if they had questions for you. So we're going to read a couple of them now and give them shout outs for, you know, asking their questions. So the first one is from threads. This is BB Max World and this listener wants to know if you didn't play Darcy in Heart Stopper who? Would you? Who else would you play or want to play?
Oh, that's so tricky. I mean, I'm nothing like any like we're all good class together because none of us could do each other's jobs. I, I love Nick. I'd love to play. I'd love to play Kitt's character. He it's such a sweet and generous character that it would, it would just make me happy, I think, to walk off set knowing that I'd played Nick Nelson. Nick is so adorable. Just ultimate golden retriever energy. It just would make you so happy just to be Nick.
That's a great answer. And then also get to hang out with Henry and Nelly. Yes, yes, that's amazing. I didn't meet any of the dogs and I think that's a travesty. That is, Oh no. Never met a dog on set, It's not OK. That's not OK. That is not OK. No. There needs to be a whole group scene with all the dogs. Add more dogs in. Just random dogs. A doggy Fiesta? Another question from Threads from at Dawson's Escape. What was your favorite scene or
episode to film? I had we all had a really good time when everyone goes on the trip to the seaside. It was our first, like the first bunch of scenes we filmed shooting season 3. We all had like we all stayed quite close to each other and we were just by the seaside. It was cold. It was very, very cold. It was like October or something in the English Sea.
But it, it was a lot of fun and it was nice to like, I think especially season 3, just getting back together with everyone and we had a scene where we're all eating fish and chips and it was cold obviously, but I, I had a great time. The fish and chips were good. Were the fish and chips also cold? Yeah, the. Fish and chips are cold. Everything was cold. Hey, that's a fun little like friend reunion. Like we're all bonding in the cold on the beach, but we're
having fun either way. That's really sweet it. Was great. All right. Our next listener question from Threads also is at Mystery under score Girl under score 1997 are there. This is outside of hard stoppers, it's just a general question. So they're asking, are there any other roles you'd be interested in playing to further your actor acting career? I really want to be in a movie.
I I think when I started acting like that's everyone's dream is like I want to be in a movie, but I really want to be in a movie. But I think the like, the character that I'd really like to play right now is someone again, like Darcy that's more confident than I am. It really makes me feel good, like playing someone that is slightly less jittery than I am and slightly more self assured.
So I will. I want to play someone like big and strong and yeah, that that's the sort of person I'd like to play. I'd like to see it. Yeah, I will watch anything. So someone get Kizzy in a movie? Yeah. Please please. OK, so our last listener question is actually from our big Gay Energy guest host and resident heart stopper expert Elena. And they said that they really, she really wants to know about his kitties.
I've seen his posts on Instagram and in typical me fashion, I'm invested in the mysterious story of his cats. My cats, they are in the other room right now. We just got them a cat tree and they are mischief makers. And yeah, like, they are the light of my life and the bane of my existence and I love them so much. Yeah, they're. They're called Pickle and Gherkin and they're brothers and they slept on my bed last night. Your first description was also me with my little dog.
It's just I love them. Boy are they annoying sometimes, but she's just got to love them. They just cause. They just cause problems. It's usually pickle causing problems, but they do both just like to cause problems. They split open like a bean bag full of bean bag balls and it was everywhere. It took us days to clean it up. They didn't have to do that. No, they didn't. I'm so sorry that happened but it sounds like such a chaos I
think. I think they need to put that in Hard Stopper. Now just Darcy gets a cat. Darcy needs a cat. Darcy needs animals. I think Darcy needs like a gecko as well. Something weird. Bearded like a bearded lizard like 'cause you can get like you can get like costumes for them and stuff. I feel like darts effects. Right. With that. Oh, like ducks? Oh. My gosh. I can see ducks. Ducks like multiple. Yeah, like fancy. Ones that just like raise them from like little baby ducklings
that just follow them around. Oh my, now I need. It now I need it. I need it. Whatever it says. All right, unfortunately, we're going to pivot away from pets and away from listener questions. So thank you to everybody who asked us questions. We appreciate all of you. So next question, we're going to go back to Darcy in in Season 3 specifically. So Darcy's arc in Season 3 is this journey of exploring gender identity, which is a really important and timely topic for many, many people.
So what was it like bringing that particular story to life? Honestly, kind of scary. It's, it's something that I've been dealing with not too long ago, like I started to question my own gender identity and, and started to be serious about what any sort of social transition would mean for me. So having Darcy do that, it, it was pretty soon after coming out that I, that I got to put this on screen.
