Joining Heartbreak High like first day at school for newcomers Sam Rechner and Kartanya Maynard

Sam Rechner is among a fresh class of actors to walk the halls of Heartbreak High – and there are some things he has to do that might make for awkward viewing for his gran.

When Heartbreak High comes back to our screens there will be two new kids on the block – and both Sam Rechner and Kartanya Maynard had first day jitters, just like their characters.

But the pair have more in common than being the fresh faces on the Emmy Award-winning Netflix drama when the anticipated show returns for a second season. Both were drawn to acting due to unforeseen health scares that forced them to change tack – and both have experienced great success in the few years since.

Rechner, 22, grew up in Sydney’s north shore, close family friends with Nicole Kidman, who lived next to his uncle, Peter Overton. He went to private all boys school Knox – worlds apart from the fictional, frighteningly real corridors of Hartley High, he laughs – and was firmly on the rugby track when the last of a series of hard head knocks saw him sidelined from sport. His new “and hilarious” friend Maynard was on the singer route – until a bad case of tinnitus saw her swap vocals for the stage – and here they both are.

Sam Rechner as Rowan in Heartbreak High Season 2. Picture: Netflix

“I was always a loud, extroverted kid but then going through those injuries, it kind of switched me into this more introverted, more emotional, sensitive person, for better or worse,” Rechner tells Insider from his US base.

“I was always interested in movies. I remember watching a high school student perform his individual performance for HSC and it was for George Orwell’s 1984 – and he just put me into tears. And I was like, okay, ‘this is something I love now. I’m passionate about this’. And this was right off the back end of the injury, so it was it was fresh, it was new, and it just moved me.

Sam Rechner as Rowan and Thomas Weatherall as Malakai. Picture: Netflix

“And coming back from LA to Sydney to work on Heartbreak High last year, I was able to see that the person that inspired me to actually begin this journey of acting was actually working in the production office for Heartbreak – so it was his full circle moment, which is really special.”

Maynard, a Trawlwoolway woman from Tasmania, has already appeared in Deadloch, The Messenger, and Gold Diggers. Growing up in such a close Aboriginal community, she had her own full circle moment – Shania Twain-style.

“I knew I was a performer very early on – initially my thing is singing, Like I used to – oh, this is embarrassing – but why not, f--k it – we used to have this little table and I would drag it out and make my family watch me perform the Shania Twain Come on Over album. It was an incredible time in my youth,” she laughs.

“So my initial thing was all about music. I grew up in a very close knit Aboriginal community and they all really rallied around me, all my aunties and uncles and cousins – just being like, ‘you’re gonna do this honey’ – and then I went to music school, and I ended up getting this really annoying hearing condition, tinnitus. So I have a constant ringing in the ears – which doesn’t prevent me from performing, but I can’t do it as much – and I got to a point in my life where my tinnitus was quite bad, and I was just like, ‘okay, well, we’ve got to figure something out here’ and I ended up somehow becoming an actor.

“It was something I’ve always been passionate about but I think because music was the No.1 thing in my life. I thought you could only have one thing.

“My parents always told me I could be whatever I wanted to be, so I don’t know where that came from, but I finally was just like ‘you know what, life is short’.”

Kartanya Maynard as Zoe. Picture: Netflix

She had just turned 24 and was awarded a mentorship grant, when she switched paths.

“I was just like, ‘hey, I know that I said I was gonna like do be a playwright and all that sort of stuff, but actually, I’d love to be an actor’ and they just said ‘all right, let’s do it’,” she explains.

“I managed to get into a play, got an agent and then here we are. It’s been a bit hectic last five years, in the best way possible. Like when you get caught up in a tornado, but you don’t mind.”

Rechner has been in his own tornado – one of his first auditions was for none other than Steven Spielberg himself. He got the part, making his debut in The Fabelmans alongside Seth Rogen and Michelle Williams in 2022. While that was a baptism of fire, every day since has been quite the learning curve. He’s now based in LA but tries to come back to Sydney a few times a year. His next trip home will be in August.

“It was crazy,” he admits of landing the Fabelmans role. “It was a great introduction to be in an industry I want to be part of, and I feel very grateful for it and it catapulted me to be involved and that’s amazing.

Actor Sam Rechner was first known for playing Logan Hall in the Steven Spielberg film The Fabelmans.

“But at the same time, now I’m learning what I need to do to build a career and to get back to that level, and it is a lot of hard work. It was a very amazing experience, but it also confused me a lot, because I wasn’t sure what would happen after that. I was so grateful to go then work on Heartbreak High, but it’s a whirlwind – you don’t know what you’re working on next.

