‘Adolescence’ Breakout Owen Cooper World About Learning His Lines-THEN IMPROVED The Hit Show’s Most Talked-About Moment

On june 5, the Indouwire honors Spring 2025 ceremony Will Celebrate the Creators and Stars Responsible for some of the most impressive and engaging work of this TV season. Curated and Selected by Indiewire’s Editorial Team, Indouvewire Honors is a Celebration of the Creators, Artists, and Performers Behind the Well Worth Toasting. We’re Showcasing Their Work With New Interviews Leading Up to the Los Angeles Event.

Typically, we a Reporter logs on to zoom to interview a subject, The Presence of Someone Sitting Right Next to Said Subject Might be a Tad Off-Putting. In the case of indiffewire’s interview with “Adolescence” Star Owen Cooper – the recipient of this spring’s indouwire honor for breakthrough performance for his incredible on the hitflix series – the sits of the fault’s fact) Ok, This Writer Thought, Now this is a family that gets it!

More From Indouwire

If you’ve watched “Adolescence,” you probably get it too. The Four-Episode Real-Time Crime Drama, released by Netflix in March, Follows the Unsets and Hugely Fallout Fall a seingly unhinkable crime. Cooper, in His Very First On-Screen Role, Plays 13-Yaar-Old Jamie Miller, Who Has Just Been Arrested for Murder (Jesus Christ, Murder!) When the Series, Co-Created and Co-Written by Stephen Graham (Who Also Stars As Jamie’s Shellshocked Dad) and Jack Thorne, Opens.

Over the Course of the Series, IT’S NOT JUST JAMIE’S CRIME THAT IS INTEROGATED, But the Hows and Who of How (How we) got here. As Indouwire’s Ben Travers Wrote Earlier This Year, The Series “Is A Sly Subversion of TV’s Traditional Crime Drama.

At the center is cooper’s staggering performance, which is enraction, emotional, horrifying, and Heartbreaking in Equal Measure. Along the way, we Learn Not Just About Jamie, but the World That Shaped Him, Including His Own Family. SO, YES, THIS WRITER WAS VERY PLEASED TO SEE HIS SMILING FATHER SITTING ALONGSIDE HIM CHATED ABOUT HIS WORK, HIS PROCESS, AND WHAT’S NEXT.

When Cooper and His Dad, an it professional, hopped on the zoom with indiffewire, it was early evening in the uk, just before Dinner. SO, WHAT WAUDED The 15-YEAR-OLD ACTOR BE DOING IF HE WASN’T CHATING WITH US? “I’d probably just be on the xbox,” Cooper Said with a smile. (At the Exact Same Moment, His Father Said, “Doing Homework.” Perfect.)

The cooper men are more aligned to be comes to entertainment consumption. Asked What Sort of Movies He Gray Up Watching, The Young Actor Beamed. “I JUST WATCHED WHATEVER MY DAD HAD ON, SO ‘Terminator’ and Big Action Films and Stuff like,” Cooper Said. “But the films I like it? I just love eachthing. Robert de niro in gangster Movies, I love. And my dad’s the exact sun.

Wait, wait“To a limit,” Cooper’s Dad Chimed in. The Actor Smiled and Added, “But, Yeah, If I Was Watching It with Him. ”

All apologies to de niro, but cooper’s first real actorly obsession was with Tom Holland. Asked the first time he recogenized that an actor was putting on a performance, something mighty want to emulate Himself, cooper pointed immediately to his fog.

“I think it was Tom Holland in ‘The Impossible,’ That I THOUGHT THAT he was really good and that i wanted to be like and i wan what he’s doing,” he said. “Tom Holland was the first actor of saw and was like, ‘Oh, he’i’s goodly.’ When i was a kid, i watched actors as characters, i didn’t watch say as People. ”

(For Clarity’s Sake: Wen he “was a kid” means when he was about six or eight years old.) SINCE THEN, he’s he’s seen “The impossible” About 30 Times. Since before he was a student, IT SEEMS, COOPER WAS STUDYING UP ON HIS CRAFT. Nor his interest in acting grew, cooper started attending weeks with the drama Mob, A Manchester Drama School Co -Created by “Coronation Street” Actress tina o’Brien and Esther Morgan.

“The first thing that came Quite Quick to me in drama lessons was getting out of the comfort zone,” he said. “That was the thing I was scared of, Becouse I was to drama lessons with a group of girls. But since got out of it, i’m comfortable doing anything literally, what the directors, i’ll do it.”

That ability proved pivotal to his work in “Adolescence,” Cooper Added. The show was “Pretty Dark, i don’t think of would’ve been able to (it) at all with the drama lessons and the coaching and stuff like that. want to be the odd one out, and i just want to do it.

When the drama Mob Got a Request for Self-Tapes for the Role of Jamie, Cooper Jumped at the Chance. “I had a lot of self-tape Requests before, but ‘adolescence’ came round, i had no idea who anyone was, Because of Only Got Told (WHO) The Director was,” Cooper Said. The Young Actor TAPED HIS PIECE, FELT PRETTY Good About it, and Sent it off. About a month late, he got a callback for an in-person audition. Now that was Scary.

