I’m so proud Adolescence has got UK talking about horrors online… it’s scary but vital TV says show’s star Erin Doherty
ADOLESCENCE actress Erin Doherty says the Netflix crime drama is terrifying viewing for parents – but necessary.
It fearlessly depicts teenage knife crime and how the ordinary lives of a baby-faced 13-year-old boy and his family are wrecked as he is sucked into misogynistic online forums then arrested for the murder of a female schoolmate.
Erin, 32, plays psychologist Briony Ariston, who is tasked with getting into the mind of schoolboy Jamie Miller for a pre-trial assessment while he is in custody.
But this proves a test of nerve for Briony as Jamie’s inner rage repeatedly erupts under questioning and he becomes threatening towards her.
Actress Erin, who relied on help from her own therapist to do the role justice, is now delighted the four-part series — co-written by Stephen Graham and starring him as Jamie’s dad Eddie — has the nation talking and promises to inform parents about the perils for teenage boys that lurk online.
She said: “I’m very proud.
“I watched it for the first time all in one sitting the other day and never felt that necessity with a project before.
“I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this needs to be seen’.
“We need to be having these kinds of conversations.
“So that is what I am most proud of — that I get to be a little slice of something so vital.”
Erin’s other work has included her award-winning portrayal of Princess Anne in the third and fourth series of royal drama The Crown, in 2019 and 2020, and last year she co-starred as gang leader Mary with Stephen in Disney+ boxing drama A Thousand Blows, set in Victorian London.
Talented footballer
But ahead of her harrowing role in Adolescence alongside Owen Cooper, now 15, as Jamie, she felt the need for expert counselling.
She said: “I read the script and had to speak to a therapist, so I spoke to my old therapist.
“I wanted people to witness someone knowing their professional stance but grappling with it.
“I wanted to bring in layers and fight the cliché of a psychologist sat in a room asking questions.
“I don’t want to take full credit for it because it’s the writing, and Owen Cooper who is unreal.
“I would work with him for the rest of my life if I could.
“I never felt like I was working with someone that age, it felt like being with a seasoned professional.”
Erin also speaks highly of Stephen Graham, whose character Eddie, with wife Manda (Christine Tremarco) and daughter Lisa (Amelie Pease), has to face down hate from the local community following Jamie’s arrest.
Talking about Stephen on the How To Fail podcast with Elizabeth Day, she said: “He’s one of the most incredible people I’ve met.
“He’s got a heart of gold, the most generous spirit.
“In the eye of the storm of this crazy, incredible career, nothing has changed about him.”
But while Erin adores her co-stars, friendships never came easily to her while growing up in Crawley, West Sussex — despite being a talented youth footballer once scouted by Chelsea.
In fact, she has not had a best friend since primary school.
She told the How To Fail podcast: “Something I’ve grappled with is friendship.
“At school, I never committed so I was like, ‘I’m going to drama school’.
“I never liked any of the subjects, so never committed, and didn’t gain those integral friendships that most people savour until they’re 80 years old.
“It’s just not been a lesson of mine that you have to hold on and nurture these things.
“There’s a sadness in me that I haven’t gained that ability.
“I’m a perfectionist and hate the idea of being an awful friend so I won’t commit.
“I’ll be the person they can meet for coffee now and then but don’t have to put that label on it because then I’m under no pressure to be this beacon of hope for friendship.”
Erin also saw her mum, a doctor’s receptionist, and dad, who worked in air transport, divorce when she was four.
But she now views that as a life lesson.
I watched it in one sitting and I’d never felt that necessity with a project before. These kind of conversations need to be had
Erin Doherty
She said: “It’s a gift of really understanding relationships and not applying pressure for everything to work out in my own life.
“When you watch something break down, you go, ‘Oh, all right — people can go, but it doesn’t mean they don’t love you’.
“It’s taken me a while to get there.
“It’s wonderful in a way to have experienced immense hurt because it gives you a sensitivity to others.”
But Erin has always battled nerves — and acting is a lifeline.
She said: “There are people who are more socially adept, but for me acting is escapism.
“It’s been a lifeboat.”
She also tells how she struggled with her sexuality while growing up, and dated boys before coming out as gay in her twenties.
She has been dating Welsh actress Sophie Melville, 34, since 2017 when they co-starred in Alan Ayckbourn’s dystopian play The Divide, about a future, authoritarian world of gender segregation.
Erin said: “It took me a really long time to be where I’m like, ‘Oh, I’m gay’.
“I grew up doing the social thing of, ‘OK, well I’ll have a boyfriend and I’ll do this thing’, I never questioned it.”
But she recalls the moment she realised she was gay: “I was 24 — before my first relationship with a woman — and it was mind-blowing.
“It was like I had come home.
“I was like, ‘Wow, like this is a part of who I am that I’ve never got to meet’, which was crazy, crazy.”
But while Erin adores being in love, she is less sociable than her partner.
The star said: “She’s like, ‘What are we doing on Sunday?’, and I’m like, ‘I don’t know’. She’s trying to broaden my social circle.”
She often even refuses to go to parties.
She told the Elizabeth Day podcast: “I have immense anxiety about those environments.
“I love one-on-ones, that’s my thing.”
But one thing she is not shy about is love.
She said: “I love love, I am a hopeless romantic, it’s everything.
“I just adore being in love.
“Romantic-wise I’m all in.”