‘Adolescence’ Breakout Owen Cooper on Leading Netflix’s One-Shot Drama

Owen Cooper is a name many might be talking about over the next few weeks — at least among those who manage to get through Netflix‘s new limited series “Adolescence” in one piece.

The emotionally-devastating 4-part drama — from director Philip Barantini and written by Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham — tells the gut-wrenching story of a British family whose world is turned upside down when their outwardly normal and well-adjusted 13-year-old son Jamie is arrested for the murder of a teenage girl in his class. Weeks before its launch date of March 13 it was being described in the U.K. press as one of the “most terrifying TV shows of our times” for its exploration of bullying, toxic masculinity and how a young mind from a seemingly loving home can be quietly radicalised by incel culture and the manosphere.

Adding to the intensity, each episode — like Barantini’s BAFTA-winning feature “Boiling Point” — was filmed in one continuous take, a creative tool that only serves to heighten the bruising nature of it all for viewers as they’re dragged closer to the emotional stress in real-time.

Alongside co-writing and producing, Graham also stars, the British TV icon giving yet another in a long line of towering performances, this time as the son’s distraught father trying to grapple with the how’s, what’s and why’s. “The Crown” graduate Erin Doherty — recently seen alongside Graham in “A Thousand Blows” — is also tremendous as a child psychologist.

But it’s Cooper as the young man at the center of the drama who is likely to be “Adolescence’s” biggest talking point.

Appearing in two of the four episodes, the 15-year-old (14 when it was filmed) gives a truly astonishing turn, at first as a scared, tearful and confused youngster ripped from his family home in a dawn police raid, and then later in an increasingly distressing one-on-one session with Doherty’s character as the all-too-contemporary factors that led to the crime are slowly unravelled.

What’s more astonishing is that “Adolescence” isn’t simply Cooper’s first on-screen credit, but his first acting gig full stop. And yet, according to Barantini, he managed to display skills that many established names don’t possess. “Actors train for years and years and still can’t really master what Owen has done,” he explains.

It hasn’t going unnoticed, with Cooper cast in Emerald Fennell’s all-star “Wuthering Heights” while “Adolescence” was still in production (Variety last week broke the news he was going to be appearing as a young Heathcliff in the MRC/Warner Bros. feature). As far as career starts go, a TV debut on a one-shot Netflix drama with Stephen Graham followed by a first-time feature in a hotly-anticipated movie alongside Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi isn’t one to be sniffed at.

Ahead of the global launch of “Adolescence,” Variety spoke to the young actor — still in his sports kit having just got home from school — alongside Barantini to discuss jumping straight from a casual weekly drama class to leading a major Netflix release to heading off to the moors for a big-budget Brönte adaptation.

Congratulations Owen, this is an incredible performance. What’s the reaction you’ve had from others who have seen ‘Adolescence’?

Owen Cooper: Everyone’s been saying such nice things. My agent has seen it and she said it was really good. I don’t know what it is, but I don’t really watch it like I’m watching a normal show. I just watch it because I’m in it. So I don’t know. But everyone who has spoken to me has said it’s amazing. So yeah, I’ve heard positive things.

What was it like watching it yourself? Some actors hate it.

OC: It was weird watching myself. But it was just like thinking about the memories. And I could always tell which take it was, because every take was different. So, yeah, it was weird to watch it, but it was also amazing. And all the family got to see it as well, so that was great.

How much acting had you done before ‘Adolescence’?

OC: Literally nothing. I only really wanted to start acting a couple of years ago. It’s not been long. I grew up wanting to be a footballer. I don’t know what it was that made me want to do it, but I just wanted to do it. And then I went to lessons and enjoyed it. And then I got into a little agency thing, and then I got a self-tape request for ‘Adolescence.’ And everything came from that really.

Can you tell me a little more about the lessons and the agency?

OC: It’s an agency called The Drama Mob. And the lessons were just hourly lessons on a Tuesday where we’d get a piece of script and just read it off. But I was just doing it for a hobby and didn’t expect much from it. And then when ‘Adolescence’ came, I obviously took it a lot more seriously. And I just took it on the chin really, and just did it.

Phil, can you talk about the casting process. What were you looking for and how did you come across Owen?

Philip Barantini: When we got the scripts, it was like, ok, this is about a 13-year-old boy. And we were thinking, can we actually cast a lad at that age? Or do we need to look for someone who’s 16, 17, 18, but looks really young? But there’s something about that sort of adolescent age between 12 and 14, where people’s mannerisms change, and people’s bodies change, and people’s voices change, and all of those things. It was quite apparent that we couldn’t go down the road of getting someone older. Shaheen Baig, who’s our casting director, is amazing at finding new talent. She really goes above and beyond in terms of where she looks. I said to her early on that we should look in the drama schools, youth clubs and established theater schools, but I also wanted to try and find someone who’s never done it before. So we really scoured. There were 1000s of tapes that came through. I watched everything. But we narrowed it down and it was quite apparent that Owen was one of the frontrunners.