And it's, it's, I mean, I think the best thing about it is the friends enhance about how completely they are so ready for it, how Elle cuts Darcy's hair for them, how Tara lets them know that it doesn't change anything. All of those things are really, really, really sweet and like playing a 16 year old and living vicariously through what it could have been like if things had been a little bit easier when I was 16 and coming out. It's kind of healing. It's kind of sad at the same time.
Yeah, I'm proud of Darcy. I know that that's like a strange thing to say, but I feel proud of Darcy that they've done some, done something for themselves as well. Like transition is or, you know, gender exploration is personal and it requires a level of introspection that I wasn't sure that Darcy had. But I know they do. And, and I'm, I'm just proud of them.
We're also proud of them. Darcy's had to deal with so much, especially with their home life, that just being able to separate themselves from parents, what the parents are saying and figure out who they are. It's just it's beautiful to see. And then also love that Darcy has Grand now. I love, I love Darcy's grand so much. I loved working with Annette. Like I have a card that she gave me at the end of the season. Brilliant actress and really lovely. And of course, Darcy has a lovely grand.
And I remember filming like the scene at Christmas where her grand says you look handsome. And that that made me a little bit emotional because I thought it was it's such a short scene. We filmed it so quickly but it made me really happy. That is one of my favourites and I'm pretty sure we talked about that because we do. We do like recaps of the show. I'm pretty sure we went off on this tangent about how Darcy and Gran need to go on like a road trip adventures together because
it would be amazing. Like the gap year is just the two of them. Absolutely. That's like a full like comedy movie. Right. Yeah, that's the starting. Point in the movie like we need that, but yeah, it's like not buddy cop, but buddy adventures. But the two of them I it would be amazing. It'd be amazing. Also, the two of you together are just. Oh, so perfect. I everything it just. Lays up the. Screen.
I love it. We give away the Big Gay Energy Award in every episode discussion that we do, and Gran just immediately gets the honorary Big Gay Energy Award every single time that they're on screen. For sure. And and that Badland, being in that badland is crazy to me. I'm like, that's that's a net from Doctor Who. That's a net from like Ted Lasso. That's that's a net Badland. Are you kidding? So yeah, I love, I love working with that. I get, I get stars. I get. Got really starstruck.
That's so cute. I love that. I mean, yeah. You talked about your journey and with Darcy's like before Darcy's. Were there any similarities between Darcy's journey and yours that you couldn't see yourself? I think the haircut being the first thing was the same for me. I, it's a, you know, it's a relatively like dipping your toe in the water sort of thing. When I'm, when I was beginning to understand who I was, I honestly, I didn't tell people
for a long time. And then there was a moment of time when I really doubted myself and the conclusions that I've come to about, about my my gender identity. But this second time around in really sincerely not holding anything back and paying attention to myself instead of succumbing to that pressure. I think Darcy doesn't have at this point in her life, in their life, a whole, a whole host of pressure to to not be themselves. And I felt that pressure and it got to me for a little while.
But I, I see Darcy just going onwards and upwards, understanding more and more about themselves and paying more and more attention to themselves and the way they interact in the world and thinking critically about. Yeah, I don't know the similarities, I guess. I guess I just wish I'd had friends like that. I, I found it kind of tricky if I'm honest. And Darcy, I think handles it with a lot of grace that you can you really have when you're when you're that confident.
Darcy's confidence, I think we all need, yeah, honestly, with Darcy's. Darcy having that confidence is just huge. Just in general. Very proud of them. It's crazy and amazing that I guess. Yeah, I, I, I mean, that's all I want to say is that I'm proud. They're not, they're not a real person. I feel like I need to remember this. But like, to me, to me, like, Darcy is like the best parts of myself plus some extra. And also 16. It's a nice way that 16 could
have gone. I feel like I say that all the time. But Darcy's journey, like if, if, you know, it'd been like that at 60 and it would have been great. And yeah, yeah, I find I think we've been in a lot of similar circumstances and we've dealt, we deal with things in similar ways. We both just avoid it until we can't anymore and until it
crashes down. And I'm glad that Darcy keeps picking himself back up. Is there any story arcs or plot points you would want to explore as Darcy in potential future seasons? I've always thought that Darcy I would like for Darcy to work with animals. Me and Toby at one point were obsessed with this idea of a murder mystery with Isaac and Darcy as buddy cops. We just thought it would be really funny. Oh my. Gosh, I. Really would be. Oh my God, that really would be.
