Rewrite
Featuring in our Winter 24 issue, Josh Heuston talks the global success of his “Australian-coded” Netflix hit Heartbreak High and taking a step back from social media whilst taking on the role of a lifetime in HBO’s Dune: Prophecy.
“I didn’t think Heartbreak High would take off globally because it’s very Australian-coded especially the slang and the humour. Everyone’s calling the school mascot a bin chicken,” says 28-year-old Aussie actor Josh Heuston, a coy smile spreading across his chiselled face. “What’s a bin chicken?” I ask. Josh beams as he flashes an image of a long-beaked ibis bird on his Zoom screen. “We call them bin chickens because they’re always pulling stuff out of the bin.”
Luckily for the floppy-haired actor, despite the colloquial language barrier, the coming-of-age series managed to transcend geographical boundaries. Its second season appeared in Netflix’s Top 10 rankings in over 53 countries, transforming from an Aussie-first cult hit to a global phenomenon. Josh portrays popular high school playboy Dusty Reid, making his peers weak at the knees as he navigates the brutal trials of teenhood alongside his misfit classmates: Amerie Wadia (Ayesha Madon), Darren Rivers (James Majoos), Quinni Gallagher-Jones (Chloé Hayden), and Malakai Mitchell (Thomas Weatherall). “I think our writer Hannah [Carroll Chapman] really was in touch with how the youth speak…The way it was written made sense for older generations and younger generations at the same time. And then the cast; we all worked really well together. Half of the time people would go off on a tangent and start improvising so everyone would be like, ‘Alright, cool. We’re doing this.’ It just worked really well. I guess all the cards were laid in a perfect way and it just took off. I don’t think you could recreate it like that now.”
“When I’m trying to shake off a character after playing them for that long, I always come home… That’s my grounding point”
Josh Heuston
The inimitable chemistry sizzling between the cast resonated with viewers in a way that was beyond comprehension, virality taking hold. In the wake, a glaring spotlight was cast on Josh Heuston and the high school heartbreaker he was portraying. “A byproduct of [the show’s success] is that it changes the way you operate in social situations sometimes…There has been the occasional awkward [interaction]. I think the distinction between who you are in real life and your character sometimes gets a bit confusing. Usually people are like, ‘Oh, I thought you’d be such a dick [in real life],’ and I’m like, ‘I’m not actually a 16-year-old at school,’” he jokingly quips.
To set the record straight, contrary to his ruthless and rugged adolescent counterpart, Josh’s true nature is warm, his humble demeanour shining through in every word he speaks. But don’t worry, he won’t hold any confusion about his personality against you—he’s made the conscious choice to go incognito recently. “I don’t really care because I feel like the less people know about you, the more they can dive into whatever character you’re trying to portray. At first, online and in the media, I was much more [open about] inviting people into my personal life. I think as time moves forward I’m becoming more private because, if not, I think it impedes your ability to tell a story as a character. I think it’s kind of nice to have the two things separate.”
As a young adult, whilst taking “every single acting night school” in the Sydney area, Josh Heuston had a career strutting his stuff in the modelling world for brands such as Fendi, Gucci and Louis Vuitton, and a swelling social media presence too—every aspect of his life laid bare for the world to take in. Projects such as Netflix’s aquatic drama Dive Club, the nerve-touching true story Bali 2002, as well as the aforementioned Heartbreak High, changed this, as his on-screen characters became the focal point— manifestations of the graft he was putting in behind the glossy images and pristine posts. His 721k plus Instagram followers are now having to acclimatise to a new reality, in which they receive morsels of personal content from the actor, a grainy dump of care-free holiday photos here and there. Giving less of himself online has allowed Josh to give even more to his on-screen counterparts, and the proof is in his most epic, career-defining project to date: Dune: Prophecy—HBO’s prequel series to the six-time Oscar-winning Dune franchise.
To read the full interview, pre-order the Winter 24 issue now.
