‘Adolescence’ Stars Owen Cooper and Erin Doherty on Overnight Fame, ‘Spider-Man’ Rumors and Getting Accolades From Adele and Steven Spielberg
Owen Cooper and Erin Doherty were shooting the third episode of Netflix’s drama “Adolescence” the same day tickets for Oasis’ reunion tour went on sale in late August 2024.
Cooper, who saw Liam Gallagher perform a solo gig earlier in the year, had diligently set an alarm on his phone that read “8 a.m. Oasis Tickets” and that morning, before filming started, joined the online scrum. Like many — many — thousands of others, he missed out. “I got to the end of the queue and was kicked off,” the 15-year- old recalls.
Almost exactly a year later, the Oasis tour has become the must-attend event of the summer, packing out stadiums across the U.K. and soon the U.S. and Asia. Meanwhile, “Adolescence” is now considered a phenomenon, smashing records for Netflix (145 million views in the first half of 2025) and becoming a cultural and political talking point around the world. Also, Cooper has now been to see Oasis.
“It was one of the best nights of my life,” says the actor, who plays 13-year-old Jamie Miller, accused of murdering a classmate. As Cooper freely admits, his tickets came about all because of “Adolescence” (and, some might say, Episode 3 — considered by many to be the standout of a series some have asserted is near-perfect). “I’ve pulled so many strings,” he smiles, noting that he also landed tickets to see his favorite soccer team, Liverpool, a few times.
Now Doherty, who plays a child psychologist tasked with evaluating Miller, is getting in on the act.
“I’m going to Oasis because of you, thank you very much!” she exclaims to her co-star. “You pushed me to ask the question!”
Courtesy invites to sell-out concerts are, of course, just one small perk of becoming the face of one of the biggest TV events of the year. On a more illustrious note, Cooper and Doherty are now both first-time Emmy nominees, two of 13 that “Adolescence” earned. For Cooper, for whom the show was, incredibly, his first-ever role, he’s now the youngest-ever nominee for supporting actor (if he triumphs on the night, he’d become the youngest Emmy winner of all time).
“Obviously the Emmys is a massive thing,” he says, adding that he “can’t wait for it to happen … and to meet loads of famous people and just have a good night.”
But excitement aside, the teenager still seems remarkably at ease with his dramatic — and potentially history-making — ascension into the entertainment arena and the wall-to-wall praise it has brought him (“the next Robert De Niro” has been bandied around). And it’s the same near-comically unfazed calm he’s been radiating over the four months since his world erupted, whether it be casually telling Jimmy Fallon on “The Tonight Show” that he expected the buildings in New York to “be a bit taller, to be honest” or presenting a prize on stage with Doherty at the BAFTA TV Awards.
“I am pretty chilled,” he says when asked where his delightfully unaffected attitude comes from. “I do pay attention to it all, but I don’t at the same time. I look at it, congratulate it, celebrate it and then I just don’t think about it.”
In the immediate aftermath of “Adolescence,” Cooper was shooting his last two weeks as the young Heathcliff in Emerald Fennell’s all-star “Wuthering Heights” feature adaptation, so he did have something else to focus on while everything was “running wild” outside Brönte country.
“I was up a mountain, it was raining, windy and I was wearing clothes with holes in them and absolutely freezing,” he says. He adds that it’s been “funny” seeing his co-star Jacob Elordi now being asked questions about working with him. “I thought it’d be the other way around!”
Doherty, meanwhile, was appearing on stage in London’s West End when “Adolescence” came out. She didn’t have much of a grasp on the viewing figures, she says: “I can’t really compute numbers! I was like, OK, that’s a lot of people.”
What eventually sent her head spinning was a voice note from co-star, co-creator and producer Stephen Graham she listened to while walking home one night, tired after a performance. “I had to rewind it, but he said: ‘Tom Hanks has just told me that he loves the show … and guess what … Steven Spielberg told him to watch it,’” she recalls with a laugh. “That, for me, was the moment where I was like, OK, this is something else.”
Both Cooper and Doherty are now able to rattle off a far-from-complete list of fellow A-listers who have since praised “Adolescence.” Among them, Leonardo DiCaprio, Chris Rock and Daniel Day Lewis. “Adele got in touch to say how good the show is,” says Cooper, nonchalantly. “It’s just stupid.”
As post-“Adolescence” careers begin to take shape, Doherty, who was already a major name thanks to her breakout role as Princess Anne on “The Crown,” will soon start filming the six-part BBC series “California Avenue” with Bill Nighy, Helena Bonham-Carter and Tom Burke. “The conversations I’ve had so far [since “Adolescence”] have more been people reaching out to talk about projects or something I’d be interested in and just spit-balling ideas, which is really lovely — people just being interested in you as a creative person.”
