Cory Stillman
Adolescence star Erin Doherty is a highly deserving Emmy nominee this year, joining several of her co-stars at this year’s ceremony.
As forensic psychologist Briony Ariston, Doherty is an initially unexpected addition to the landscape of the Netflix limited series, arriving in the show’s third episode as an unknown figure to audiences. Before we meet Briony, we are fully enmeshed in the real-time investigation of Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper) as the prime suspect in the murder of his classmate Katie Leonard. It therefore comes as a relative surprise when Episode 3 introduces us to Briony, a forensic psychologist who is working on a pre-trial report on Jamie, seven months after the events of Episode 1.
“I actually wanted to wrongfoot the audience in that way,” says Doherty. “So that you see her find her footing once she is in that room.”
It is a testament to Doherty’s performance that we so quickly develop a deep fascination with Briony and her line of work. By the time Episode 4 kicks off a full year after Katie’s murder, we are longing for another verbal sparring match between Briony and Jamie.
Indeed, Doherty and Cooper developed a special bond while rehearsing and shooting their pivotal episode of this powerful series, encouraging one another to take risks and make decisions that would further enhance the emotional weight of the scene.
“You have two things going on at the same time,” explains Doherty. “You obviously have the characters, who are trying to wrongfoot each other, and it’s kind of this cat-and-mouse thing, but you also have the actors, who are going ‘I’ve got your back. I’ve got your back. I’ve got your back.'”
Of course, while the two actors were tasked with carrying the onscreen momentum of Episode 3, the single-take construction of Adolescence lent them several other scene partners, including DP Matthew Lewis, the boom operators, and several others, all of whom had to be ready for the surprises of what a given take might offer.
“Every single person on that floor was primed for spontaneity,” says Doherty.
The Emmy-nominated actress also turned to another support system in preparing for her work as Briony: her former therapist.
“I just reached out to my old therapist, ” says Doherty. “I obviously wasn’t going to breach that client line of asking what kind of people she had worked with or engaged with, but I was more so just interested in her psychology and in her day-to-day life.”
Even prior to filming Adolescence, Doherty maintained a fascination with psychology and the human brain. It is only natural that she delivers such a lived-in performance as Briony, whose harsh exterior slowly fades over the course of Episode 3, revealing a wonderfully complex and caring woman whose professional responsibilities are beyond what most of us could ever fathom.
Check out our full conversation with Erin Doherty below!
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