Owen Cooper, a 16-year-old from Warrington, made history at the Golden Globes by winning best supporting male actor for his role in Netflix's drama Adolescence. The show, which explores male toxicity, was one of the ceremony's biggest winners, taking four awards. Cooper described the experience as 'not feeling real'.
Cooper's former drama teacher, Esther Morgan of the Drama Mob, said his talent was evident from the start. 'You could tell he definitely wanted it,' she said. 'He wasn't messing around when it came to listening, taking direction and learning his lines.' Morgan pushed back at the narrative that Cooper 'came from nowhere', noting he had two years of training before the casting process.
Co-writer Jack Thorne recalled Cooper's intense rehearsals for episode three, where he played Jamie in an interview with a psychologist. 'He came in word perfect and ready to work, but it was a lot of pressure,' Thorne said. 'Slowly but surely ... he sort of subsumed himself. By Friday he was Jamie.'
Morgan is a passionate advocate for northern actors, who she says are being cut out of an industry increasingly centralised in London. 'More shows need to be made and produced up here,' she said. 'We need more casting directors working here because for some of our young people they don't have the funds to travel up and down to London for castings.'
Cooper's success is already inspiring more boys to take up drama. Morgan noted a 'huge drop-off' in boys attending her classes after high school, but said Cooper's example has encouraged them. 'Since Owen going on to be so successful, we have had more boys coming to drama,' she said. 'I think he's helped with that [by] having that role model.'
Adolescence broke UK records with its launch, drawing 6.45 million viewers for its first episode. Thorne is cautiously optimistic it could usher in a new wave of working-class British dramas, but acknowledged the industry's conservatism. 'They may go back to thinking a man speaking in RP on a horse is a better bet,' he said.
