'Adolescence' star reveals how filming the series changed him

Adolescence star, Ashley Walters, has just opened up about how filming the series changed his parenting style.

The series revolves around a 13-year-old child, Jamie Miller, who is arrested and accused of murdering his classmate, Katie Leonard.

Speaking with Men’s Health UK magazine, he said, “[As parents] we’re really about uplifting and pushing the things that they love. He’s an animator, so he has a lot of animation software on his iPad and spends his time doing that.”

For those unversed, Walters shares four kids, Shayon Perry, Paniro Ashley, China Walters and Amaiya-Love Walters, with his wife, Danielle Isaie.

"But sometimes, he’s not animating when we think he is. We’ve been very conscious about that and drawing back on his screen time. Half the week, he can’t even touch his device."

"And then actually, it’s about me stepping in as a dad and saying, ‘Let’s go fishing, let’s do more stuff,’ so he doesn’t want to be on there as much as he is.”

“No one wants to be the ogre parent that comes in and goes, ‘All right, that’s it, everything off.' I don’t want them to feel like they’re not the same as their friends,” he added.

Before concluding, Ashley Walters shared, “You get caught up in all of that stuff as a parent, but I feel like around the world this show has allowed parents, to go, ‘F*** that s***. Adolescence says this could happen. Now we’re going to start having this conversation.’ I think that’s a good thing.”

Adolescence, features four episodes, was released on March 13, 2025.