Netflix’s “Adolescence” has emerged as one of the most talked-about limited series of the year, securing an impressive 13 Emmy nominations, including an Outstanding Directing nod for series director Philip Barantini.
Created by Jack Thorne, Stephen Graham, and director Philip Barantini, the four-part drama unfolds in a bold, high-wire one-shot format for each episode, which immerses viewers in its tense, emotionally charged storytelling. The series follows the ripple effects of a shocking crime committed by a young teenager, played by newcomer Owen Cooper, weaving together perspectives and fallout from the detectives investigating the crime, the school reeling from the murder, and a family grappling with the aftermath.
At the helm is Barantini, whose breakout feature “Boiling Point” earned BAFTA nominations and international acclaim for its own single-take design. An established actor, Barantini has built a reputation for directing with empathy and precision, drawing deeply human performances from his casts, and his work has been recognized with honors from the British Independent Film Awards and the National Film Awards UK. With “Adolescence”, he takes the one-shot discipline to an even more ambitious scale, working with cinematographer Matthew Lewis to capture all the moving elements of the story.
“It wasn’t the big things that scared me,” shares Barantini. “It was more of the smaller things, like always having to be with a person. That was one of the rules, that the camera should never float off on its own because then it just feels like a camera operator walking with a camera.”
Philip Barantini spoke with Awards Focus about the intense preparation and choreography behind the series, the way camera movement shapes emotion, and how being an actor informs his directing style. Barantini also discusses the moments on set that became “happy accidents,” the challenges of working with both seasoned performers and newcomers, and why trust between director and cast is at the heart of the show’s raw authenticity.
Awards Focus: How did it feel when you found out about the 13 Emmy nominations?
Philip Barantini: It was crazy. I’m not going to lie. I’m in the edit currently on another movie, and I had actually forgotten that the awards nominations were coming out, and my editor was like, “Have you seen this? You’ve just been nominated for 13 Emmys.” It was amazing.
AF: Can you talk a bit about what sparked the idea for “Adolescence” as a limited series?
Barantini: I got a call from Plan B, who wanted to have a chat. We jumped on a Zoom, and they said they’d seen my movie “Boiling Point” and they’d love to do something with me and Stephen [Graham] in the one-take format, but for TV.
After a couple of days of thinking about it, I didn’t think it had ever been done before, so we wanted to see if we could come up with something. Stephen and I were on our way somewhere in the back of a car, and there’s a show in the UK called “24 Hours in Police Custody”, which is a sort of crime documentary series. We are obsessed with it, and it’s essentially about a crime that is taking place, and the police have 24 hours to either charge the person or let them go. Each episode, there’s a ticking clock, and that really lends itself to the one take.
At the time, there’d been a series of these stabbings. Young boys had been killing these young girls at 13 years old, and younger at times. We asked ourselves why this is happening. And then Stephen just came up with the first two or three episodes in the back of that car, and it was almost like he had verbal diarrhea. Then we got Jack [Thorne] on board, and we pitched the idea.
AF: How did directing “Boiling Point” prepare you for the immense task of doing the one take in each of the four episodes?
Barantini: There are a few things that we thought we could improve on. We can certainly have more ambition, and so when we were going into “Adolescence”, Jack would write the script and Stephen and I would read it and give lots of notes in terms of logistics and how we can and can’t achieve certain things.
“Boiling Point” was an hour and a half, so doing an hour per episode didn’t feel as scary to [cinematographer] Matthew Lewis and I. In that film, it was Matt carrying the camera as the only camera operator. So, we knew that going into this, because it was more ambitious, we would need at least two camera operators so that they could hand the camera off to each other and give each other a break as we’re going along.
To be able to do that, we needed to find a camera because most of the cameras that we use are big and bulky and heavy, and you can’t just carry them on your own. You need some sort of support. We found this incredible camera, the Ronin 4D. It’s a really nimble camera with a built-in gimbal, and what that enabled us to be completely steady at times, but then all you need to do is press a button, and it locks in the gimbal, and it can be like a handheld device. That’s the first time you’ve ever been able to do that with a camera, because usually when you want it to be steady, you’ve gotta put it on a big, steady camera. There was lots of learning happening daily, to be honest.
AF: The movement of the camera really changes between episode one, with its opening shot moving down the street, through the house, and up and down a staircase, to the third episode, which is shot in a single room.
What conversations went into the movement of the camera and how did you overcome the limitations of the one-take in terms of capturing the ebbs and flow of the script?
Barantini: We shot episode three first, and we knew we had to focus on that episode. Matt was going to be the operator for the whole episode, so he did that one on his own. What we had to figure out was how we were going to keep this dynamic, but also get across what we need to get across when you are limited to only seeing one person at a time. You can do a wider shot, and you can have two people in frame, but when two people are sitting opposite each other, it’s very difficult to see their faces. You can’t just cut to another closeup. So, it was important that we really understood the script and the ebbs and flows of the script, where the emotional beats were and what we needed to hit, and who we had to focus on at certain moments.