“And those in between phases are so confusing. I’m in one of those again, but it’s a weird, wonderful industry and I guess it’s being patient, it’s working hard, and when those opportunities come like that, you have to be ready.

“There are so many highs and lows, more so lows. I’m just fortunate to be learning from everyone else in the room And that’s the position I want to be in for the rest of my career – to be the least talented, least experienced and just soak it up.”

It’s the latest series of the show that spent five weeks in Australia’s top 10 TV shows on Netflix and three weeks in the global top 10 with a huge 42.6 million hours viewed in the three weeks of its debut last year.

They join returning students Logie nominees Ayesha Madon, Chloé Hayden and 2023 Logie winner and 2022 AACTA winner Thomas Weatherall, as well as James Majoos, for a scarily honest depiction of what today’s teenagers face: from first love to sex, trauma and break ups to inclusivity and sexuality.

The cast of Heartbreak High Season 2. Picture: Netflix

In it, Rechner plays Rowan, who finds himself thrown headfirst into the chaos of Hartley High and a truly epic love triangle. While Rechner’s not shying away from his character’s saucy side and graphic gay sex scenes, they are prompting him to suspend his family’s Netflix account, he jokes.

“They haven't seen it yet – but my grandparents are wanting to watch it – and I’m like, ‘I don’t know if this is right for you guys. I don’t think we should watch it’,” he laughs.

“But you know, they’re proud, so it’s nice. I was so excited to get in on the love triangle, whatever else is involved with playing the character, but it was certainly something new and something different, which is which is what we want, I guess. You don’t want to be doing the same thing over and over. But I was freaking shitting myself. And the intimacy stuff can be very tough – it’s a true testament to the acting, I think.”

They both say any intimidation on their first day on set – or at school – was intense, but ultimately unfounded.

“The intimidation was only self imposed. They were they were so open arms welcoming,” he continues.

Maynard said it really did feel like the new kid at school but nerves eased quickly as she

slipped on the shoes of Zoe Clarke, an opinionated celibacy advocate.

Kartanya Maynard’s as the opinionated Zoe. Picture: Netflix

“I remember trying to be the best version of myself – which I didn’t need to because immediately people were like, ‘hugs, how are you? welcome to the family – do you wanna go hang out?’”

“Zoe is one of those characters that is as intense as she can be. She can be quite tender and lovely – and that’s the thing with teenagers is they’re going through such a crazy hormonal time that you can be a million and one people in one day. I certainly was,” she says.

“Like, I’m 29. And I was thinking about this the other day – why do I still feel like I’m 16? Why do I still feel like I don’t know what’s going on? I mean, my mum had three kids by the time she was my age.

“One of the great things about the show is it exposes real issues that happen in the whole teenage sphere of things. I remember going through things like these kids go through. And it’s crazy now that I have this grown-up perspective of everything – because I look back, just seeing what our characters go through in this series, and being like ‘oh, my God, how did we handle this within ourselves?’ It’s almost like a secret world.

“I think that’s what’s really fun about Heartbreak High – you get a glimpse into this little universe that’s so specific, and changes so drastically with the times. And we’re seeing a moment in time now, with these kids. It’s very amplified and there’s a lot of intensity about it, but the thing that I think a lot of people can relate to with this series is we’ve all gone through these moments in our lives. We see the heartbreaks of relationships ending, or we see friendships imploding, which was absolutely devastating when you’re a teenager. I remember those times.”

Rechner agrees. Looking back can seem trivial but, at the time, those problems are the most important things in the world.

“They’re going through this confusion and through this pain, and you feel like your problems are the biggest problems in the world. But, at that age, you’re not really mature enough to talk to the kids about the problems you’re going through, so you feel like you’re isolated,” he says.

“There are definitely highlights (of my own schooling), for sure, and there are times where you do struggle with friendships. I played a lot of rugby during school and had these hard knocks and fractured my skull one year. So I had these incidents that I went through where I definitely felt isolated because I was away from school, so I resonate with my character – there’s a lot of isolation by that coming to a new school, as well.”

“What’s that phrase?” Maynard continues. “You can be in a crowded room and still feel like the loneliest person in the world. I swear that’s what all teenagers live by. It certainly was the existence for me and my friends. You can be with 20 other kids at recess and be in your own little bubble, not letting ourselves connect, even though we see each other every day. It’s so weird.

“Teenagers are weird in this beautiful, wonderful way.”

Heartbreak High season 2 will premiere globally on Netflix on April 11

Originally published as Joining Heartbreak High like first day at school for newcomers Sam Rechner and Kartanya Maynard