For a debut performance from Owen Cooper, age 14, it’s truly astonishing. What was it like working with him?
Honestly, it felt like his age never came into it. And the fact that it’s his first job never came into it. It felt like working with an actor who’d been doing it for 50 years. He’s just so professional. He turned up on day one, and he knew his lines. He just was everything that you’d hope for, with a castmate of any caliber; he’s just unreal. I’d work with him for the rest of my days if I could. I felt so supported by him as I hope he did by me. I never felt like I was carrying any weight or dragging us through anything…it was completely 50-50. And that is, with any actor, that’s an absolute gift. You can’t really take that lightly. He made it so easy.
How did you cope with filming such an intense episode, personally, especially without any cuts, without any room for breathing space?
It really is so draining. I don’t know how professionals do it. Even as an actor, I feel like you can dip in and out, and there’s a fluidity. There’s such intensity being one-on-one, especially with a young boy, witnessing him go through those emotions and really genuinely rooting for him. As Erin, the actor, being like, you can do this, we’ve got this. But also as Briony wanting Jamie to, I suppose, give her a glimmer of hope that he might be innocent in some way. That was all bubbling at the surface. So it just came out however it did.
Jamie speaks about the red pill 80-20 rule in the manosphere, or the theory by some men that only 80% of women are attracted to 20% of men. Had you heard that before?
No, I’d never…I’d crossed paths maybe subconsciously with the incel language. I think there was something in the news that I’d seen. It was quite horrific. I feel like it was a few years ago. But that was my only brush with the reality of what this is in our world. So when this script came up and I did some digging, it really did unveil a terrifying aspect of what kids are going through, let alone what adults are going through. What we can brush up against and be consciously swayed by, it’s unnerving. I feel so immensely grateful that I just bypassed that.… I think I’d be scared going to school every day that I was going to make the wrong move or send the wrong text or something would be misinterpreted… There was just none of that pressure.
It’s frightening, isn’t it, to think about bringing kids into the world as well.
Yeah. And speaking to parents, obviously you get to hear their perspectives on it. I sat in a room with Ashley [Walters] for a couple of hours, and he was like, “It’s so tempting to obviously just be the dad that’s like, no phones, we are never going to do this.” But at the same time, you have to grant them freedom. But just, I suppose, hope for the best. And also, what this show does, and what I hope it does, is just—I don’t think it provides us with any answers on how to fix it, but all we can do is open up the floodgates to asking the questions and having the conversation. And that’s essentially all we can do and hold ourselves accountable for.
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