Everyone is telling Owen Cooper that he’s brilliant, and that’s all right because he is. A few days ago, barely anybody besides his schoolmates and parents knew who he was. Now, the 15-year-old has been touted by critics (and pretty much everyone with a Netflix subscription) as one of the best young actors of his generation.
He’s earned the praise. In Adolescence, the new Netflix miniseries from director Phillip Barantini and creator (and Cooper’s co-star) Stephen Graham, he delivers a staggering performance as a 13-year-old boy accused of murdering his classmate. Each hour-long episode is shot in one exposing and impressive take––the kind of exercise that would likely break even the most experienced actors. Cooper hadn’t even acted professionally before this role.
In early 2024, casting director Shaheen Baig reached out to drama clubs around the United Kingdom in search of the boy who’d play Jamie, the conflicted accused killer, asking them for a pair of very specific self tapes. “In the first one, you had to pretend to go into a headmaster’s office and act like you’ve not done anything at all––but you actually haven’t, you’re innocent,” Cooper says, speaking in his central London hotel room the day after the show premiered. “And then in the second one you had to act like you haven’t done anything wrong––but you really had.” Impressed by his tape, Barantini asked to meet Cooper in Manchester, and in the final stages, he met Graham, who plays his father in the series, for a chemistry read. “The first two or three auditions were scary,” he says. ”After that, it was fine.”
One moment withering and vulnerable, the next tetchy and terrifying, whoever would play Jamie needed to be comfortable living in the skin of a boy carrying a dozen contradictions. He never expresses his motives—they’re only a concern of the adults around him. The series picks at the scab of incel culture, and how Andrew Tate-esque figures radicalize the young men around us, driving them to make irreversible decisions. To make sense of the character, Cooper––only 14 when the show was shot––turned to his co-stars for advice. “Don’t think of Owen,” he says they told him. “Think of Jamie.”
Perhaps Cooper’s coolness comes from the fact that acting wasn’t something he ever had in mind. He wasn’t raised by a family of actors, nor was he thrust into stage school from the moment he could speak. Instead, he was born and raised in Warrington, an industrial town between Liverpool and Manchester, and had dreams, like many kids his age, of becoming a footballer. (His favorite team is Liverpool, and his favorite player is “Trent [Alexander-Arnold], even if he’s injured at the minute.”) Growing up, “I just never really wanted to be an actor,” he says. “It wasn’t really in my DNA.”
Four years ago, that changed: Cooper saw Tom Holland in the 2012 film The Impossible, he decided he wanted to be just like him. He joined a drama club in Manchester. It was a modest part of his life, just one class a week, until Adolescence came along.
His other cinematic training has come at home, watching movies like Terminator, Titanic, and Inception. He has a penchant for the Marvel franchises too: “I want to play Spider-Man,” he says. “A lot of films I watch are not films I should be watching,” he continues, with a half-smirk. “They’re all, like, 18s.” His favorite is Django Unchained, Tarantino’s operatic bloodbath, but he’s been on film sets, to be fair, and he knows none of it’s real. Django’s actually nothing to the teenager: “I’ve been around Steven Graham swearing all the time!”
Shortly after this interview finishes, he’ll be driven to Elstree Studios, where he’s shooting Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights. He’s playing the younger version of Jacob Elordi’s Heathcliff. Of course, he’s met Elordi now. “I was shocked, before acting and stuff, I just thought nobody [on set] would want to speak to me,” he says, “but as soon as I got onto the set of Adolescence, I realised I was surrounded by the right people.” Jacob Elordi is “such a nice guy,” he says. “My family can say the same as well.” What can he say about the film? Not much. “It’s fun,” he teases. “I like it.”
While shooting Wuthering Heights, he and his young co-stars are being tutored on-set. He’s not yet been back to his school at home, but once the job is done, he will go back to being a student. All day, his classmates have been sending him messages of support. “They’re all posting it on their stories and stuff,” he says. His phone buzzes—another notification. Cooper gives a proud, cherubic grin. “I didn’t think they would, to be honest, I thought they’d take the mick. But yeah… they’ve been really, really good about it.”
FOUR FURTHER QUESTIONS FOR THE ACTOR OWEN COOPER
What was your first phone, and what age were you when you got it?
My dad didn’t want me to have a phone, but when I was about 11 or 12, my mate’s mum secretly gave me one, and I persuaded my dad [to let me keep it]. I think it was an iPhone 7 or 8.
What do you miss at the moment?
Being on my PlayStation at home with my mates. I shouldn’t miss that because I’m doing this, which I’m thankful for. I play Grand Theft Auto—I’ve got older brothers—and a game called Arc. I’m obsessed with FIFA and Red Dead Redemption too.
What do you get out of a vending machine?
Maltesers, a can of Irn Bru (not a bottle), Fanta Lemon, and Skittles.
Is there a smell that you associate with your hometown?
My house is literally right in front of a park, so it’s probably that smell after the council come and cut the grass. That or petrol. I love the smell of petrol, even though I know it’s not good for me!