How much work did you do with Owen before you started shooting?

PB: So we knew we were going to shoot episode three [with Doherty] first. Once we cast Owen, I was like: oh, I need to make sure he can actually do this thing. So we got some people in to work with him while I was working on other episodes. There was an acting teacher who was there to just help him with his lines and help him get it all off the page.

Honestly, first day on set was obviously nerve racking for all of us. But he just absolutely blew me away. Actors train for years and years and still can’t really master what Owen has mastered, which is basically just being in the moment and listening and being truthful. l’ve obviously worked with a lot of actors in my time as an actor and as a director and a lot of actors can’t do what he can do. He doesn’t even realize it! He’s so blasé. Every day, we’d do the tape, which would take an hour, and everyone at the monitors would be crying their eyes out. And we had a psychologist there to make sure that Owen was okay. But she couldn’t find him. She’d be like, where’s Owen? And he’d be off playing swing ball. I’d ask, mate, are you ok? And he’d be like, yeah, hang on, I’m winning here!

Owen, you share scenes with both Erin Doherty, who is such an incredible talent, and Stephen Graham, one of the greats. Did either of them help you in terms of getting in character, dealing with nerves or anything like that?

OC: Obviously Stephen was always checking in on me, but there was a time in episode one, when it was just us two, with no camera, in the police cell, and he scruffed me up and said “you’re never going to see your mum again, you’re never going to see your dad again” and was going on and on. Before then I’d been frustrated because I hadn’t been getting emotional. But after that point I was emotional in every take. So that helped me a lot. He was amazing to work with.

You’re pretty awful to Erin in episode 3. How easy was that?

OC: Well I thought it was fun to do! But I wasn’t really worried about the script or any of the shouting. They were the best part. I was just there. I was on a journey. It was the first thing that I’d ever done. So I wasn’t really worried about it all. I was just trying to impress everyone. But I didn’t think about doing it. I just did it.

PB: Owen’s such a lovely kid so to get him to really go there and be really nasty and horrible to this character, it wasn’t in his nature initially to do that. So there were moments in that episode where, during the rehearsals, I kept on saying: go further, go mad, you hate her, scream at her, get it all out. Obviously he’d never had to do that before, so he had to go there and realise the level he could take it.

There was one moment in one take, which I never asked him to do, where he’s talking to Erin and the camera’s on him and he just starts yawning. Everyone behind the camera was going, “oh my god, he’s never done that before!” Erin being Erin just said to him “I’m sorry, am I boring you.” And he had this cheeky smile on his face.

‘Adolescence’ is obviously shot in one take for each episode, which just adds another level of insanity to the production. Owen, as this was your first time acting and first production, did you just assume that this was how things are done?

OC: Yeah, I didn’t know any better really! When Phil told me about the one-shot thing, I thought he was just talking about like one episode, or one quarter of an episode. But then he said all four episodes are being shot in one take. And I immediately thought I’d never, ever be able to do this. But everyone helped me through it — Phil, Erin, Ashley, Stephen. So I’d definitely do one shot again.

PB: He could do it in his sleep again.

How many takes did you do?

PB: The idea was to do 10 takes per episode, so we’d do it twice a day. But there were times when you’d have to stop five minutes in. So sometimes it’d be like 15-16 takes. But 10 full takes. Two of the same episode were shot twice a day.

Owen, away from “Adolescence,” you’ve been shooting Emerald Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights,” one of the buzziest film projects around at the moment. How’s that experience been? Have you finished?

OC: Not quite, we’ve got another couple of weeks left. But it’s been going really well. I’ve really enjoyed it. Obviously it not one-shot anymore! So I’m getting used to that. But it’s been amazing. Emerald’s lovely.

Did ‘Wuthering Heights’ come about because of ‘Adolescence’?

OC: Yeah, Stephen recommended me his agent. So Maddi [Bonura, from Independent Talent] came and watch a bit of episode one, and I got “Wuthering Heights” from that!

Have you been able to hang out with Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie on set?

Yeah, we’d always speak in the makeup chair. Jacob’s lovely. He’s always chatting to everyone. And same as Margot. Margot is lovely as well.

So where do you go from here? This is quite a unbelievable start. I’m assuming acting is now what you want to keep doing?

OC: I hope so. Yeah, I hope so.

Do you have anything else lined up?

OC: No, not at the minute. But yeah, I can’t wait to get another one, hopefully with Phil.

Phil, you do like to work with the same people over again…

PB: I’d love to! I’d love to find something for the two of us to do together. Maybe a movie or something.