Netflix’s Adolescence may have stunned audiences with its stylistic achievements — first and foremost, the use of incomparably ambitious one-take episodes — but what was perhaps a greater feat in the making of the series was identifying an actor, and a newcomer no less, who could manage the logistics involved while stepping into the experience of an accused child murderer.
One of the big cultural phenomenons of the year, from creators Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham, Adolescence follows 13-year-old Jamie Miller after he commits an unthinkable act, sending shockwaves through his school and community. Of course, both in casting Jamie and in populating the world around him, finding young actors who could carry a show with dramatic depth transcending their years would be a central challenge.
In conversation with director and executive producer Philip Barantini on The Process, Shaheen Baig, one of the UK’s preeminent casting directors, recalls that the team initially considered pursuing older teens who could play younger — a common industry workaround, given the extra logistics, including child labor laws and the need for on-set tutors, that come in working with minors. But the notion of going that route didn’t last long.
“We started looking at over 16 to play younger,” Baig says, with regard to the process of casting Jamie. “And then quite quickly, our conversations just kept evolving. It was like, no, no, no — we have to cast as close to the age of the character as possible.”
Ultimately, most of the teenage cast fell between the ages of 13 and 16, with a few 17-year-olds also in the mix.
Barantini, himself a former actor, notes that the demands this show posed on performers were intense even for adults. “Seasoned professionals” would look at the younger actors and marvel, “‘How did they keep going for that long?’” he recalls. “It is like doing a play, I suppose, in some respects. But even a play, you get to come off stage now and again, and you have a break.”
After a wide-scale open casting call — targeting five regions across the UK and harnessing everything from youth centers to Facebook Marketplace and social media — Baig’s team reviewed hundreds of tapes for the part of Jamie. The process in casting teens was methodical, and quite complex, given the idiosyncrasies of a child’s development, and how two people who are exactly the same age can thus look a world apart as teenagers.
“You can go into…any classroom in the country, and you can walk into a classroom of 13, 14-year-olds and they all look completely different to each other,” Baig reflects. “It’s like the levels of maturity are so varied, and girls generally feel much older than they are. That’s always the rule, and that’s often an issue with casting. Whereas with boys, it’s not the opposite, but it’s really varied.”
Something the casting team had to think about, she says, “is this is an ensemble cast, and we have got lots of young people, and we’ve got to believe they’re all kind of roughly the same age. They’re all in the same year at school, and they [have to] feel like they might know each other.”
The search for the lead ultimately led Baig to Owen Cooper, a 14-year-old with no prior screen experience, who brought intensity and total command to the role of Jamie. His emotional stamina and adaptability through repetitive takes set him apart, per Baig.
“I’m sure inside, it probably was quite overwhelming and a bit terrifying. But he just was really focused. He kept his head down, he did the work. Each time he came in, or each time he came into the room, he took on board everything you were saying to him, everything Stephen was saying to him,” says Baig. “He just kept on going, and that is a really unusual quality, I think, in any young actor, but particularly someone who has not acted for screen before. I just think that sort of fearlessness and focus that he projected — whether that was true or not, because underneath, he could have been masking all sorts of things — was amazing.”
Baig says she admires the qualities she witnessed in Cooper because “not many people” would be able to step in to the situation he faced and excel.
Baig and Barantini said on The Process that both for Cooper and all the other actors on the project, something of paramount importance to allow for peoples’ best work while wading through dark and difficult material was to foster an environment that felt safe.
“A lot of [the young cast members] were very new to that process. I think they all felt really, really well looked after and really safe, and I think that makes a world of difference,” Baig says. “From day one, there was a huge amount of care on this production…And then throughout the casting process, we all made it as joyful as it could be when we were working around a subject that wasn’t, and that was really difficult.”
Baig noted that this “level of energy and care” had to “extend to the families, who are entering an industry that they’ve never experienced and an experience they’ve never gone through before.” Ensuring their comfort in the process was “another layer of work,” but with the “brilliant team” at hand on Adolescence, she says, things ultimately worked themselves out. And the final product speaks for itself.
Says Baig, “I think you can see on screen when actors are happy, I really believe that.”
Her philosophy on taking care with talent extended to how the production treated the five young men who were finalists for the part of Jamie. Each of the also-rans for the lead remained on board for the ride, as the production staff worked to find a part that fit, going out of their way in a way that isn’t all too common. “As an actor back in the day, I’ve never experienced that before,” Barantini says. “You go to an audition, you put your heart and soul into it, and you get down to the last however many, five, and then suddenly it’s like, ‘Oh, sorry you didn’t get the job. Thanks for coming.’ That kind of thing. But it felt amazing for me to be able to do that [here].”
“It was really a joy… to be able to give them all a part,” Baig agreed. “Because actually, I feel so privileged that we met those people and they were able to have that opportunity. That’s one of my favorite things about it, really.”
Check out our full conversation between Baig and Barantini above.
