Adolescence’s Owen Cooper has revealed the instruction he gave one of his co-stars that allowed him to tap into his emotions whilst filming their one-take episodes.

The star of the Netflix smash hit was just 13-years-old when he landed the role of Jamie Miller, a schoolboy accused of brutally murdering a female classmate.

And despite it being his very first acting role, Owen, now 15, soon figured out a technique which enabled him to feel the fear of his character.

Episode one of the drama opens with Jamie’s family home being raided by armed police officers before they arrest the teenager.

The opening scene of the episode, which was shot in one take, shows the police bursting into a terrified Jamie’s bedroom with guns pointed at him.

Owen has now revealed that he told one of the actors playing an armed police officer to ‘properly’ scare him.

Adolescence's Owen Cooper has revealed the instruction he gave one of his co-stars that allowed him to tap into his emotions before filming their one-take episodes
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Adolescence’s Owen Cooper has revealed the instruction he gave one of his co-stars that allowed him to tap into his emotions before filming their one-take episodes

Despite it being his very first acting role, Owen, now 15, soon figured out a technique which enabled him to feel the fear of his character in episode one
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Despite it being his very first acting role, Owen, now 15, soon figured out a technique which enabled him to feel the fear of his character in episode one

‘[With] the police officer that comes into my room and puts the gun up, I’d always come up to him beforehand and say, “Proper, proper, scare me,” the actor toldĀ Teen Vogue.

‘Because with the gunshot, if you’re not in [the one take] from the start, you can’t be in it for the rest. So I would insist on him properly scaring me from the start, and if he didn’t do that, I wouldn’t have been able to get into that emotion.’

‘I can’t remember his name, but that police officer was the reason why I got into that emotion in that episode.’

Owen previouslyĀ revealed that his onscreen dad Stephen Graham, who also co-created the show, riled himĀ up before takes.

Speaking with Variety, Owen said: ‘Obviously Stephen was always checking in on me.

‘But there was a time in episode one, when it was just us two, with no camera, in the police cell, and he scruffed me up and said ā€œyouā€™re never going to see your mum again, youā€™re never going to see your dad again,ā€ and was going on and on.

‘Before then Iā€™d been frustrated because I hadnā€™t been getting emotional. But after that point I was emotional in every take. So that helped me a lot.’

Adolescence has built on its huge success, toppingĀ Netflix‘s English TV series list this week with 42 million views.

The opening scene shows armed police bursting into a terrified Jamie's bedroom. Owen has revealed he told one of the actors playing an armed police officer to scare him before the take
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The opening scene shows armed police bursting into a terrified Jamie’s bedroom. Owen has revealed he told one of the actors playing an armed police officer to scare him before the take

Since its launch, the show has amassed 66.3 million views, making it the most-watched limited series and most-watched UK title ever through its first two weeks, with a huge 161,000,000 hours viewed.

Over the weekend Adolescence made British TV history, becoming the first streaming show ever toĀ become the most-watched programme of the week.

The drama has captivated audiences and critics since it hit Netflix earlier this month, with each episode filmed in a single continuous take.

While the show is already being tipped for a string ofĀ BAFTAĀ nominations, figures published by ratings body BARB on Sunday showed that the first episode was watched by 6.45 million people in its first week.

Owen previously revealed that his onscreen dad Stephen Graham, who also co-created the show, also riled him up before takes
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Owen previously revealed that his onscreen dad Stephen Graham, who also co-created the show, also riled him up before takes

The number makes it the biggest audience for any streaming show in the UK in a single week, beating the 6.3 million who watched Fool Me Once on Netflix last year.

The four-episode programme follows the Miller family, whose lives are torn apart when their 13-year-old son Jamie is arrested for stabbing a female classmate to death after being influenced by online misogyny.

After his devastating performance as schoolboy Jamie, Owen is tipped for silver-screen success ā€“ and been compared to a young Leonardo DiCaprio.

Meanwhile, Stephen Graham, who co-wrote the script, has described finding Owen as the ‘biggest achievement’ of the four-part series.