Darcy I don't know. I don't know what I'd want for them. I, I think I like, I like the idea of them working with animals. I like the idea of them finding a really specific niche. I don't know, like fine detailed woodworking or something. And they find the thing that they're good at and it really brings them joy because, well, you know, I, I, I don't, I haven't seen much of them playing trumpet lately.
So I don't actually know. I don't, I don't know what their, their thing would be, but I know it and know it. I know that they've got a thing that they're really good at. They haven't found it yet, though. That's. That's. A really good. That's very interesting to even think about. Yeah, well, we need more, definitely. I definitely agree Darcy's thing would be something super specific and just they're like the best at it. Yeah, that would be so fun to watch. Hidden talent.
Yeah, yeah, Like hidden talent. Exactly. OK, what next question? What's the most surreal moment you've had since joining Heartstopper? Like not necessarily a fan interaction, just something that made you stop and go wow this is my life now. There's been a couple of those, but I think when me and Karina went to the Gay Times Honours, we'd just come off set.
So we'd been working the whole day and we had to quickly change into these crazy, amazing outfits and get in a car and get there and we were barely on time to give a speech. And then we gave a speech. That felt wild to me that that that was my life. I was still studying. I lived in student halls at that point. And I think that double life thing has always been so weird for me. I'm, I'm kind of a homebody at this point. Like I, I enjoy like gardening.
So whenever something like so intense or like big happens, I forget that it's such a change from what I usually do. And at that moment, I was like, what? You've got the wrong person. Well, we're so glad that you were cast as Darcy. I don't even think I could not imagine anyone being Darcy. It's just it's. You're you're just. Great as Darcy and the whole show in general though does. Does a such a?
Great job at tackling these subjects and doing it a realistic way and healthy, showing healthy scenarios with everything. It's just, it's amazing to watch. I love that everyone talks about their feelings. That's fantastic. I I definitely wasn't. Everyone is very mature in the way that they handle difficult things and it it's it's nice. They they pretty decent role models these lot and I'm I'm I'm
happy for them. Is there a moment, either on Hardsop or any other media that you've watched, read, Consumed, that made you feel truly seen as a queer person just in general? I, I remember feeling really seen by the episode in the Last of Us. I mean, there's a lot in the Last of Us that is really, really good. God it's been a while since I've watched it but the the episodes I can't think of the actors names. This is Mike Hoffman, the. Yeah, that one. Yeah, well. That episode.
That episode, yeah, that episode, I, I, it made me feel like it made me cry, obviously, but it just, I was like, I'm so glad that this is made. I'm so glad that I think having like made TVI every time that I see something's gone, not just from a script. To a storyboard, like I think of the whole process of dealing with a a network or dealing with all of that. And the fact that it got to me is very exciting. And the fact that I got to watch
it is very exciting. And especially when it's really good, like representation is super, super cool, but it's great if it's fantastic media as well. That's brilliant. Yeah, like you hit the bail on the head, like, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, and and, you know, we say over and over again that, you know, in our opinion, like Part Stopper is one of those projects that it's not just like, oh, queer representation.
It's just that the project is really, really well done from like the original, you know, novels to like just all the work the crew puts into it, the cast as well. It's just well done television, which unfortunately is still unique to have really well done pieces of media that handle queer topics and are good like you're saying. So when thinking about Heartstopper like what do you think that Heartstopper does differently in terms of queer representation like compared to other media?
That's out there. I guess I'd say I think that the target audience or like it's a family show And I, I think that, you know, I, I love shows like queer as folk or like I love adult queer stories because I'm a grown up. But I think it's been, I'm trying to remember like the, the queer media I read because I was a reader growing up. I didn't watch a whole lot of TV, but I remember reading like Will Grayson, Will Grayson and I remember being like, Oh my God,
I found this like queer book. It's like a secret. This is magic. I found this thing. Why is no one talking about the fact that you can be gay? And I, I remember finding like, those little bits in the school library that I read through that really meant a lot to me.
And I think that, yeah, it's, I, I like, I really like that it's that young people can watch it. Obviously I think everyone should watch it. But I, I like that it can like the way that my brother and my mum watch TV or used to watch TV, especially when my brother was younger, they'd watch a show and my mum would explain him. I don't know feminist concepts through the show, and I feel like Hearts was that sort of show where it can bring up a question.
