To play a central character accused of murder is an intimidating challenge for any debut actor, let alone a child. Owen Cooper, who plays Jamie Miller in Netflix's new crime drama Adolescence, is 15 years old and was only 14 when the series was filmed. Episode one begins as Jamie is charged with the murder of his classmate, Katie Leonard, and follows the events after his arrest and the final episode is set 13 months later. Each of the show's four episodes is set in real time and is filmed in one continuous take.
Although Adolescence is not based on a true story, it is inspired by the real epidemic of knife crime and the online radicalisation of teenage boys happening around the world.
Finding a young, teenage boy to keep pace and play Jamie was not an easy undertaking and Stephen Graham, who co-wrote and stars in the series, co-writer Jack Thorne and director Philip Barantini auditioned more than 400 people for the part. Graham said Cooper impressed him during their first improvisation. 'When he left the room, I turned around to Phil and Jack and said, "I think that's him,"' he says.
Thorne said he was impressed by Cooper’s 'real simplicity' as a performer. 'He wasn’t acting. Owen was working out his own way through it,' he explained. 'But it felt like that capability was in him right from the start. Owen just needed to work out how to harness that monster inside of Jamie. And then once he harnessed that monster, there was no stopping him.'
It is Cooper's first acting role and he has since been cast as a young Heathcliff in Emerald Fennell's upcoming adaptation of Wuthering Heights. 'Yeah, Stephen recommended me his agent,' the young actor told Variety. 'So Maddi [Bonura, from Independent Talent] came and watch a bit of episode one, and I got Wuthering Heights from that!'.
There's no doubt being cast in Adolescence is a once in a lifetime opportunity and one that Cooper has clearly grabbed by the horns. This is something Graham is acutely aware of and inspired his decision to cast all the boys from the final selection in other roles in the show.
In episode two, which takes place two days after Jamie's arrest, the detectives (Ashley Walters and Faye Marsay) visit Jamie and Katie's school where the entire school community is reacting to the news of her death in real time – something that required hundreds of teenage actors.
‘We were conscious not to say, “thank you very much, and see you later, ta-rah",’ Graham explained. ‘We knew that we wanted one kid, but the others in the final selection – we gave them the opportunity to play other characters within our piece.
‘You can break their little hearts in this position and that's not what you want to do. You want to make these kids go, “wow, okay, I can”. So they all have roles within the show,' he added. 'Each and every one of the kids were absolutely superb. In episode two, there's 400 in one shot.’
Less than 24 hours after its release on Netflix, the show has been met with widespread critical acclaim and much of the praise points to the stellar cast of young debut actors.
Adolescence is available to stream on Netflix.
Nikki Peach is a writer at Grazia UK, working across pop culture, TV and news. She has also written for the i, i-D and the New Statesman Media Group and covers all things TV for Grazia (treating high and lowbrow shows with equal respect).