Adolescence actor Owen Cooper has just landed his debut movie, all thanks to Stephen Graham.
The young star is currently making waves in Graham’s gut-wrenching four-part Netflix series about a 13-year old boy arrested for murder. He’s following up from his first ever acting job with the new version of Wuthering Heights, which will be directed by Saltburn’s Emerald Fennell.
Cooper will be playing the young version of Jacob Elordi’s Heathcliff, whilst Margot Robbie also stars in the project. In an interview with Variety, Cooper said it was Adolescence and Graham that landed him the role.
“Stephen recommended me his agent,” Cooper explained. “So Maddi [Bonura of Independent Talent] came and watch a bit of episode 1, and I got Wuthering Heights from that!”
He said there’s “another couple of weeks left” for filming, and although he’s had to get used to a project that isn’t continuous takes, he said he’s having a really good time.
Cooper added that Fennell, Robbie and Elordi are all “lovely”, explaining that Elordi is “always chatting to everyone”.
When asked if he always had dreams of being an actor, Cooper said that he only wanted to start doing it “a couple of years ago”.
“It’s not been long,” he said. “I grew up wanting to be a footballer. I don’t know what it was that made me want to do it, but I just wanted to do it.
“And then I went to lessons and enjoyed it. And then I got into a little agency thing, and then I got a self-tape request for Adolescence. And everything came from that really.”