“Adolescence” stars on creating ‘dangerous’ emotional stakes, telling the suspect’s family’s story, and more

Is Adolescence the most devastating show of the year? Based on the number of social media posts about it, the answer seems to be yes.

Co-created by Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham, Netflix’s England-set four-episode limited series stars Graham, Erin Doherty, Ashley Walters, Christine Tremarco, and newcomer Owen Cooper — all Emmy-nominated for their performances. While not based on a true story, Thorne and Graham found inspiration in one; here, they tell a fictional story about the family of Jamie Miller, a teenage boy accused of stabbing to death his female classmate, from his arrest and the police investigation, to one of Jamie’s sessions with child psychologist Briony (Doherty) and a day with his family as they continue to struggle with their new reality.

Each episode is a “oner” — filmed in one long take, no cuts, no edits — adding an extra layer of visual complexity to the already emotionally complicated and charged material. The material helped catapult Adolescence to the No. 2 spot on the list of Netflix’s most popular English-language shows of all time, now with 142.6 million views (Wednesday season 1 is No. 1, with 252.1 million).

Below, check out excerpts from Graham, Cooper, and Doherty’s chat on The Awardist podcast about why they chose to tell the story from the perspective of the family of the accused, what Cooper remembers about his first day ever on a set, that intense third episode when Doherty’s Briony tries to get Owen to open up, and more.

Check out more from EW’s The Awardist, featuring exclusive interviews, analysis, and our podcast diving into all the highlights from the year’s best in TV, movies, and more.

Graham on what he and Thorne wanted to say with their series

“With all due respect [to all of the other crime dramas that have been made], the way this was filmed and the style of the filming sets it apart slightly because you are watching one hour of real time as it unfolds within the context of the whole story. Straight away, right from the very beginning, I was inspired by certain things that had happened to young girls in our country… We treated it with the utmost respect, with humility and with dignity to the subject. I think primarily that’s what we were saving. But we knew with the format, because we already had proof of concept — we’d made a nice little tiny indie film called Boiling Point, which is kind of based on that one-shot theology — so we knew how to make it work. Then it was just about finding a really poignant and powerful story that we could tell, And then it was in the hands of everybody else, mostly. The scripts were worked on meticulously, with such detail. And I feel Jack is one of the finest writers we have; he writes the human condition and constructs the human condition so beautifully, and also deconstructs the human condition so beautifully. So we knew that if we could capture the audience’s attention from that first episode, we knew that we would have them all the way through. It’s an unconventional drama. We knew it was gonna span over the course of maybe 13 months or so, and we just jump in at one specific point to catch up with the story. We treated our audience with respect, with intelligence. Everyone keeps saying, ‘So how did you do it?’ And I’ve no idea. We just threw all these bits and bobs in a pan and we made this little soup.”

Cooper on his first day ever on a set

“The first day was probably one of the scariest days of my life, ’cause I had no idea what I was stepping into. Genuinely zero idea. Obviously, I’d learnt a script and that was it. I didn’t know what the directions were. I had an idea in my head what the scenes were gonna be like, but that idea was thrown out the window in the first day ’cause it was completely different to what I expected. And then all I remember from the first day was the read-through with me, Erin, [director Philip Barantini], and obviously the other cast members. I only remember, like… it’s a bit vague. Well, I remember the first day of tech week. I dunno why. I think Stephen did a big speech one day. I remember that one. I only remember the last day of shoot week. I don’t remember the first day of shoot week. But the last day shoot week, everyone was tired, but we just got through it.”

Doherty on the mental and emotional gymnastics of episode 3, Briony’s session with Owen

“It’s an actor’s dream. Like Stephen said, Jack Thorne is one of our finest, if not our finest, writers. He just understands people, and he understands the multifaceted way that we operate. It’s unfortunately so rare that you get your hands on something that is so layered and is so exciting. Going into it, I was so nervous, but also genuinely, I could not wait to get going because Stephen and Jack had written something so raw and real that all it required was for me and Owen to get out of our own way and be in the room with each other. I don’t even have any consciousness of like, it wasn’t like orchestrated or, and now we’ll go to this bit. It was just about being there, and the text was strong enough to let those ripples and tsunamis take over. All you had to do was trust the text. And it took us where we needed to go. Like Owen said, I don’t really have any memory of being in that room. I just remember always leaving the room and being like, what just happened? It was like a weird kind of amnesia thing because it was such an intense environment that we made together. We created a dangerous situation. It felt real, and all I had to do was experience it.”

Graham on telling the story from the POV of the family of the accused

“In a conventional drama, we would’ve seen everything from the perspective of — and rightly so — you see how it’s impacted the family who’ve lost a girl. But I wanted to twist it. It kind of came from watching something on the news, where a young girl in Liverpool, where I’m from, had been murdered, and I just remember thinking how awful that is. And then I remember thinking to myself, it’s gotta be the parents of these kids…and then stopping myself trying to grow as a human being in my own way. I was extremely judgmental. You don’t know what goes on — you have no idea. I was interested in looking at that. As a society, I think nine times out of 10, we would generally blame the parents because you consider it a child who is made at this place. And so if a child has killed somebody, then something has to have gone wrong with the family. In a conventional drama, it would’ve been something like that. Straight away, I said to Jack, ‘This family mum is not an alcoholic. Dad has never raised his hand to his children or his wife. Our character has not been molested by somebody in the family or a friend of the family. I wanna strip all of that kind of stuff and let’s look at it from a different perspective.’ So that was where the gem of the idea came from. I wanted to look at it from that perspective and the kind of impact that it would have on a family who were just a normal, decent, hardworking family.”

Cooper on whether he knew someone like Jamie

“I don’t think I knew Jamie. As soon as they called action, I was just him. And it was weird. And as soon as they called cut, I was myself again. So it was weird. There wouldn’t be a time in between action and cut where I’d go back to my normal self; I’d just stay with him the whole time. But as soon as cut was called, I was perfectly fine. I thought the character would’ve stayed with me, but no — I think that’s because of the lack of experience that I’ve had. Stephen says that he takes about two minutes, five minutes to get out of the character.”

Doherty on how much she knew about Jamie’s truth

“What was really so genius of Stephen and Jack was that they chose for us to see Briony and Jamie’s last meeting rather than their first. So, by the time we get to episode 3, I have all the information I need. I chose to believe that Briony was willing some miracle to unfold within that session where she was able to say…because she’s formed a bond with this kid, and as everyone who’s seen this show can attest to, everyone is willing him to have not done it. And he has this gorgeous face that tells you he hasn’t done it. You can’t get your head around the fact that someone like this would have. But yes, I was going into the room as Briony willing for something to change my mind, but by the time the episode comes to a close, I had to accept that that’s it, that is what I will be taking to court. And there’s no two ways about it.”

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