For Cooper, “Wuthering Heights” was booked while “Adolescence” was still in production (courtesy of Graham’s agent, who then became his), as was the BBC series “Film Club.” It’s only been in the last few weeks that he’s been “busy meeting casting directors and directors.” But he’s in no rush. “I’m just chilling at the minute.”
And he’s in no rush to play a character that internet rumors have him chasing: Spider-Man.
“I’ve genuinely got no idea where that came from, perhaps I said it on my very first interview, but I can’t remember,” he says. “I’d like to do it, but not for a good long time, like 10-15 years. But that’s only when Tom Holland backs off.”
Holland, Cooper then remembers, has also reached out to offer his congratulations about “Adolescence.”
There’s perhaps one key element keeping the youngster grounded in the face of such relentless star-studded ego boosts — Cooper went straight from the shoot back to school, where any special treatment he may have hoped for was extremely short-lived.
“My teachers were nice for about two days, and then went back to being normal,” he says. “I think they were telling me off because if I became all nice and charming and stopped messing about, they’d think, ‘He’s changed.’ So, I’ve gone back to messing about with my mates.”
Next year, Cooper has crucial exams (the GCSEs, taken by all U.K. students, usually around the age of 16). “I doubt I’ll pass drama,” he says. “It’s all plays and theory — why can’t we just do a performance?” Sadly, episodes of “Adolescence” can’t be submitted. Doherty notes that her drama exam was so bad it came back ungraded: “I can’t write about drama!”
Until then, Cooper has his summer holiday — six weeks, he says, will mostly be spent “going to mates’ houses” in his town in the north of England (the celebrity superyacht invites are clearly yet to arrive).
As it happens, the Emmys take place after he goes back to school (and, unlike the Oasis gig, a good long-haul flight away). Doherty is taking her girlfriend, while Cooper is already planning to bring his entire family — mum, dad, both brothers and sister-in-law (but only his parents can actually get tickets to be inside the room). There’s an array of stars they’re both hoping to meet: For Cooper, it’s Pedro Pascal and Jeremy Allen White; for Doherty, it’s Michelle Williams and the cast of “The White Lotus.”
Cooper has already ruled out making it back to school the next day. But phoning in sick isn’t going to be an option. As Doherty points out: “Yeah, they’ll have just seen photos of you with an Emmy, so …”
Cooper, who saw Liam Gallagher perform a solo gig earlier in the year, had diligently set an alarm on his phone that read “8 a.m. Oasis Tickets” and that morning, before filming started, joined the online scrum. Like many — many — thousands of others, he missed out. “I got to the end of the queue and was kicked off,” the 15-year- old recalls.
Almost exactly a year later, the Oasis tour has become the must-attend event of the summer, packing out stadiums across the U.K. and soon the U.S. and Asia. Meanwhile, “Adolescence” is now considered a phenomenon, smashing records for Netflix (145 million views in the first half of 2025) and becoming a cultural and political talking point around the world. Also, Cooper has now been to see Oasis.
“It was one of the best nights of my life,” says the actor, who plays 13-year-old Jamie Miller, accused of murdering a classmate. As Cooper freely admits, his tickets came about all because of “Adolescence” (and, some might say, Episode 3 — considered by many to be the standout of a series some have asserted is near-perfect). “I’ve pulled so many strings,” he smiles, noting that he also landed tickets to see his favorite soccer team, Liverpool, a few times.
Now Doherty, who plays a child psychologist tasked with evaluating Miller, is getting in on the act.
“I’m going to Oasis because of you, thank you very much!” she exclaims to her co-star. “You pushed me to ask the question!”
Courtesy invites to sell-out concerts are, of course, just one small perk of becoming the face of one of the biggest TV events of the year. On a more illustrious note, Cooper and Doherty are now both first-time Emmy nominees, two of 13 that “Adolescence” earned. For Cooper, for whom the show was, incredibly, his first-ever role, he’s now the youngest-ever nominee for supporting actor (if he triumphs on the night, he’d become the youngest Emmy winner of all time).
“Obviously the Emmys is a massive thing,” he says, adding that he “can’t wait for it to happen … and to meet loads of famous people and just have a good night.”
But excitement aside, the teenager still seems remarkably at ease with his dramatic — and potentially history-making — ascension into the entertainment arena and the wall-to-wall praise it has brought him (“the next Robert De Niro” has been bandied around). And it’s the same near-comically unfazed calm he’s been radiating over the four months since his world erupted, whether it be casually telling Jimmy Fallon on “The Tonight Show” that he expected the buildings in New York to “be a bit taller, to be honest” or presenting a prize on stage with Doherty at the BAFTA TV Awards.
