As you’re reading this, Owen Cooper is likely back at his home in Northern England, playing video games, dreading one last year of secondary school in the U.K. (or High School for those of us across the pond). But if Cooper popped up in a public venue, he might become the most recognizable person for miles. That’s because of his breakout performance in “Adolescence,” a four-episode limited series that became Netflix’s second most-watched English-language program ever after it debuted on the service five months ago. A role that also has him as the frontrunner to win this year’s Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie. It’s all sort of wild and very unexpected, and he knows it.
READ MORE: Erin Doherty On “Adolescence”: “It Was Everything I Hoped It Would Be” [Interview]
Written by Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham, “Adolescence” follows a working-class British family, police investigators, and a child psychologist as they try to understand if 13-year-old Jamie (Cooper) killed his classmate and, if so, why. Directed by Philip Barantini, the series captivated audiences by establishing the narrative in one continuous shot per ep; episode. There are no digital seams stitched together. These are incredibly constructed 50+ minute chapters that showcase incredible turns not only from Cooper but his fellow nominated co-stars, Graham, Erin Doherty, Ashley Waters, and Christine Tremarco.
During a conversation early this week, Cooper called in from his family vacation in Portugal to chat about how the Netflix phenomenon was his first acting gig after two years of auditioning for anything; just how much work he put into the book of dialogue he had to memorize for episode three; his experience starring in Emerald Fennell’s upcoming adaptation of “Wuthering Heights”; and much more. Oh, and he might have just discovered that Aimee Lou Wood, his co-star in the new BBC series “Film Club,” is also an Emmy nominee for “The White Lotus.”
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The Playlist: Owen, wait, you’re on vacation with your family right now, right?
Owen Cooper: Yeah, I’m in Portugal. Yeah.
Portugal, sweetness. Hopefully, there’s a beach nearby.
Oh yeah. I went to the beach today,
Let’s talk about “Adolescence”! I’m sure you wouldn’t know what an Oscar is, and I’m sure you know what a BAFTA award is. Did you know what an Emmy award was, and what did the nomination mean to you?
Well, yeah, I knew what an Emmy Award was, and I just knew it was based in America, but I didn’t really know how big it was. And obviously Oscars like the main big one, isn’t it? But yeah, the Emmys is massive. It’s huge, and it’s an honor. It’s privileged to be able to even be spoken about to get nominated for it. And when I got nominated for it, I didn’t even know what to think first, to be fair. I just took it in stride, and I just can’t wait for the night. It’s just going to be so good. if I don’t meet Jake Gyllenhaal by the end of that night, I don’t know, I’m just flying home. I think that him, Pedro Pascal, who else? Just like everyone there, all the big names that I just want to see, and I want to speak to. I don’t really care about the win or anything. I just want to see them. I want to eat nice food. I’ll just be such a good night. I can’t wait.
Well, I’ve got bad news. I’m not sure the food is that good. You might have good food on your other nights visiting LA for the Emmys, but I don’t know about the show itself. I’m kidding, maybe. Listen, it’s super fun. You’ll have a blast. I’ve read about how you started sort of in an acting group in Manchester, but how did you go from being part of that to even auditioning for something like “Adolescence”? Was this the first thing you’d ever auditioned for? How serious were you about actually trying to get real paid gigs?
Well, I started doing the drama group as just like a hobby, really. Then I got introduced to the agency and learned what it all meant. And if you join the agency, you can do self-tapes, and you can do auditions to get actual roles. And I was like, “Oh, yeah, I really want to do that.” And you had to audition to get into the agency. And then I got really lucky in the audition because I think, I dunno what happened, but I just started crying and I got in. And then I was in the agency for about a year and a half, maybe two years. And I did self-tapes for British soap and extras, and stuff like that. But I dunno, my mom would sign me up for stuff. But yeah, I never got a role. And then “Adolescence” came by. I didn’t even know the name of the show. I only knew it was Phil [Barantini was] directing it. But yeah, that’s about it. I didn’t know what the show was about or anything like that. So I sent a self-tape in, and then a month later, after I sent a self-tape off, I got an audition with the director in Manchester, and then I had five or six more auditions after that. And then it all went pretty fast, to be fair. I think it was a month and a half time where I actually auditioned on a self-tape, and then I actually got the role. I got the role after I did the chemistry test for Steven.
In the almost two years that you were submitting self-tapes and not getting roles, did you ever get close to something that made you want to keep going? What made you want to keep pursuing? A lot of adults would give up if they’d been trying to get something for two years and they didn’t get a shot.
I dunno, I just sent loads of self-tapes off and then heard nothing back. But I never, ever, ever got into the second round of any show. “Adolescence” was my first thing that I got into the second round off, where I’d actually went for an in-real-life audition. “Adolescence” was my first audition with a director, which I was absolutely terrified for.
