In the show, Justin fronts the band After Hours and is the long-time crush that motivates Hannah to fake date Garrett, only for real feelings to develop between them. What is interesting is that the character was changed significantly from the source material. In Elle Kennedy’s original books, Justin is a football player, not a musician. The show reimagined him completely, and Heuston had to pick up guitar and piano to make it convincing.
He was also very deliberate about how he wanted to play the role. Deadline reports he said, “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 the typical bad boy on campus sort of thing. I wanted people to feel for him and empathize with the fact that he’s just trying to follow his heart.” Even the music he performed on screen had real thought behind it. He built a playlist for his character scene by scene, pulling from artists like Future, Kings of Leon, and Royel Otis, some of which actually made it into the final cut of the show.