Erin Doherty may not be a household name even in her native U.K., but she understands the power of a global phenomenon. Her acclaimed performance as Princess Anne in seasons three and four of “The Crown” saw her win a SAG Award alongside her co-star for Outstanding Ensemble in a Drama Series. Fast forward four years, and that landmark television program is almost small potatoes compared to the reception “Adolescence” has received.
READ MORE: “Adolescence”: Stephen Graham’s gripping one-take drama is four of the finest episodes Netflix has ever made
By the end of this week, the four-episode limited series will be the No. 3 most watched series in the history of Netflix behind just “Wednesday” and “Stranger Things.” It’s also one of the most critically acclaimed programs of the decade, on a collision course for a slew of Emmy nominations and wins later this year. For Doherty, the series was an excuse to reunite with her “A Thousand Blows” co-star, Stephen Graham, who produced, co-wrote, and co-starred, and work with celebrated playwright and screenwriter Jack Thorne. The duo gifted her a key role, that of Briony, a psychologist tasked with evaluating a teenage boy, Jamie (Owen Cooper), accused of murder.
Doherty only appears in the third of four episodes, but is a centerpiece of the entire hour. As the chapter comes to a dramatic conclusion, an angry Jamie is dragged away by an officer as he bangs on the windows of the conference room where he had spoken to Briony for the last time. The camera turns to Briony as one tear falls down her face. It’s a perfectly timed moment that is, in fact, so perfect you’d assume it was CG or stitched together for effect. It wasn’t. Even Doherty was shocked they captured it (“Oh, wow”) and is grateful they did.
“It’s a weird thing as an actor, or for me anyway, you kind of can’t pick at the magic of it,” Doherty admits. “In a way, the magic is in forgetting that there is a technical process going on, running alongside this thing, because the minute that I start to think about a camera or waiting for the timing of this, it’s dead and I can’t commit. Or if I don’t believe in the moment myself, I just don’t buy it. And then it’s not genuine, and then I’m just not there. The love of this thing is losing myself. So, honestly, that reaction was the only thing that felt necessary in that moment in time. There wasn’t any kind of pre-planning. It was just like, ‘O.K., I’m going to be in the room.’”
She continues, “For whatever reason at that time, all I remember is that Owen had never banged on all of the windows as he left. It was that last take that he did, all of them. And I just really remember being so swallowed in my own guilt that I think that’s kind of my only recollection of the feeling. But it’s kind of amnesia when you’re chasing this kind of, I don’t know, this other realm. And so it’s really difficult to look back and pick it apart. But yeah, I just remember him banging way more than I was expecting, and that did something different.”
Referencing the project as one of the best experiences of her career, Doherty does a deep dive into the role, which saw her quizzing a former therapist for backstory, reflecting on why the show means so much at this particular point in history, praising Graham and director Philip Barantini, and much more.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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The Playlist: You experienced “The Crown.” You know what being on a massive show on Netflix is like, but this is the biggest limited series Netflix has ever had. One of the biggest shows overall they have ever had. I know you’re not a super social media person, but have you noticed the reaction to the show?
Erin Doherty: I mean, in a way, my family, the people around me, are the ones that are like, “This is a big deal.” Other than that, yeah, I have had to go onto the Instagram and post some bits and bobs, but I do have a healthy or a necessary kind of arms-length relationship with the whole thing, and I’m glad for that. I don’t think I fully do understand what is going on. It’s only through voice notes from Steve and Graham. He keeps sending me these little things that he’s like, “This has happened.” “This person has said this.” And I’m like, “I don’t know what to say to this, Steven.” So, I just don’t know. I’m speechless.
It’s an unconventional show in the sense that each episode is one continuous shot; it was only four episodes, and you were there for one hour-long episode. Did it feel special? What did you think at the time?
Basically, we rehearsed it for longer than we shot it, and I remember being in the room on maybe the second week of rehearsals and I was speaking to Jo Johnson, the producer, and I was like, this does feel there was just an energy or a buzz around what we were doing, but it was more just like, “Oh God, how amazing to be a part of something that is so necessary and vital.” And it speaks to the moment in time we knew that it was relevant and immediate, but you never really know if things are going to take off. There’s just no magic formula. But we definitely knew that it was necessary and it was vital. And I think when I read the script I was like, “God, this is going to be amazing,” but you never know because you dunno who this kid’s going to be. And so once I got into the rehearsal room and I was working with Owen, and I was like, “O.K., no, it was like he’d been doing it for 50 years.” So then all those kinds of nerves went out the window, and I was like, “Great. We’re all just here doing this job, and we’re committed.” And that was what created that special energy, I think.
