Josh Heuston Says Justin’s Off Campus Change “Adds A Zing”

While some story details in Prime Video’s adaptation of the buzzy hockey romance Off Campus got changed from page to screen, most of the characters are pretty faithful to Elle Kennedy’s books — except for one. Justin Kohl is the most immediately obvious alteration from Kennedy’s novels. Instead of an aloof football player, the show makes Justin a guitar-shredding rock star. The character shift is one of Josh Heuston’s favorite elements of the role... even if it did mean he had to lie about his musical skills when he auditioned.

“When I first heard about it, I thought it was an interesting change, but I think it adds a little bit to the romance of Hannah and Justin. They’re bonding over stuff that Hannah and Garrett can’t bond over in the same way,” Heuston tells Elite Daily. In the series, aspiring songwriter Hannah grows close to her longtime crush Justin as they attempt to write a hit pop song together, adding much more depth to this connection than was in Kennedy’s 2015 book The Deal.

“It just adds a different take on a similar story,” Heuston points out. “As opposed to athlete versus athlete and the girl in between, now it’s the artist, the girl in between, and the athlete. So I think it adds a zing [to the whole love triangle]. And it adds to the chemistry between Justin and Hannah.”

While Heuston was a fan of the new version of Justin in a narrative sense, it did come with one major hurdle for the actor personally.

“I lied and said I could sing when I auditioned,” he admits. “I did a thousand takes singing the audition song over and over again. They gave me a couple lyrics, and I sang them over the chords of ‘Revelry’ by Kings of Leon, because that was just three simple chords. And that was enough to get the role.”

After getting cast, Heuston had to put in the work to keep up his musical facade. “I had to do so many classes once I booked the role,” he recalls. “I did singing, guitar, and piano lessons the whole way through filming.”