Owen Cooper, the young star of Adolescence, has opened up about a chilling message that Stephen Graham gave him to help get into character.
The series follows 13-year-old schoolboy Jamie Miller, played by breakout star Owen Cooper, as he spirals into darkness after being exposed to disturbing online propaganda.
Jamie is arrested for the murder of a female classmate, and what unfolds is a gripping examination of toxic online culture, youth violence, and heartbreak.
The show’s final scene takes viewers back to where it all began: Jamie’s bedroom.
“We knew that we wanted to end it in that room. We wanted the journey to finish where it began,” Graham told Netflix’s Tudum.
By the finale, Jamie has pleaded guilty, and Graham’s character, Eddie, is left shattered. In one of the most powerful moments, Eddie speaks to Jamie’s teddy bear, offering a broken apology.
But what viewers didn’t know is that director Philip Barantini and the art department had secretly hidden personal photos — featuring Graham, his real-life wife Hannah Walters, and their children — inside the wardrobe just off-camera. There was also a handwritten note: “We love you. We’re so proud of you.”
"If you watch the scene closely, he looks over to the right-hand side, and he spots the pictures and the notes. It broke him open," Barantini revealed. "The other takes before that were very different. They were all still incredibly emotional. But that last take, which we used, was real, raw, and unexpected from him as well."
Graham later confessed: “They got me to the core. So the taps just opened up.”
Graham played Eddie Miller, Jamie's dad, and the British icon was a source of guidance for 15-year-old Cooper.
Speaking with Variety, Cooper recalled: “Obviously, Stephen was always checking in on me.
"But there was a time in episode one, when it was just us two, with no camera, in the police cell, and he scruffed me up and said ‘you’re never going to see your mum again, you’re never going to see your dad again,’ and was going on and on.
“Before then I’d been frustrated because I hadn’t been getting emotional. But after that point I was emotional in every take. So that helped me a lot. He was amazing to work with.”
Erin Doherty, who plays Briony in the series, also praised Cooper’s performance during one of their most intense scenes — a pre-trial assessment that turns from calm to terrifying.
“It’s every actor’s dream to get to a place where you forget yourself and you are in this strange reality that you’ve created,” she told Variety. “It sounds bizarre, but you genuinely do believe it in the moment if the person opposite you is doing their job and you’re doing yours.
“I’m so proud of Owen because I got to see him push himself as an actor, to really go there,” she continued.
“Back then, he was this kid and he didn’t want to be this scary thing, especially with someone he just met. So we really had to work on creating this safe space to let him know that he’s going to be fine. To think about that kid versus the one that turned up in that 11th take, and push those buttons and pushed himself, I’m just so proud.”