Owen Cooper, the breakout child star of Adolescence, has shared a “horrible” behind-the-scenes detail that made filming episode three even tougher.
Cooper, who is 15, is being tipped for Bafta victory for his debut acting performance as Jamie Miller, a child accused of murder, in the sleeper Netflix hit, which became the most-streamed title in both the UK and the US within its first week of release.
Adolescence has received immense acclaim, with episode three in particular being highlighted as a standout. Making the episode even more impressive is the fact that this episode was the first to be shot – meaning it was newcomer Cooper’s first time acting on screen.
While the episode goes to extremely dark places, with Jamie slowly divulging his motives for killing a young girl as he’s interviewed by Erin Doherty’s child psychiatrist, there was one small moment that Cooper particularly struggled with.
In the episode, filmed in one shot, Doherty’s character brings Jamie a hot chocolate sprinkled with marshmallows, which he sips at while the pair speak.
However, Cooper, who hails from Warrington, has revealed that, while the drink initially started out as the chocolatey beverage, it got changed the more takes they had to shoot – and the alternative was “horrible”.
Cooper told Netflix upon re-watching the scene: “That was minging that. That was horrible. It wasn’t hot chocolate ‘cause it had to get changed.”
The episode sees Jamie angrily throw the drink on the floor and, according to the actor, “it mas making the floor sticky for the cameraman”.
Doherty added: “Oh yeah – and I remember in one of them it spilt all over the table. I could see people in the cameras that could see into the room like quickly trying to clean it up, so by the time the camera came back in, they had to change it.”
Wincing, Cooper said: “It was disgusting.”
Despite the show’s impressive one-shot filming technique, Stephen Graham, who appears in the show as Jamie’s father, has branded Cooper’s performance as the “biggest achievement” of Adolescence.
The actor was swiftly cast in BBC series Film Club, which stars White Lotus star Aimee Lou Wood, and Emerald Fennell’s forthcoming adaptation of Wuthering Heights, starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi.
Cooper will play Young Heathcliff in the film due for release in 2026.
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