“I am pretty chilled,” he says when asked where his delightfully unaffected attitude comes from. “I do pay attention to it all, but I don’t at the same time. I look at it, congratulate it, celebrate it and then I just don’t think about it.”
In the immediate aftermath of “Adolescence,” Cooper was shooting his last two weeks as the young Heathcliff in Emerald Fennell’s all-star “Wuthering Heights” feature adaptation, so he did have something else to focus on while everything was “running wild” outside Brönte country.
“I was up a mountain, it was raining, windy and I was wearing clothes with holes in them and absolutely freezing,” he says. He adds that it’s been “funny” seeing his co-star Jacob Elordi now being asked questions about working with him. “I thought it’d be the other way around!”
Doherty, meanwhile, was appearing on stage in London’s West End when “Adolescence” came out. She didn’t have much of a grasp on the viewing figures, she says: “I can’t really compute numbers! I was like, OK, that’s a lot of people.”
What eventually sent her head spinning was a voice note from co-star, co-creator and producer Stephen Graham she listened to while walking home one night, tired after a performance. “I had to rewind it, but he said: ‘Tom Hanks has just told me that he loves the show … and guess what … Steven Spielberg told him to watch it,’” she recalls with a laugh. “That, for me, was the moment where I was like, OK, this is something else.”
Both Cooper and Doherty are now able to rattle off a far-from-complete list of fellow A-listers who have since praised “Adolescence.” Among them, Leonardo DiCaprio, Chris Rock and Daniel Day Lewis. “Adele got in touch to say how good the show is,” says Cooper, nonchalantly. “It’s just stupid.”
As post-“Adolescence” careers begin to take shape, Doherty, who was already a major name thanks to her breakout role as Princess Anne on “The Crown,” will soon start filming the six-part BBC series “California Avenue” with Bill Nighy, Helena Bonham-Carter and Tom Burke. “The conversations I’ve had so far [since “Adolescence”] have more been people reaching out to talk about projects or something I’d be interested in and just spit-balling ideas, which is really lovely — people just being interested in you as a creative person.”
For Cooper, “Wuthering Heights” was booked while “Adolescence” was still in production (courtesy of Graham’s agent, who then became his), as was the BBC series “Film Club.” It’s only been in the last few weeks that he’s been “busy meeting casting directors and directors.” But he’s in no rush. “I’m just chilling at the minute.”
And he’s in no rush to play a character that internet rumors have him chasing: Spider-Man.
“I’ve genuinely got no idea where that came from, perhaps I said it on my very first interview, but I can’t remember,” he says. “I’d like to do it, but not for a good long time, like 10-15 years. But that’s only when Tom Holland backs off.”
Holland, Cooper then remembers, has also reached out to offer his congratulations about “Adolescence.”
There’s perhaps one key element keeping the youngster grounded in the face of such relentless star-studded ego boosts — Cooper went straight from the shoot back to school, where any special treatment he may have hoped for was extremely short-lived.
“My teachers were nice for about two days, and then went back to being normal,” he says. “I think they were telling me off because if I became all nice and charming and stopped messing about, they’d think, ‘He’s changed.’ So, I’ve gone back to messing about with my mates.”
Next year, Cooper has crucial exams (the GCSEs, taken by all U.K. students, usually around the age of 16). “I doubt I’ll pass drama,” he says. “It’s all plays and theory — why can’t we just do a performance?” Sadly, episodes of “Adolescence” can’t be submitted. Doherty notes that her drama exam was so bad it came back ungraded: “I can’t write about drama!”
Until then, Cooper has his summer holiday — six weeks, he says, will mostly be spent “going to mates’ houses” in his town in the north of England (the celebrity superyacht invites are clearly yet to arrive).
As it happens, the Emmys take place after he goes back to school (and, unlike the Oasis gig, a good long-haul flight away). Doherty is taking her girlfriend, while Cooper is already planning to bring his entire family — mum, dad, both brothers and sister-in-law (but only his parents can actually get tickets to be inside the room). There’s an array of stars they’re both hoping to meet: For Cooper, it’s Pedro Pascal and Jeremy Allen White; for Doherty, it’s Michelle Williams and the cast of “The White Lotus.”
Cooper has already ruled out making it back to school the next day. But phoning in sick isn’t going to be an option. As Doherty points out: “Yeah, they’ll have just seen photos of you with an Emmy, so …”