Teen actor Owen Cooper has revisited his Adolescence audition tape following the show’s global success.
Adolescence famously marked Owen’s first professional acting role, after open auditions to find a young actor to play the role of Jamie Miller, a high school student accused of killing a girl in his class.
In the last two weeks, the four-part drama has won rave reviews, has not budged from the top of Netflix’s most-watched shows list and has even been discussed by the prime minister.
Following its release, Owen sat down for a video feature with Netflix to rewatch the audition that landed him the part in the first place.
However, it wasn’t his performance that captured his and co-star Erin Doherty’s attention.
“Oh my god, look at you!” Erin exclaimed as the video of a younger Owen began playing, while he immediately put his head in his hands.
“Look at my head,” he remarked, to which she responded: “Why is your hair doing that?”
“That’s what my head used to look like,” the 15-year-old explained, prompting Erin to assure him that he’s “way cooler now”.
Viewers were then treated to an early performance from Owen in which he read lines from episode one, in which Jamie is asked if he comprehends the gravity of the situation he’s landed himself in.
“They could have shot that,” Erin told him, though the lad himself remained unconvinced.
“I hated that!” he admitted when the clip was over, to which his award-winning colleague replied: “Well, you’re not supposed to like looking at yourself. But that was great!”
“That was the one that got me the part,” he claimed. “Apparently.”
In fact, the team behind Adolescence has made it clear that they had their eye on Owen from his very first audition tape, later inviting him and four other boys to a workshop to determine who would play Jamie.
While Owen eventually landed the role, all five teens who auditioned were eventually cast in the show that became Adolescence.
Owen has already landed his next on-screen role, and is currently filming what promises to be one of 2026’s most-anticipated movies.
Adolescence is available to stream on Netflix now.