Well, I want to come back to Owen because I still can’t believe he’s 15, but you’d worked on Steven on “A Thousand Blows.” Is that how you became a part of this series? Or was it just a coincidence?
So, basically, it was just me and Steven on set this day. We were shooting all of the Mary Sugar stuff, and we were walking from the green room to set, and we were about to wrap. It was December, and I was just out of curiosity, “What are you working on next? What’s going on?” I love this man. Everything he’s a part of is exciting. So I was like, “Well, what’s going on, Steven? What are you going to jump onto?” No doubt it’s going to be something crazy with Robert De Niro or Martin Scorsese. And he was like, “I’m actually speaking. He was like, I’m speaking to Jack Thorne about writing this thing together.” And he was like, “I want it to be this one-shot thing. So, Philip Barantini is going to be a part of it. And he explained to me the whole premise. It was at this whole project’s inception. He hadn’t even got anything on paper yet. He just knew the creatives that he wanted to be a part of it. And he told me basically because this whole thing came about from reading these two news articles about these two horrific acts that happened at opposite ends of the country. And I was like, “God, that’s going to be so incredible. “And that’s where that conversation ended. I was like, “I can’t wait to watch that.” I never even in my wildest dreams was like, “I’m going to be a part of that.” I never even put that out there. So anyway, we wrapped that job, and then about three months later, I get a voice note from Steven being like, “Erin, you need to pick up your phone because I want to talk to you about something,” and the rest is history.
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He must have told you this was a one-shot project. You said there was a ton of rehearsal, but how much was there? And you have a long history in the theater. Did this feel like doing a play?
Yeah, it really, really did. So, going into it, I knew it was going to be the one shot thing, and before I’d even jumped on board, I’d watched “Boiling Point,” I’d watched the TV show and the film [which is also one-shot] and I’d always been just so mind blown that this was a possibility for screen because as you say, it’s so theater based. You are basically doing a play on film. And I was like, “I want to be a part of that one day.” So, this was even more exciting to me, but it didn’t fail to deliver. It was everything that I hoped it would be. It was the most freeing experience I’ve ever had on screen because from the minute they call action, I just got to be Briony. And I got to trust that the camera department, the sound department, everyone was so incredibly skilled at their jobs that they were going to capture it. And I didn’t have to think about screen technique or hitting this mark. You get it in your bones with the two weeks of rehearsals, but by the time it came to shooting, we were all just moving as one, that you just trusted. If for whatever reason Owen said this differently or we landed over here differently, we’d figure it out. So yeah, from the minute that you stepped on the rollercoaster, you’ve just got to forget that the cameras were there and you got to be in the moment. It was the best experience of acting on screen that I’ve ever had.
Do you remember how many times you guys shot it?
Yeah, so we shot it twice a day, and we had one full start. So we ended up doing 11 takes, and the 11th take was the one that they chose. They chose our very last one on the Friday afternoon, and we couldn’t have done it any more than that. We would come in the mornings, get ready, do it, do one take, have lunch, go again, and then we just had to go home. You couldn’t [measure] the amount of focus that it took. So yeah, we shot it twice a day and they chose our very last one.
When you got to the last day, were you exhausted from doing it?
Yeah, we really genuinely were. But also, I think it added something to the energy of the take that they chose because we felt like we had, I love that Jack and Steven chose to go into the last meeting of these two characters rather than the first. So by the time it came to that Friday, it felt like we had had so many experiences in this room, which they would’ve had. It added to the level of, I dunno, rawness and realness, but also, yeah, there there’s an improvised moment in the shot that they chose where Owen yawns, but it was genuine because he genuinely was that exhausted and we got to bounce off each other in that little moment of improv. But yeah, we were on the floor by the time it came to the end of that week.
If either of you made a mistake or, say, tripped, would you stop and start again, or start, was it always “No, go through the whole time and it’ll be what it’ll be”?
It was that. It was really that. And honestly, that’s what I’m so grateful to Phil for offering us that experience, because I’ll take it with me for the rest of my life. It’s such a gorgeous little gem of an offering to go with whatever happens, that’s what this take is. That is the reality of what we are going to do. And there is always something real and human about these things that we label mistakes. And actually, there’s a really beautiful kind of lesson in going, “Actually, I’m not going to put any judgment on anything that happens because that is the reality of what we’re experiencing in this moment.” And I think that is why the show is so visceral, because you are genuinely witnessing the energy of everyone being alive in this moment, in this room, knowing that it could fall. But either way, they’re going to have to stand back up and carry on going. And I think there is something really, you can’t take your eyes off it because you can feel the immediacy and the aliveness coming through the screen.
