Breakout star Owen Cooper admits ‘Adolescence' was ‘very out of my comfort zone'

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6 days ago

Adolescence breakout star Owen Cooper was pushed out of his 'comfort zone' on the very first day of filming the four-part Netflix series.
The young actor, who's been generating awards buzz for his role in the hit show, plays a 13-year-old boy accused of killing a female classmate after becoming entangled in the online world of male toxicity. He said diving into the emotional third episode — where his character, Jamie Miller, speaks with psychologist Briony Ariston (Erin Doherty) — was especially challenging.
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"We shot Episode 3 first, so that was very out of my comfort zone, but I was welcomed, I was comfortable day one," Cooper told Gold Derby on the red carpet at the series' FYC event at the Television Academy Saban Media Center in North Hollywood, Calif., on Tuesday. "The people that were around me made me feel safe."
Netflix
The heavy subject matter posed a real challenge for the 15-year-old, who made his TV acting debut on the series. Thanks to its gripping one-shot format — designed, cocreator Jack Thorne said, to keep viewers off their phones — all of the actors had to memorize their lines from start to finish. A single slip meant starting over.
'The script was challenging,' Cooper added. 'Learning all the lines was the most challenging part.'
He wasn't alone in that experience. During the panel discussion at the event, actor Ashley Walters — who plays Detective Inspector Luke Bascome — recalled a major slip-up during Episode 2, just as he was wrapping up filming.
'We got to the end. I've done all that running at the end of the episode, caught this kid, and I'm walking back to sit in the car, and I called my son [on the show] the other kid's name,' Walters said. '[Director] Phil [Barantini] was so lovely. He came up to me after. He's like, 'No, it's fine. It's fine, it's fine, because it's like, you're a bit discombobulated,' and I was like, 'Mate, shut up. We've got to go again.''
The panel also featured cocreators Thorne and Stephen Graham (who also plays Jamie's father, Eddie), casting director Shaheen Baig, supervising sound editor James Drake, composers Aaron May and David Ridley, and cast members Doherty, Walters, and Cooper.
Walters told Gold Derby on the red carpet that the Adolescence cast and crew were deeply supportive of one another and made time to decompress together — crucial, given the weighty themes of the series.
'It was a beautiful kind of process where we would shoot one take in the morning and then we'd have like three hours off. So we'd all eat lunch together in the afternoon, do things together and then shoot again in the evening, which made it really cool.'
Doherty emphasized that ensuring a safe and supportive environment was a shared priority.
'From director to within the cast to Jack and Stephen, everyone was so conscious of the importance of the story and what we were making that we were such a family from day one, that you felt held,' she told Gold Derby.
While Cooper said during the panel that 'Jamie didn't stay with me' after Barantini called 'cut,' he had access to a child psychologist on set, as well as a chaperone who also served as his tutor — and swing ball partner.
Netflix
'I was perfectly fine,' Cooper said. 'I'd just go upstairs, play swing ball and I'd get back into tutoring.'
Still, life has changed significantly for the teen since Adolescence premiered in March.
'The first day back [at school] was a bit chaotic,' Cooper said. 'It's not even like people trying to be nice, it's just people coming up to you.'
He added, 'In the town center from where I'm from in England, they don't even say, 'Oh, yeah, you did really well.' They just shout your name.'
Even though they knew they were creating 'something special,' Thorne said, neither he nor Graham expected Adolescence to become a global sensation. Both expressed gratitude that the show is sparking meaningful conversations between parents and their children.
'Talk to your children, listen,' Graham told Gold Derby. 'Don't talk, listen. Let them talk and just have that communication, that's the key. That was our overall objective, and if you're saying you had a conversation with your [child] after it, then we've smashed it.'
Thorne agreed, telling Gold Derby, 'The best reactions I've had to this show are when friends of mine are saying, 'I've just had the conversation with my teenage kid that I haven't had for years. And we just opened up to each other and something special has happened.'
'That's been the most rewarding aspect of making Adolescence,' he added.
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