Stephen Graham, who co-created, co-wrote and stars in the critically acclaimed Netflix series “Adolescence,” hopes that the show sparks conversations at home.
“When me and Jack (co-creator, Jack Thorne) started talking about this and writing and creating it, we wanted there to be conversations between parents and children,” he told The Post exclusively at the Gotham Television Awards on Monday, June 2. “That was our ultimate thing.
“We wanted to try and see if we could create that conversation that needs to happen.”
It’s safe to say that the creative duo fulfilled their wish.
The show, which premiered in March, has reached nearly 150 million views worldwide.
It centers around a 13-year-old boy named Jamie Miller (played by Owen Cooper) who is arrested after the murder of a girl in his school. The series takes a pointed look at the role social media has in shaping young male teens and their views of women.
London’s Lord Mayor, Sadiq Khan, recently praised the show for highlighting the “epidemic of violence against women and girls” in the United Kingdom.
The “Peaky Blinders” alum, 51, doesn’t lay all the blame on the internet and social media.
“I think it’s something that we all maybe need to take accountability for,” he opined. “I mean, you know, from the schooling, parenting, social kind of environment that our kids grow up in, and now I think these big social media companies themselves have a responsibility.”
Graham was quick to clarify that “I’m not saying police it” but rather “I’m just saying [they] have a responsibility to be mindful.”
The show won big at the Gotham Awards, winning for Breakthrough Limited Series, Outstanding Lead Performance in a Limited Series and Outstanding Supporting Performance in a Limited Series.
Graham recently opened up that while “Adolescents” is fictional, he used real-life crimes in Great Britain over the recent years as the inspiration behind the show.
“I read an article in the newspaper, which was about a young boy who had stabbed a young girl to death. And … I was stunned by what I was reading,” he said in March, per NPR.
“And then, about three or four months later, there was a story on the news … about a young boy who had stabbed a young girl to death, and this incident was the opposite end to the country to the first incident that I’d read about,” Graham continued.
He initially blamed the parents; however, he admitted that he later realized he needed to dig deeper.
“Adolescence is a very difficult age, as we all know. You go through a lot of different things, physically, mentally, and even spiritually in the greater scheme of things,” the actor shared. “My main question was why: Why is this happening?”
Graham continued, “There’s a wonderful saying, which is, it takes a village to raise a child. And within that kind of complexity … it’s kind of like, maybe we’re all accountable.
“When a child closed the door back in the day when it was me and you, we didn’t have access to the rest of the world [via the internet], and we couldn’t be influenced dramatically by other people and their theories and their thought processes. So that was what we really wanted to look at.”
“Adolescence” is available to stream on Netflix.