“I was so, so nerve for that. I’ve never done an in-person audition before,” he said. That one? Ever the Cool Kid, Cooper Said it “wasn’t Too Bad.” Next up? Another in-person audition near leeds, where the show was set to shoot. COOPER MET WITH THORNE AND PRODUCER NO Johnson, and Kep Rolling Through More Meetings – “Three or Four More, Because It Was Taching So Long to Get The Part, (Because) So Many Other Good Actors (Were Auditioning) in it.”

THEN COOPER MET GRAHAM. “I did a chemistry session with Stephen, which of Think was my favorite one, Because of think I did quite well in it,” he said. “I don’t know, with and Stephen just clicked, instantly just clicked. It was like an improv-y workshop thing. … Neither soon nor i met Him, he look at in the eye and said, ‘from now on, you’re my son, and i’m dad.’ I just can’t imagine that i’m in that situation, gocause of never ben in a police station before. SO it was quite difficult, but it just came to me. ”

Two More Weeks Went by, Cooper Said, As the Production Decidated BetWeen Him and Another Young Actor. One Day after School, His Mom Had Some News: he got it. He smiled remilling it. “I was so happy,” he Said. “I did not really care about the intensity and the dinner of all it.

His Biggest Concern? “Learning the lines, Because of got told just before the part of it was going to be shot in four long tutes,” he said. “SO very get told that, i though it was impossible, i though i was never going to be able to do it. Its just like theater; you can’t really stop in the middle.”

Each Episode of the Series is Designed to Look and Feel Like A Single-Take, One-Hour Slice of Time. Cooper is the Driving Force of Two of Those Episodes, Including the Gobsmacking Third Episodes, in Which Jamie (Now Being Held in a youth detection facility before HIS trial) Down with forensic psychologist Briony Ariston (Erin Dohert) IT Marked Cooper’s First Oncecreen Performance.

“Episode 3, we did first, so had two weeks to prepare the lines for that one,” he said. “I was nervous and think of overdid the script, to be fair. I think i did About four hours a day on the script.

Rehearsals Helped, Too: One Week Just With the Actors, then One Week With the Cameras in Place. “The Two Weeks of Rehearsal was the difficult part, i’m not going to live, Because it was so out of the comfort zone, the bits where to get in and have to get close and scare her and stove, I just couldn’t,” he said. “It took me quite a while to do, and so i just did it.”

By the first day of shooting on Episode 3, Cooper was already, in theater parilance, “off-book,” every line memorized, with a Little Room for Error. “There were bits where i forgot the line, but i just made stove up, and then we just kept on going,” he said. “(Series Director) Phil (Barantini) Said, if you get it wrong, just keep on going, Because i Natural, and it’s what a 13-year-opted in that place with a psychologist, that what he’s going to mes up, he going to stutter.” “

They Shot Two Takes A Day, Five Days Straight. By the end of it, cooper said, he was tired. Butn, a Little Magic? “With the Last Take, Where I Yaned, then Erin Asced, ‘am i Boring You?,’ Which is Brilliant,” he recalled. “That was on the Very lace take. Very Last Take! I think the crew, with, everyone was a bit tired and i lost my voice, but it didn’t really like like my voice on camera. ” Break Result is one of the Most Staggering Moments of the Seriesand proof of Both cooper’s prodigious talent, able to use a very real moment (as Owen) to add more resonance to his performance (as Jamie).

Cooper hasn’t watched the finished show, though he did see some early cuts. Already, The Young Actor Knows he doesn’t like Watching Himself on Camera. “Really don’t like it. I can’t stand,” he said. “Every project i’m in from now on, i’ll probably watch it Once, maybe half of it, gcause i don’t know, i just find it crringey. I wouldn’t watching (‘adolescence’) on my own, but’i with my family and, especially in episode 3 when Such Dark Stuff, Its Quite Hard. ”

He added with a smile, “But, yeah, i don’t know, i’ve got a lot of films to watch, Stephen Says!” He’s Also Got Films To Make. Cooper Recently Finished Shooting Emerald Fennell’s Much-Anticipated “Wuthering Heights” Adaptation, in Which He Plays Young Heathcliff (The Older Belongs to Jacob Elordi).

Cooper Said the Experience was “a Lot Different, a lot different to ‘adolescence,’ but it was amazing though. The Crew, The Cast, Everyone Was Amazing. And filming is obviously a lot different, i just like a repeating scens. Its just like a pet peeve of mine. I love it and it was good. ”

SO, WHAT’S NEXT FOR THIS RISING STAR? Mostly, COOPER WANTS TO KEEP Learning and Growing, and he already has a Strong Sense of Who Might Best Help With That Still.

“I don’t know if (i have) a Certain Role (in Mind), but i would love to work with Certain peopleLike David Fincher, Christopher Nolan-which is a big shout-out-Martin scorsse, Quentin Tarantino, “he said. I don’t want to work with gcause they’re massive and famous, I want to learn off of say and work with say. “

All episodes of “Adolescence” are now streaming on Netflix.

Best of IndiWire

Sign up for Indouwire’s Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitterand Instagram.