When we would do that, we would wonder what if the camera was on the other person, and we’re just watching them, listening to what’s going on? How does that make us feel? I think sometimes when you’re watching someone talk, you’re sort of paying attention to them. But when you are watching somebody listen to that person talk, you suddenly sit up and you are listening. You are intently watching how they’re listening to somebody. It changes the perspective. We were continuously doing that throughout the episode when we were rehearsing and when we were in prep. Is this the right camera move?
With episode one, like you say, it was very different because there’s it’s a lot higher energy and high intensity at times. Then it was how could we make this feel seamless, but in an exciting way? We want the audience at the very beginning to be anxious and then feel sadness when he is being taken away in the car. Playing with sound was a big thing too. Can we just hear something as opposed to having to see it? We have to understand that audiences are incredibly smart, and you have to treat them that way. And if they miss it, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re going to miss something in the story, but if they catch it, it will only enhance their experience.
AF: It’s interesting thinking about the different components of making the episode and the synergy required amongst all the different departments. Because you were going for such long takes and often outdoors, was there anything that was left in that was a happy accident?
Barantini: There were a couple of things. In episode three, it was the very last take that we used. Everyone was exhausted, and it was the end of the week. It was Friday and I said to everyone, we’ve got the take. We’ll keep that last one in the bank. We’d had like three takes that we could choose from.
Owen [Cooper] came to me, and he had a cough and a sore throat. I asked if he wanted to stop. He’s like, “No, I want to do it. It’s the last one. Let’s just do it.” So, I thought, “Right, well, Jamie’s got a cough then today.” Midway through the take, he touched his throat, and he was like, “Sorry, I’ve got a sore throat.” He does this, and I was watching, thinking he’s a genius. He was exhausted, and he just started yawning during the take. And Erin Doherty, who’s just incredible, she just says, “Am I keeping you awake?” And Owen’s immediately like, “No, no, sorry.” We used that last take.
There are also a few things, like in the final episode, the final take of the final episode, when Stephen is going into the bedroom at the very end. He put the teddy in the bed and each take was amazing. We were all incredibly emotional every time. On the last one, I wanted to just mix it up for Stephen as well, because as an actor, you’re doing the same thing repeatedly, twice a day, you know? I asked the props department if they could put pictures of his wife and his kids on the wardrobe in the bedroom. I knew the camera wouldn’t see them. I got them to write a note saying, “We love you, Dad. We’re so proud of you.” And as he walks in the room on that final take, you can see him looking. He clocked it straight away because the pictures were big and his performance was completely different. He just lost it, and that’s the one we used.
AF: How has being an actor yourself helped you as a director, particularly on “Adolescence,” where you’re working with Owen Cooper in his first role and then with Stephen Graham, who’s very well established?
Barantini: It helps me because I feel like I understand how to talk to actors, and I understand that every actor is completely different, and I can’t approach one actor the same as I would approach another actor in terms of giving them notes. Even if some actors need more attention than others, there’s a spectrum of different actors.
Stephen’s a very close friend of mine. We’ve known each other for over 20 years, so I know Stephen on a deeper level. Directors need to gain the trust of their actors and vice versa, and once you’ve got that trust, you don’t really need to do much. If you’re both on the same page of the character and the story and where we’re heading, then it’s almost like a shorthand you have with each actor. With Stephen, we would just try things, and I would just tweak ever so slightly, but you’ve got to let Steven just do his thing because it’s going to be magnificent. It’s just about tweaking.
Then, with the likes of Owen, I had to find my way with him because he’s trained a little bit. It was important for me to really gain his trust, but also understand him as a person. I spent a lot of time getting to know him and his parents, and there was a moment in episode three when we were rehearsing, and I really needed him to go to town and really be aggressive towards Erin. It’s the moment when he gets right in her face, and he says, “You don’t tell me what to do,” and he throws the cup. I really needed him to go there, and every time he would do it, he wouldn’t let himself go.
And I said, “You’ve gotta just let it go and be vulnerable.” Erin was like, “Just go for it. You’re not gonna scare me.” And then he went for it, and he scared us all. He actually scared himself, too. He threw the chair and broke part of the set, and then he couldn’t get out of it. He got very emotional, and so I took him outside, we sat on a wall for about an hour, and we just talked. I said to him, “Look, I know you are not that person. I can see that you are not an aggressive, angry kid. You’ve probably never been that aggressive or angry in your life. But now you know what it feels like, so now you understand that you can do that and you can bring yourself out of it because it’s not you, it’s the character.”
After that, he was just amazing.