Netflix star reveals Kit Connor was his ‘acting nemesis’ for years

Two successful Netflix stars went head-to-head more than once in their youth (Picture: Savion Washington/FilmMagic)

There’s one British actor Heartstopper star Kit Connor always ended up toe-to-toe with in audition rooms growing up.

As Louis Partridge, 22, prepares for the role of a lifetime as Mr Wickham in Netflix’s adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, he has reflected on his journey to get there.

And that includes just how small the world of child actors was growing up.

The Enola Holmes star recounted how his agemate Kit, 21, regularly cropped up at the same auditions as him when the pair were both trying to make it big in the industry.

‘For a long time, my acting nemesis was Kit Connor,’ he joked.

Discussing the dynamic, he explained: ‘He was always in the room in auditions. It was always me and my mum and him and his mum. And my mum would roll her eyes.’

Now, with both of them leading successful careers, it seems their childhood rivalry has arrived at a happy ending, with both of them being ‘really good buddies’, he told Variety.

The Enola Holmes star Louis Partridge recalled how they would always be in the same audition rooms (Picture: Alex Bailey/Netflix)

In fact, the pair sat down to chat with each other in an interview for VMAN earlier this year, in which Kit admitted that he had not recalled their early meetings and assumed they first bumped into each other at the Venice Film Festival as adults.

Louis set the record straight about their first meeting, sharing: ‘I’d say I must have been 13, and I went to audition at a school trying to get a drama scholarship.

‘And I went into the waiting room, jittery, nervous, because I had to do a monologue that I had prepared. And they send their drama scholar, the resident scholar, to come and escort me to the room, and Kit Connor walks in.’

When he was young Kit was in projects like War and Peace, as seen on the left here (Picture: BBC/Laurie Sparham) Meanwhile, Louis starred in shows like Boomers (Picture: BBC/Hat Trick Productions)

In his youth, Kit appeared in several big TV shows and films, including the BBC’s adaptation of War and Peace in 2016 opposite Lily James and as a young Elton John in his biopic, Rocketman.

Just a few years later, his career was taken to the next level when he landed the lead role in Netflix’s hit coming-of-age series Heartstopper opposite Joe Locke, which will conclude with a final movie.

Meanwhile, Louis Partridge’s first credited role was in the 2014 TV series Boomers, although he became best known six years on as Tewkesbury (Millie Bobby Brown’s love interest) in the ongoing Enola Holmes movie series.

In his adulthood, Kit has made it big in shows like Heartstopper (Picture: Samuel Dore/Netflix) Meanwhile, Louis is about to star in House of Guinness and Pride and Prejudice on Netflix (Picture: Netflix)

Most recently, alongside the Pride and Prejudice role, he will also appear in Steven Knight’s new Netflix drama House of Guinness

He’s even built a whole new fanbase in the pop world as Olivia Rodrigo’s boyfriend, and he is regularly spotted cheering her on from the crowd.

The decision to cast him as Jane Austen’s famed villain, Wickham, was met with some criticism by fans who believed his young age took away from the character’s actions as a groomer of young girls like Lydia Bennett.

Discussing his interpretation of the character to Variety, he said: ‘Yeah, he is a bit of a s**t … but I think he possibly means all the lovely things he says to girls before he leaves them.’

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