Adolescence’s Owen Cooper has become the youngest male to ever win an acting award at the Emmys.
The 15-year old, who leads the traumatic Netflix limited drama, won the award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or TV Movie.
He thanked the cast and crew of the Netflix series as well as his parents after getting a huge round of applause.
“Honestly, when I started these drama classes a couple years back, I didn’t expect to be in the United States, never mind here, but I think tonight proves that if you listen and you focus and you step out of your comfort zone, you can achieve anything in life. I was nothing about three years ago and I’m here now. Who cares if you get embarrassed? Anything can be possible,” he said.
Cooper broke the record of Michael A. Goorjian, who was 23 when he became the youngest winner in the category in 1994. He also broke Scott Jacoby’s record as the youngest male actor ever to win in the acting categories at the Primetime Emmys. Jacoby was 16 years old when he won Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Drama Series for The Certain Summer in 1973.
Cooper beat a number of established vets to win the award including Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story’s Javier Bardem, Presumed Innocent’s Bill Camp and Peter Sarsgaard and Dying for Sex’s Rob Delaney as well as his own Adolescence co-star Ashley Walters.
Last year, Lamorne Morris won this award for FX’s Fargo.
What’s even more remarkable than Cooper’s age is the fact that he had never worked as an actor before auditioning for Adolescence, in which he plays 13-year-old Jamie Miller, who is arrested on suspicion of murder.
In June, the series, which stars Stephen Graham, as Miller’s father, became Netflix’s second most-watched English-language series, overtaking the fourth season of Stranger Things and only behind Wednesday with over 141M views in its first three months.
After Adolescence hit big with Emmy nominations in July, Netflix Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria paid tribute to Cooper on getting his first nomination before he’s legally old enough to drink.
The series was co-created by Graham and Jack Thorne and was directed by Philip Barantini, who won plaudits for his one-shot take method.
It tells the story of schoolboy Miller, who is arrested after the murder of his classmate Katie Leonard. The show, however, is not a whodunnit, that becomes clear early on in Episode 1, but rather, it asks the question: why? It’s a question that his family — dad, Eddie Miller, played by Graham, mum Manda, played by Christine Tremarco, and sister Lisa, played by Amélie Pease — are asking, as are detective inspector Luke Bascombe, played by Ashley Walters, and others, including therapist Briony Ariston, played by Erin Doherty.
Cooper spoke to Deadline earlier this year about the role. “I didn’t know what was hard and what was easy, so I just went with it,” he said. “I didn’t know any better to do the one-shot and do all those lines. Whatever I got asked to do, I did it because I wanted to prove that I was right for the part of Jamie, I wanted to impress everyone. I went in there knowing my lines, which I didn’t think I’d be able to do.”
Graham also talked up the young actor, comparing him to both Robert DeNiro and Thomas Turgoose, the young actor he worked with on Shane Meadows’ This Is England.
“When I was fortunate enough to be part of This Is England, that was a breakout role [for me]. But to work with Thomas Turgoose and what El Tomo brought was just pure authenticity, unadulterated talent, fresh and unique. It’s something I thought I’d never see again,” said Graham. “When [Cooper and I] were in that room I just looked at him and said, ‘I’m going to be your dad,’ and he went ‘OK’ and I just felt something then. He just had this magic.”
Source link
