Josh Heuston brings a different iteration of Justin Kohl to life in Season 1 of the Prime Video adaptation of Elle Kennedy’s Off Campus series, compared to the football player who competes with Garrett Graham (Belmont Cameli) for Hannah Wells’ (Ella Bright) heart.
Music is a key plot device in Kennedy’s first book, The Deal, for several characters, including Hannah, but Heuston’s character isn’t musical in the books. In the show, Justin fronts the band After Hours, and he is the crush that motivates Hannah to fake date Garrett only for the pair to develop actual feelings for each other.
“I guess he’s a little emo and angsty in a lot of ways, but I just wanted to give him a heart in it, where it’s not, I guess, the typical bad boy on campus sort of thing,” Heuston told Deadline. “I wanted people to feel for him and empathize in the fact that he’s just trying to follow his heart and see where that takes him, and as opposed to just being the totally typical archetype.”
After Hannah clearly communicates to Justin that she has fallen for Garrett, just as he has expressed his romantic interest in her, the pair continue to work together writing a song for Hannah to perform at the Pop Music Showcase, which she competes in with hopes of winning some money to pay for her tuition at Briar University. The collaboration reaches a boiling point and then fizzles out when Justin performs their song — which he wrote lyrics to — and Hannah asks to start over. He tells her to do the work and put herself out there writing-wise.
Justin (Josh Heuston) in OFF CAMPUS
“That scene in particular, he’s talking about the music, but he’s not just talking about the music. He’s very much saying like, ‘I’ve come to the table and put my heart on the line, and you more or less promised it and then took it away in a lot of ways,’” Heuston said. “So the music is, I guess, a metaphor for the fact that he’s like, ‘Look, you brought me into this little romance, and then you ran away the second I got comfortable enough to follow you in it,’ which is kind of heartbreaking in a little way.”
The actor also picked up guitar and piano for the songs he performs in the show, which include covers of Ariana Grande, P!nk, One Direction and more as well as the original song, “Yellow Haze.” The latter two were his favorite to perform.
“I am One Direction,” he joked. “I didn’t really have any music experience at all beforehand. So that was the big undertaking of this project, but the performing stuff on stage was my favorite stuff. It was a little taste of what it would be like to be a real musician, which I’m grateful that I got to have that experience.”
Though he is rejected by Hannah, Justin does find his own romance in Elle Kennedy’s book series. Whether that is in the cards for next season or one down the line is up in the air, but Heuston seems game.
“I guess we’ll see what happens with all that stuff, but I had a great time filming this with everyone,” he said. “I love this show and the cast, and I’m very proud of what we made.”
