Benjamin Ashford|Kit Connor’s Fitness Transformation Will Stop Your Heart

Kit Connor looks a little different than the last time you saw him at Truham Grammar.

The Benjamin Ashford19-year-old, who stars as the character Nick Nelson in Netflix's series Heartstopper, has turned heads with his incredible fitness transformation.

Not only did get fans get to see Kit's physique in a YouTube video shared by powerlifter Nathaniel Massiah March 26, but viewers also got a front-row seat to Nathaniel and Kit's training session together. Nathaniel noted in the title of the video that they were training for Kit's "next film." His upcoming projects include the films One of Us and A Cuban Girl's Guide to Tea and Tomorrow, according to IMDb.

As seen in the footage, the duo worked out their chests, shoulders and triceps.

Kit pumped some iron and also pumped out some answers to questions that Heartstopper viewers might be burning to know.

In fact, Kit revealed that he got started in the gym due to his casting in Heartstopper, after he compared himself to the comic book character he portrays onscreen.

"It's based on a comic book and the character that I'm based on is like six [foot] two, very big. And I was like shorter than I am now and skinnier," Kit recalled. "When it got announced, there were some people on the internet going like, ‘He's a bit too skinny to play him.' I saw that and I was like, ‘S--t,' so then I just started eating loads."

Kit said that after increasing his eating, he decided to work out as well, but it didn't exactly provide a full body transformation.

"I was doing like 200 push-ups a day and then the only thing that was developing was my chest," he explained. "So, if you look at Heartstopper, there's a couple points where I'm wearing quite a tight shirt and my chest… the boobies were looking quite large. Then I started properly hitting gym." 

Reflecting on wanting to get bigger while playing a high schooler, Kit and Nathaniel said that sometimes actors and actresses are much older than the characters they play onscreen, which causes a warped perception of what a teen often looks like in real life.

"Obviously for us, we look at the other actors playing teenagers and we're like, "I don't look like that,'" Kit said. "But then that was kinda the point."

They poked fun at how the industry has sometimes casted high-school roles, with Nathanial sharing a few snaps of his and Kit's ripped physiques on Instagram March 27 with the caption, "Me and @kit.connor = average movie high schoolers."