If you're watching it with someone someone younger, that's awesome. That's really that's the. Best way to do it. So I know you're focused on acting on the heart stopper set, but while we have you here, the lighting in the shots are always so that looks so on purpose with like the different flag colours is is that on purpose or is there anything that was just? OK, it's it's we've got a crazy good team. Like yes, everything is thought
about so much. I like you should look at like the cruise Instagram and stuff because they can give you super in depth takes into the shots and what they did and why it is the way it is. All the make up artists and they can tell you about the looks, reading, reading over. I'm kind of just like, and that was all done before I got there. And then I get there and I'm in this scene and I watch it back and I'm like, that's amazing. That looks so good.
The light catches at the exact right time. I don't know how they do it. I guess they also do a lot like when we move around. But yeah, like the lighting is is super intentional. I think all the like the parties in season 3, they all tried to have a different feel. So they used different lights at different at different parties. So you could yeah, it's super intentional. The, the like the rainbow lights in Taran Darcy's kiss super intentional is even in the script, like drawn in as a
little rainbow. So you could visualize the scene as you were reading the script. Yeah. It's it's God, I, I miss them because they're such talented creatives. Yeah, they're they're all really, really powerful. That's another reason why it's such a joy to watch Hearts ever, because every single time you watch it, there's something else to pick up on, which is why we have to do 3 hour discussions for each episode.
But yeah, even just we got to talk to a couple of people and one the director, partnerships director of Soulless Mine, who did work behind the scenes and it was just, it's so great seeing how much everybody is passionate about this project. I, I loved working on it so much. I loved, I, I really loved that everyone was very into it all the time. We were all super like, we're going to make this the best thing we possibly can. And I, I, I like, I've never felt like a sense of community
like that. Like not just from the cast, but yeah, from the crew. Like we all wanted it to be as good as it could be. And that, that was so nice. And it really shines through. It really does, like he could tell watching it, like how much care and love went into it from just everybody. In this show, like there's something that came up during one of our discussions. So in Season 3, the group is talking about uni options. I believe it's at Charlie's birthday party at night.
Yeah, I think. And Tara excuses herself right before she has a panic attack. And I was just curious, why do you think Darcy? Didn't immediately. Go after her. I. Think. That's such a good. Question. I think Darcy's maybe? Oh. Because yeah, Charlie. Finds her, doesn't he? Yeah. Yeah, well, I think. Charlie's I guess more sensitive to that sort of thing because of what's just happened with him.
And I honestly think maybe Darcy doesn't pay attention and she's not very good at she doesn't pay a lot of attention to anything really, but I would hope that she'd pay attention to her girlfriend having having a crap bad time so. I assume Darcy's. Just wrapped up in the conversation. I don't know. I can't give you a better answer than that, but they're talking about uni. I know that we know that, you know, Darcy is not happy with her results.
She's not super confident in her, her ability, ability in school, you know, we know she's bad at French. So I think. Maybe the conversation worries Darcy a bit too, and that's why she doesn't. You know, maybe. She's in her own head. They're in their own head a bit, but yeah. There's a lot of. Going on in their own journey, so yeah. Yeah, to. Darcy's credit. Darcy does eventually show up. Yeah, we're. Sorry, yeah. Oh, also. In the discussion.
Theor does point out there was drinking involved too, so there's a lot. Of drinking, yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah, that's true. So true. Darcy was relatively sensible this season and I'm so happy. That's a. Really good point. Growth, yeah. Exactly. Poor Tara. I I feel acting with Karina. I, I get so sad because I'm like, wait, my friend says, no, it's not It's acting, but I like want to even more than Darcy does because I just I'm, she's a Karina's a fantastic actress. I'm working with her.
I'm like, don't cry this. Must have been. A rough season, then. Because like, her character really kind of went through it was. Tara's going. Through it I like when we watched it back for the first time I I got so sad at all Tara's scenes because I'm like my my friend. I guess you can tell I'm not that great at separating reality from the shark, but. I mean that is your. Life, that whole time filming it, you're living it, basically. Yeah, I love playing. Darcy.
I feel much more upbeat when I play Darcy. I have much more fun when I'm playing Darcy. Like those few, like however long it is, few months. I'm like the best version of myself. I love. That it's a lot. Better than having it be the opposite way around. It's so true. It's so true. That would be so. Rough to have to play a character that made you feel awful all the time, yeah. And like, go home to bed and still be in that headspace.