Photography by Richie Lee Davis
Styling by Nico Amarca
Words by Erica Rana
Grooming by Candice Birns at A-Frame Agency
in HTML format, including tags, to make it appealing and easy to read for Japanese-speaking readers aged 20 to 40 interested in fashion. Organize the content with appropriate headings and subheadings (h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6), translating all text, including headings, into Japanese. Retain any existing
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Featuring in our Winter 24 issue, Josh Heuston talks the global success of his “Australian-coded” Netflix hit Heartbreak High and taking a step back from social media whilst taking on the role of a lifetime in HBO’s Dune: Prophecy.
“I didn’t think Heartbreak High would take off globally because it’s very Australian-coded especially the slang and the humour. Everyone’s calling the school mascot a bin chicken,” says 28-year-old Aussie actor Josh Heuston, a coy smile spreading across his chiselled face. “What’s a bin chicken?” I ask. Josh beams as he flashes an image of a long-beaked ibis bird on his Zoom screen. “We call them bin chickens because they’re always pulling stuff out of the bin.”
Luckily for the floppy-haired actor, despite the colloquial language barrier, the coming-of-age series managed to transcend geographical boundaries. Its second season appeared in Netflix’s Top 10 rankings in over 53 countries, transforming from an Aussie-first cult hit to a global phenomenon. Josh portrays popular high school playboy Dusty Reid, making his peers weak at the knees as he navigates the brutal trials of teenhood alongside his misfit classmates: Amerie Wadia (Ayesha Madon), Darren Rivers (James Majoos), Quinni Gallagher-Jones (Chloé Hayden), and Malakai Mitchell (Thomas Weatherall). “I think our writer Hannah [Carroll Chapman] really was in touch with how the youth speak…The way it was written made sense for older generations and younger generations at the same time. And then the cast; we all worked really well together. Half of the time people would go off on a tangent and start improvising so everyone would be like, ‘Alright, cool. We’re doing this.’ It just worked really well. I guess all the cards were laid in a perfect way and it just took off. I don’t think you could recreate it like that now.”
“When I’m trying to shake off a character after playing them for that long, I always come home… That’s my grounding point”
Josh Heuston
The inimitable chemistry sizzling between the cast resonated with viewers in a way that was beyond comprehension, virality taking hold. In the wake, a glaring spotlight was cast on Josh Heuston and the high school heartbreaker he was portraying. “A byproduct of [the show’s success] is that it changes the way you operate in social situations sometimes…There has been the occasional awkward [interaction]. I think the distinction between who you are in real life and your character sometimes gets a bit confusing. Usually people are like, ‘Oh, I thought you’d be such a dick [in real life],’ and I’m like, ‘I’m not actually a 16-year-old at school,’” he jokingly quips.
To set the record straight, contrary to his ruthless and rugged adolescent counterpart, Josh’s true nature is warm, his humble demeanour shining through in every word he speaks. But don’t worry, he won’t hold any confusion about his personality against you—he’s made the conscious choice to go incognito recently. “I don’t really care because I feel like the less people know about you, the more they can dive into whatever character you’re trying to portray. At first, online and in the media, I was much more [open about] inviting people into my personal life. I think as time moves forward I’m becoming more private because, if not, I think it impedes your ability to tell a story as a character. I think it’s kind of nice to have the two things separate.”
As a young adult, whilst taking “every single acting night school” in the Sydney area, Josh Heuston had a career strutting his stuff in the modelling world for brands such as Fendi, Gucci and Louis Vuitton, and a swelling social media presence too—every aspect of his life laid bare for the world to take in. Projects such as Netflix’s aquatic drama Dive Club, the nerve-touching true story Bali 2002, as well as the aforementioned Heartbreak High, changed this, as his on-screen characters became the focal point— manifestations of the graft he was putting in behind the glossy images and pristine posts. His 721k plus Instagram followers are now having to acclimatise to a new reality, in which they receive morsels of personal content from the actor, a grainy dump of care-free holiday photos here and there. Giving less of himself online has allowed Josh to give even more to his on-screen counterparts, and the proof is in his most epic, career-defining project to date: Dune: Prophecy—HBO’s prequel series to the six-time Oscar-winning Dune franchise.
To read the full interview, pre-order the Winter 24 issue now.
Photography by Richie Lee Davis
Styling by Nico Amarca
Words by Erica Rana
Grooming by Candice Birns at A-Frame Agency
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