With a name like Joe Locke, the 20-year-old star of Agatha All Along was practically born to play his top-secret role that’s currently regarded as “Teen.”
The marketing for the Kathryn Hahn-led series establishes that Locke’s character is an Agatha Harkness fanboy who breaks Agatha free of the spell that Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) cast on her in the WandaVision series finale. From there, Teen joins Agatha and a newly assembled coven of witches as they travel the mysterious Witches’ Road in pursuit of their own individual goals.
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Spinning off her smash hit WandaVision, Agatha All Along creator Jac Schaeffer learned quite a bit about the nature of fan theories, given the overwhelming amount of theorizing that surrounded her last show. Thus, she took extra steps to prevent fans from going down the wrong rabbit holes on this go-round, but in the case of Teen, the mere presence of the heavily guarded character genuinely encourages that type of fan engagement.
In fact, whenever Teen tries to share his backstory, mechanics within the show prevent both the other characters and the audience from hearing whatever it is he’s saying. As a result, fans have been speculating that Teen could either be Agatha or Wanda’s son, but in the interim, Locke is doing an admirable job at protecting Teen’s ultimate identity.
“The secrets are secrets for a reason, and Teen’s backstory is an interesting one. If I was able to talk about it now, it would ruin the whole point of the show, and that is what keeps me being able to keep a secret,” Locke tells The Hollywood Reporter.
Below, during a recent conversation with THR, Locke further teases that the Teen from the first half of Agatha All Along is a far cry from who he is at the end of the season.
Congrats on a great role, Joe.
Oh, thank you. It’s the role of a lifetime. I’m very, very lucky.
Well, as the marketing shows, your character’s name and backstory have been kept under lock and key.
(Laughs.)
Sorry, I couldn’t resist. In a roundabout way, how did they explain this whole strategy in regard to you and “Teen”?
One of the things I love about Marvel is you keep all these secrets that are really frustrating at first, especially when you’re doing things like this [press day]. But the reason you keep them is because if you were to tell them, then it wouldn’t have the same effect when it all comes out. The secrets are secrets for a reason, and Teen’s backstory is an interesting one. If I was able to talk about it now, it would ruin the whole point of the show, and that is what keeps me being able to keep a secret. Otherwise, I’d just tell you everything.
He’s basically muted or censored whenever he tries to say anything significant about himself. Did you actually say the truth on the day? Or did they just have you speak gibberish?
I had lines. I was actually speaking.
But was it the truth?
I had lines and I was speaking. (Laughs.)
(Laughs.) There are a lot of fan theories that he could be this person’s son or that person’s son, but regardless of his actual lineage, is it just thrilling to play a character who’s theorized about in that way?
Yeah, as an actor, it’s always great to be talked about. (Laughs.) But it’s really just nice to play a complicated and mysterious character. The Teen we see in the first four or so episodes is very different to the Teen that we see in the last couple of episodes, so it’s cool. Even on this press day, people are talking about the character, and I’m like, “Ah, that’s what you think now.” It’s fun.
“The Ballad of the Witches’ Road” is quite the earworm, and that’s just from watching the show. You actually had to live it and perform it. Did it burrow pretty deep into your brain?
Yeah, the last few days as we’ve been preparing for the D23 performance, loads of people have been like, “It’s been stuck in my head.” And I’m like, “Yeah, well, join the club. It’s been in my head for almost two years.” But it’s a great song, and it’s a great song to have in my head.
In early 2021, when Wandavision and the “Agatha All Along” song took off, did any of it pop up on your radar in a way that could be seen as a sign of what was to come for you?
When WandaVision came out, I wasn’t in the industry. I hadn’t even gotten my first acting job yet [on Hearstopper]. I just watched the show completely as a fan and with my friends, as it was coming out, and I loved it. So to be here now, having been in the spinoff, is very weird.
The first half of the show is Teen tagging along with this coven of random witches. Did that create quite an interesting dynamic on set?
Oh, it was great. A lot of my life has been surrounded by strong women, so it was just like any other day for me.
My favorite line of the series so far is when Agatha asks him what he’s looking for, and he replies: “The respect of your peers and a fulfilling home life, but you were fresh out of both.”
(Laughs.) Yeah, that’s a great one. That scene was my first self-tape, and I was like, “Is this the WandaVision spinoff? I do not understand.” It was the first self-tape, so they didn’t tell us anything except [what was in] that scene. So it was a very funny scene [to start things off] because it’s just so not what you expect.
So you’d practiced that line plenty of times before the actual day.
Yeah, I often find, though, that the scenes I audition with for a project are the hardest scenes to do, because you know them so well and you’ve done them a thousand times to try and get the part. So when it comes to the day, it’s almost like I find it to be a bit robotic, but that one is just such a great scene.
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Agatha All Along premieres Sept. 18 on Disney+.