When you auditioned for “Adolescence,” though, you did not know that this was a one-take show, right?
No, no, I did not know. I only knew it was like a one-take after it got the part.
Did it scare you at all?
Yeah, I was absolutely terrified about it, but I didn’t really know what to expect when I assumed it was one take. I just thought, “I dunno how I’m going to learn all the lines.” Because by this point, I got given the script and then I went in for a costume fitting and then Phil, the director, told me, “Oh, it’s going to be shot or shot in one take.” And then I was like, “Oh, one scene, one scene of the episode.” And he was like, “No, all four episodes are shot in one take.” And I was just like, “What is going on? I didn’t sign up for this.” I was terrified. And then that pushed me to learn my lines more. You know what? I’m actually glad he told me after I got the part, because then I would’ve been a bit worried and anxious about going into it. And then I just smashed the script. I did about three hours a day on the script. I’d highlight bits that I struggle with. I just worked so hard on the script. And then, but day one, episode three, I was off script, and I could do it all, but it was just the acting I needed to worry about.
I’ve talked to both Jack and Phil, and they were flabbergasted when you came in for the third episode and you knew the lines better than Erin or anyone else did. How many days or weeks did you have to pepare?
It was definitely weeks. I think it was like two weeks, 12, 13 days between the time that I got given the role and the time we started episode three. But I had acting coaching in between then. I had people who would help me with the script. Phil and the production team just gave me everything I needed, really, which is good. And then, yeah, I just worked really hard on the script every single day. And yeah, it was difficult, but I was so worried on the first day. And then, I dunno [how] I did it. I didn’t really think about it. I just did it
You rehearsed for two weeks before that episode, am I right?
Yeah, we rehearsed for two weeks. So the first week would be just rehearsing with the actors with the lines, and then the second week would be rehearsing with the actors again, obviously, but more where the camera would go and stuff like that. But to be fair, I didn’t, because we did episode one straight after episode three. So, Monday to Friday, two takes a day, and then we’d start episode one on the following Monday. I think episode three, I worked too hard on the script, to be fair. I did about three or four hours a day.
You thought you overdid it?
Yeah, I think I did a little bit. Yeah.
But your performance is fantastic. Do you feel like you see your performance, and you’re overdoing it? Or do you mean just like you didn’t need to spend as much time as you did?
Yeah, I’m not really bothered about the performance. It was just the amount of time I put into the script. Don’t think I should have just put half of the time I did it, but it’s because I was so worried about messing up and being the person that would take [everyone filming] all the way back to the beginning. That pushed me to learn the script as much as I could.
One of the things I love about that episode, though, is I don’t want to say you went off script, but you sort of improvised several times. Was that something you’d discussed with Phil beforehand?
Well, Phil will probably take the credit for it, but he didn’t tell…I dunno. I was just knackered and it was the Friday. We’d done about 300 takes of this and knackered, I’m screaming my head off two times a day, and I was just so tired, so yawned. And then Erin came back with what I didn’t expect. But yeah, the window smashing. And with the scene when Claudius [Peters] comes in and drags me out and tells me to get out of the room, I just full on went for it then. Because in that moment, I went out of Jamie a little bit and just thought, “I’m never ever going to be able to do this ever again.” So I just properly went for it. I was battering Claudius, I was elbowing, I was kneeing. I was doing everything I could to get him off me. And then when it was smashing on the window, I smashed all of them. And Jo Johnson, our producer, said, “Only hit the second glass because the other glasses aren’t fully put in yet, so you could possibly put your hand through it.” But that just didn’t come to mind. I smashed every single glass. I just banged on every single glass. I’m never going to be able to do that again. So I just went for it.
You do this project, you go back to school. You know it’s going to be on Netflix, but you don’t know if people are going to watch it. When it dropped and there was critical acclaim, and then the viewership just grew and grew and grew. Is it miles bigger than anything you ever expected?
Well, we knew as a team of actors, of crew, of the directors, we all knew that it was a special show, and it was special because we filmed it in just a little tiny town in the north of England. And we did it in a little warehouse just in the middle of nowhere. And then we just brought it to life, and we put everything we could into it. And then, the day before the show came out, I was nervous. I didn’t know what was going on. I didn’t really care what was going to happen. Just wanted people to look at the show and make a change about how they just view young males. But yeah, I was scared about how the show was going to come up, but it was just nothing what we expected. Everyone can back me up on that. No one expected it to be what it was. It was just a small show that we created in the north of England that was nothing special. It wasn’t in this massive blockbuster movie thing. And I didn’t really pay much attention to it because I was filming “Wuthering Heights” at the time, so I didn’t want to pay too much attention to it. The day I went back to school two weeks after it came out is when it fully blew up. And I was just getting absolutely peppered in school. I was just getting vid, still getting vid to this day, to be fair. But obviously it’s not as bad. But the success of the show was just crazy.
