At the start of Heartstopper’s fourth episode, Nick (Kit Connor) pays Charlie (Joe Locke) a visit. He’s breathless and nervous, he has something he needs to tell him, and it’s raining.

Dramatic, romantic moments in the rain are a rom-com staple: Just watch The Notebook, Pride and Prejudice, or Spider-Man or listen to any Taylor Swift song. The people who brought Heartstopper to life — including creator Alice Oseman, executive producer Patrick Walters, and production designer Tim Dickel — understand the importance of a passionate kiss in the rain. “I always think a trope is a trope for a reason,” Oseman tells Tudum. “It’s so romantic and so adorable and iconic when, you know, there’s some drama between a couple and one of them shows up in the rain, and he’s just run and he’s all disheveled — it’s adorable.”

The process of filming Charlie and Nick’s heart-stopping moment under the umbrella was, in Walters’ words, “a whirlwind.” There was a lot to take into account: an intimacy coordinator, crowds and approximately eight rain machines. Walters and Dickel walked us through the process of filming such a beloved, romantic and very wet scene.

Nick & Charlie Lock Lips in the Rain | Heartstopper S1E4We'll be over here... melting into a puddle.

The location

The scene was shot on a residential street, with lots of onlookers popping by to investigate the production. The location made logistics trickier, but Dickel says it was worth the chaos. “It was quite tight where we were, but also the charm... is that it feels like a normal street. If it had been some wide, really open street, I don’t think you’d get the sense of intimacy, and it wouldn’t feel quite right.”

The mechanics

Dickel says the team used around eight rain machines for dramatic effect. “There was a lot of technical wizardry that went into getting the rain right,” Walters adds.

Some of the complications? “There’s lots of people that have to approve us going into their yard and hiding rain machines so [the rain] goes in and comes over the top,” Dickel recalls. Not to mention, “You’ve got your normal public that wants to get to their houses and walk down the street.” 

The colors

Like the rest of Heartstopper, the rain scene is colored by shades of blue and yellow. “I really trusted Tim in the way that [he] blocked color in that scene — which was really important, because the comic is in black and white, so there’s no sense of the color,” Walters says. “Even with the touch of the umbrella that’s yellow and blue, everything was thought through.”

His favorite part of the scene was at the very end, when Charlie runs outside to kiss Nick under the umbrella. “Even the little pop of the [street’s yellow] parking line goes so well with it,” he says. “It just feels so considered.”

And finally, the kiss

“Because we filmed some of the series out of sequence, it actually was the first kiss that Charlie and Nick share that we filmed,” Walters says. “So it felt like a big day because we had our intimacy coordinator David Thackeray there, Euros [Lyn], Alice [Oseman], and myself with Kit and Joe, and we knew it was a really iconic moment from the comics.”

As was the case throughout production, Walters’ utmost priority was the cast’s comfort. “Given that we knew it was the first time there was gonna be this kiss, we were all very, very anxious to get it right, and to make sure that Joe and Kit felt completely supported and didn’t feel like they were being overlooked by people,” he says.