SARAH MCCAMMON, HOST:
In the first episode of the British TV series "Adolescence," 13-year-old Jamie Miller is woken up by police the morning after his female classmate is found stabbed to death in a parking lot.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "ADOLESCENCE")
STEPHEN GRAHAM: (As Eddie Miller) Jamie, please (ph).
ASHLEY WALTERS: (As Luke Bascombe) You do not have to say anything...
(CROSSTALK)
GRAHAM: (As Eddie Miller) Hey, that's our boy. Hey.
CHRISTINE TREMARCO: (As Manda Miller) Don't tell me you...
(CROSSTALK)
WALTERS: ... (As Luke Bascombe) But it may...
GRAHAM: (As Eddie Miller) Hey.
WALTERS: (As Luke Bascombe) Mr. Miller.
(CROSSTALK)
WALTERS: (As Luke Bascombe) Mr. Miller, I will arrest you for obstruction. Please, stop. Please.
GRAHAM: (As Eddie Miller) What do you need me boy for?
WALTERS: (As Luke Bascombe) I'm arresting you on suspicion of murder. You do not have to say anything...
(CROSSTALK)
WALTERS: ...(As Luke Bascombe) But it may harm your defense if you do not mention, when questioned...
OWEN COOPER: (As Jamie Miller) But, Dad, I haven't done anything.
WALTERS: ...(As Luke Bascombe) Something which you later rely on in court.
(CROSSTALK)
WALTERS: (As Luke Bascombe) Anything you do say may be given in evidence. Do you understand?
COOPER: (As Jamie Miller) Dad.
TREMARCO: (As Manda Miller) He hasn't done anything.
GRAHAM: (As Eddie Miller) It's all right, son.
COOPER: (As Jamie Miller) Dad.
WALTERS: (As Luke Bascombe) Do you understand?
GRAHAM: (As Eddie Miller) Son, just...
WALTERS: (As Luke Bascombe) Do you understand?
GRAHAM: (As Eddie Miller) Just tell them you understand, Jay.
COOPER: (As Jamie Miller) All right, I understand.
WALTERS: (As Luke Bascombe) OK, good.
MCCAMMON: It's a jarring scene, made more so by the terror of the teenage boy, played by Owen Cooper, the desperation of his father, played by Stephen Graham, and by the determination of the police detective who shows up at their door. Ashley Walters plays that detective and joins me now to talk about "Adolescence" now streaming on Netflix. Welcome to the program.
WALTERS: Hey, Sarah. Good to be here.
MCCAMMON: So this is a four-part miniseries, and incredibly, each episode is shot in a single take, which means there are no edits, no stopping for retakes. What's the advantage of this method for this particular story?
WALTERS: You stay in the moment. You know, for the actors, it forces you to be present in every moment of the episode and, I think, forces you to use your instincts more. The conventional way of filming, where you would stop, you'd shoot scenes out of sequence, you don't have that. You go on the journey just the way the character would in real life, I guess. And obviously, for the audience watching it, it's hard to take your eyes off the screen, as harrowing as it is, and you just get the full energy and the full understanding of how these characters are feeling, and you're learning everything in real time, just the way we are.
MCCAMMON: How do you, as an actor, prepare for something like this?
WALTERS: I've done stage performances before where you have a rehearsal period before. You know, you learn your stuff before, and then you perform, but I guess this was slightly different because you're marrying two different techniques. There's, like, the nuance of TV and film with the idea of stage performing, and once the train's sort of left the station, you're on it and you can't stop it.
It was really cool. It was a really cool process. We had, like, two weeks worth of rehearsals. The first week was literally going around scene by scene, going back to the beginning, scene by scene. And then week two, they brought in the sound crew, the camera crew, all the other elements, and you rehearse that for a week. And then your last week is two takes a day. You know, we shoot one take in the morning, have lunch, have notes with the director, talk to the other actors about things you can improve on and then shoot again in the afternoon. So you get 10 chances, essentially, to get the show right. Episode 2 was probably the one that we did the most takes on. I think we did about 13 or 14 takes because there were a few false starts, and I must admit, I did get a line wrong in one of them, so we had to do it again.
MCCAMMON: Without dwelling too much on it, do you remember what line you got wrong?
WALTERS: I do, actually. I'll never forget it, to be honest, 'cause I was devastated when I did it. I didn't want to be the guy to drop the ball. But it was end of Episode 2, where we're at the school, and it's the moment where I see my son coming out of school, and I call him and start to talk to him about going for chips or whatever. But I called him the wrong name, and, you know, it just didn't work.
MCCAMMON: To be fair, I call my kids the wrong name sometimes...