Gosh, yeah, I could do it. I'm I'm, I'm sure I could do it. But we believe. In you, Yeah. Not down here. It would be rough. It would just be rough. I can do. Anything. Yes, because he can do. Anything. Yes. Movie deal. And everything. All right, Speaking of. Doing anything we have kind of a random question for you. If you had to create a conspiracy theory about a heart stopper, what would it be like? For example, Darcy is secretly a time traveler, Tao is an alien
to something like that. I'm I'm. I'm. Going to bring this back to Darcy and animals. I think she has like a box of worms under her bed that she looks after. And if, like ever, she's like leaving a scene quickly, it's because she's got to get back to the worm. They've got to get back to the worms. I love it. I'm so sorry. About screwing up Darcy's pronoun so many times it's the season this season we filmed it out of order and my brain has
not quite like gone back today. I am so embarrassed because it keeps happening. But yeah, we like filmed it out of order. So I would I would slip up on set because I think there's only a couple scenes where Darcy does actually use they and I use they for myself. So I'm so sorry. Oh, you're good. That's that's interesting. So yeah, can I ask why they filmed certain things out of order?
I. Think we film a lot of things out of order because it's like when can we get this location or that we got to go back and do something. But mostly it's about locations and who's available. And you know, if we're shooting two things at the same time, is that like going to work? Yeah, we, we just shot a couple things I ordered. But I think although to be fair, the last scene we shot was I I shot was the like fairgrounds, like the when they're at the fair.
So that's right at the end basically anyway. So, but yeah, I, I, it's all a little bit of a model and we've always done that it just because if we've got filming abroad at any point or it's just about when it's easiest. Yeah, that makes sense. There's a lot of different locations done throughout Heart Starts, so that totally makes sense. It's just. Yeah, OK. So. A little bit off heart stop right now and just about in
general. What completely non horse stopper related thing have you nerded out about recently? There's there's going to be something. What was it? Oh, like the? Wikipedia for like ancient foods. Oh it's amazing. I'm so I watched this like this, like History Food Channel. It's Tasting history with Max Miller and he talks about ancient food and like, you know, what would Genghis Khan have eaten? Whatever. And I found this Wikipedia.
I found out that there's a Wikipedia article for like oldest foods and I went crazy for it. It's like some stuff is so old. I mean, obviously people have been eating rice forever, but like. It's so. You have to look at it for yourself. It's it's like a list of foods and like when the first discovered one of them is very exciting. Never thought of. To do that, but thank you. That was such. A better answer than I thought we would ever. Yeah, no, that's. Amazing.
I don't know. There was like a show about that. That's really cool. So. Good. He's he's. Like he's so amazing and it's like, it's like my comfort YouTube channel. He just talks and he makes the dishes. It's very exciting. Cool, that's the best. OK. Wow. A couple of years ago you tweeted that you'd only reveal the meaning behind your username in the coolest interview. If that moment hasn't arrived yet, what would make an interview worthy of the reveal? I also we're.
Not saying that we're the. Coolest. Yeah, I know we're not saying that. I'm just. Saying we are, but I think what? You have in mind I'm just holding it out for as long as I can. It's because it's actually not that interesting. And now I feel like I've built it up too much so I might have to like, never say it. It's really not that. Interesting. I love it, just keep the mystery. Interesting. Yeah. It's interesting because. It is. It just is. It's a mystery.
And if the mystery is solved, then it's no longer interesting, right? And it's just a fun fact. I could imagine. Darcy doing like this whole mystery thing around something like this and just at the end, like creating something maybe with Tao a film. And then Tao's like, OK, you got to let me know what the ending is. And Darcy's like, oh, there is none for sure. I could. Definitely see that. I could definitely see that.
Basically what we're saying. Is we just need a lot more Darcy we. Always say that I. Need more Darcy in my life I. Think yeah, I need like a friend, a real life friend like Darcy and not just like a comic book picture. All right, Kizzy. Well, those. Are those are all the questions we have for you? Thanks for answering all of our questions, even the random ones and our listener questions. We really appreciate your time and getting to hear from you.
It's been a pleasure. Thank you so much. I had such a good time. Good. We're glad this was. Really, really fun. We appreciate you. And for all the listeners at home who are listening, you know, go watch our stopper advocate for Kizzy in a movie because we want to see it. And until next time, everybody hydrate for lesbian Jesus and get up all over the. Place bye. And with that we've been. Big Gay Energy, thank you for
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