Adolescence star Owen Cooper has opened up about how he wound up being cast in Netflix’s most talked-about show right now.
The teenage actor was just 14 when he landed the role of Jamie Miller, a high school student accused of killing a girl in his class, which required months of planning due to the show’s distinct one-shot filming style.
Owen made his screen debut in the hit drama, and has admitted that he was only pursuing acting as a “hobby” before being cast in it.
In fact, it turns out he didn’t even realise which role he was trying out for when he first landed an audition for the show.
The 15-year-old was offered the chance to audition in person in Manchester, after sending a self-tape to the Adolescence team, but had been under the impression he was in the running for a supporting part.
“I was there with my mum and at that point there was a chance that I could play the role of Ryan,” The Mirror quoted him as saying. “So when we sat down that was what we were expecting to hear.
“So, when it was the role of Jamie I was like, ‘What?’.”
He recalled: “I’d been asleep in the car before we arrived and I’d only just woken up. I was on a different planet and just thought, ‘This is mad!’.”
Stephen Graham also opened up to Tudum about Owen’s audition, admitting: “When he left the room, I turned around to Phil [Barantini, director] and Jack [Thorne, screenwriter] and said, ’I think that’s him’.”
With Adolescence currently dominating the conversation, Owen has already landed his next role, playing the younger version of a Hollywood star in one of next year’s most-anticipated new films.
All four episodes of Adolescence are available to stream on Netflix now.