WALTERS: (Laughter).
MCCAMMON: ...So maybe you could've improvised, but maybe not.
WALTERS: Yeah, that's true. That's true.
MCCAMMON: You know, you mentioned that second episode. It was set at the school where both your character's son and the victim and the young man accused of the crime all attend. There are a lot of younger actors in this show. What was it like working with young actors who maybe weren't experienced, especially with this kind of filming method?
WALTERS: It was the best thing ever. I'm always trying to get myself back to a space where I can feel like I've just started, because you care less. Your performances are more raw. They're more edgy. You know, you're more instinctive and you're just doing things on the fly. I think once you've been in the game for so long, you understand how it works. You start to become a bit more precise, and, you know, all of those rough edges are kind of smoothed out. So working with these young actors really helped me to step up my game. And if I'm honest, before getting into this job, I was thinking about not acting as much anymore. You know, I've started directing recently in the last three years, and I really enjoy doing that. And, like, in the back of my head, it was like, maybe I should just do that. So this really rejuvenated things for me, and I took a lot from those kind of raw performances from the kids.
MCCAMMON: It's not really giving anything away to say that the police quickly, in the first episode, produce evidence that the young man, Jamie, did, in fact, kill his classmate. In your character, Detective Bascombe is investigating the case. What do you see as his biggest challenge?
WALTERS: I feel like his biggest challenge is the fact that he's a father. You know, I think that's what's motivating him to find the why. You know, we know who's done it pretty much straight away, but it's about why? Why has this happened. He wants to know why, and that's because he's a dad. He wants to understand what could lead to this and what he can do better as a dad in his own child's life, and I think that's why most of the world, at the moment, are so connected to the show.
MCCAMMON: And at one point, Bascombe's son, Adam, actually steps in to help his father sort of decode what the kids mean when they use certain emojis in texting and social media.
AMARI BACCHUS: (As Adam Bascombe) A dynamite.
WALTERS: (As Luke Bascombe) What do you think that means?
BACCHUS: (As Adam Bascombe) I don't know.
WALTERS: (As Luke Bascombe) It's an exploding red pill.
BACCHUS: (As Adam Bascombe) Red pill is like, I see the truth. It's a call to action by the manosphere.
WALTERS: (As Luke Bascombe) Manosphere.
BACCHUS: (As Adam Bascombe) Which is where the hundred comes in - the 80-to-20 rule.
WALTERS: (As Luke Bascombe) I don't know what you're talking about. Just break it down.
BACCHUS: (As Adam Bascombe) Eighty percent of women are attracted 20% of men.
WALTERS: I was learning in real time whilst we were rehearsing this stuff, and I was doing my own research, and there's a whole different world out there. You know, the emoji thing is just a tip of the iceberg. But as you see, going further into the show, how deep it gets and the rabbit holes that you can end up going down online, you know, and it's really scary to think that our children can be indoctrinated, I guess, via their screens.
MCCAMMON: I wonder - you know, I've read that you have several children of your own.
WALTERS: Yes.
MCCAMMON: Did you pull from your own experience as a father in playing this role or maybe even your own experience as a young man once?
WALTERS: Definitely, I pulled from my experience as a dad. I've got a lot of kids, and some are quite old now. My oldest is 25. My youngest is 8, so I definitely had to use a bit of myself as Bascombe. And I think, you know, the best actors, in my opinion, will always find a part of themself in the characters that they're playing, and I think that makes it much more authentic.
MCCAMMON: We talked about the fact that "Adolescence" is about internet culture, but it's also really about how that culture is shaping young men. I have to say, as a mom of teenage sons, it was tough to watch at times, but it was also impossible to look away from. And, you know, there is a sense, I think, in watching this - at least there was for me - that sort of there but for the grace of God go I, given the culture that young men are swimming in, in many cases. I mean, did you feel that at all when you were first reading the script?
WALTERS: Yeah, definitely. Because of the age of the internet, because of the access we have to the rest of the world, the pressures on young children today are a lot bigger than they were before. I lived in a bubble. I lived in a vacuum. I only knew what was going on in my local area. I didn't desire the tangible things that kids want these days and are put under so much pressure to have because, otherwise, they stand out. You know, they're not in the groups, and a lot of that is in this show. And I think looking at it from the macro, it's a lot more difficult, and I do feel for young teenagers these days. And we don't have the answers, just like in the show. It's not about answering all these questions. I guess we can just raise debate.
MCCAMMON: That's Ashley Walters, talking about the series "Adolescence," now streaming on Netflix. Thanks so much for being with us.
WALTERS: It's a pleasure. Thank you for having me. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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