Heartbreak High: “It’s coming directly from them.”

When producers were developing a new Netflix take on Heartbreak High they soon realised kids today were very socially-aware, forward-thinking, and inclusive.

Writers soon found themselves being led by the conversations kids were having. Issues from sexuality to environment and more were all on the table.

But Heartbreak High, when it screened from 1994 – 1996 was always progressive for its time. It was just a question of how it would be portrayed in 2022.

“There was a fluidity to them”

“We did research groups with kids, ranging from working class to the elite private schools and it just blew our minds how accepting they were. There was a fluidity to them, which leads to an acceptance,” Executive Producer Carly Heaton tells TV Tonight.

“Now you’re being bullied for being homophobic, not for being gay. It’s flipped that far. We even got to the point where we were talking about mental health ….We weren’t having conversations about mental health when I was 16.

“They were pushing us. We would never have made it that way. It’s coming directly from them.”

Heartbreak High, created by Ben Gannon and Michael Jenkins, was based on the play The Heartbreak Kid and feature film of the same name which starred Claudia Karvan & Alex Dimitriades. Its 210 episodes, with cast including Callan Mulvey, Abi Tucker, Scott Major, Salvatore Coco, Doris Younane and Tony Martin was praised for its gritty approach to adolescence, romance, racism, drugs, homelessness, delinquency, religion, education, family.

That made it ripe for a reboot for a new, young audience.

“We’re all of the age where Heartbreak High was one of the touchstones”

“We were talking to a couple of local networks about getting something long-running again for the youth market. We started developing a high school show. We’re all of the age where Heartbreak High was one of the touchstones,” Heaton recalls.

“We were sending around the “Rack off” compilation on YouTube. (Then-Fremantle CEO) Chris Oliver-Taylor happened to be in London and a Dutch company called Newbe approached him and said they had the rights to Heartbreak High.

“It was sort of like this synchronicity, a perfect marriage, really. We put it all together and Netflix jumped at it straight away.”

Filming took place at the same Maroubra Bay High School as the original series, a working class school nestled between the city and the beach. There were other qualities Heaton says became part of the Heartbreak High style.

“They were migrant families or single parent famiies who were super-relatable. They looked like everyone you knew, but they still had this cool edge. You don’t get many shows that sit in that space. They’re all either pushing towards rich kids or things that are just a little bit out of your reach.

“It’s funny until it’s not…. then it’s funny again.”

“We’ve had things since like Skins, Euphoria, but nothing that captured the ‘Aussie-ness’ of it. There’s a rawness to the way we interacted. Our writer summed it up in the writers room, ‘It’s funny until it’s not…. then it’s funny again.’ That’s really Australian. The way we tackle bigger issues. You don’t shy away from them, but we deal with things in a different way.”

As an 8 episode season, writers also mapped out a series arc and aimed for a vivid, high-end visual template. Original cast member Scott Major returns as dramaturg behind the scenes.

The young cast is full of fresh, new faces including Ayesha Madon (The Moth Effect, Fangirls, Romeo and Juliet) as Amerie, James Majoos (Fangirls, Grand Horizons, Vivid White) as non-binary Darren, Chloe Hayden (Jeremy The Dud, Sister From The South, Embrace Kids) as Quinni, plus Thomas Wethereall (RFDS, All My Friends Are Racist), Asher Yasbincek (The Heights, Rams, How To Please A Woman), Josh Heuston (Dive Club, Thor: Love and Thunder, Finally Me) and more.

“We knew we wanted a diverse cast, and an authentic feel. So we cast Darren, Amerie and Quinni early on in the writing process, and they spent some time with the writers. That way we could push their backgrounds and their history into the storylines, rather than getting to the casting process, months out from shooting, trying to get someone very specific that we’d written in,” Heaton continues.

“We found Chloe Hayden on Instagram. Darren and Aisha are both VCA trained in musical theatre…. I think the most experienced is probaby, Thomas Weatherall.

“The cast weighed in a fair bit on the language.”

“The cast weighed in a fair bit on the language. Our team of writers were quite young as well. We tried to get the right balance of experience and youth across the board, in production. It is something the original did, to give people a break, which is such a rare thing now. You can do that with soaps but it’s harder to break new voices when you’ve got 8 episodes and a very strict timeline.

“We also wanted to keep the level of music. We have an absolute shit ton of music. Our poor music supervisor was pushed to the limit! Up to 22 songs an episode. There’s commercial music tracks, lots of local Sydney bands that we try to break and some big international acts as well, which the original did.”

Heaton accepts that not all original viewers of Heartbreak High may connect with the new version and ‘woke’ claims are to be expected.

“The characters are always taking the piss out of each other”

“We’re gonna get that criticism, but that’s okay. I don’t think we go over that level. I think we have to be Aussie. The characters are always taking the piss out of each other, you know, trying to undercut. Yes we’re obviously progressive, but the role of shows like these is to push that. I don’t feel like we are, for the generation that we’re talking to,” she insists.

“All the kids that we spent time with…. this was on the money. This is what they do. This is how they speak and this is how they think.”

Heartbreak High screens Wednesday on Netflix.