The hit TV show Skins offered what some viewers felt was a sordid look at the world of teen drinking, eating disorders, drugs, divorcing parents and clubbing. Yet it paved the way to A-list film stardom for a string of young actors, from Oscar nominees Daniel Kaluuya and Dev Patel, to the acclaimed Jack O’Connell, Nicholas Hoult, and Kaya Scodelario, who went on to star in the Maze Runner and Pirates of the Caribbean franchises.
The controversial and cult drama series, which was set in Bristol and ran on E4 between 2007 and 2013, nurtured such a long list of screen talent it scarcely looks credible now. Five years on, Bryan Elsley, the Scottish writer behind Skins, is about to unveil his next show, a big-budget thriller called Kiss Me First that has taken him four years to make.
Once again he is aiming largely at a young adult audience, which is still, he believes, the most innovative area of screen entertainment.
“Young adult drama has become a more flexible place to work. It can stay some distance away from the smooth blandness of most mainstream adult drama – and when I say that, I mean in theatre and film, as well as television,” he said.
This time, however, some members of his cast are computer-generated.
“I have cast young actors again, but across the series it is something like 25% animated virtual reality, which has been incredibly time-consuming and expensive, and also very enjoyable,” Elsley, 57, told the Observer.
“The idea always used to be that young people didn’t watch TV any more, but after the success of several shows aimed at teenagers, most recently Stranger Things, those boundaries have changed and these dramas have moved over into the world of grown-up entertainment. Broadcasters are now very interested in reaching younger audiences, by which I mean people under 30.”
The first episode of Kiss Me First goes out on Channel 4 on Monday, kicking off a story that is partly told inside the world of virtual reality gaming. It has been made in collaboration with Netflix and is based on the hit debut novel by British writer Lottie Moggach, which follows gamer Leila and her online friend, Tess, as they first detect, and then do battle with, a secret cult organisation operating on the web.
“The actors all performed the whole script and then we captured their performances digitally, so that the essence of what they did is still there,” said Elsley.
He quickly learned that only by paring away some of the complexity of an actor’s facial expression can the emotions of their animated version be made clear to viewers. “The 2004 Pixar film The Incredibles is seen as the benchmark in how to do this.”
By chance the drama arrives on TV screens at the same time as Steven Spielberg’s latest film, Ready Player One, reaches cinemas. Spielberg also creates a world partly peopled by gaming avatars, hinting at a fresh determination in the entertainment industry to find a convincing way to combine virtual reality with live action.
According to Elsley, his famed talent-spotting skills are purely a coincidental effect. He was just drawn, he said, to the unique creative freedom found in making television for young adults and therefore needed to work with inexperienced actors. “It is more by accident than design,” he said. “A lot of the new talent in Skins would have been discovered anyway. You can’t hide actors of Oscar-nominee quality for that long.”
He points out that of the 30 members of the Skins cast, only six or seven have gone on to construct viable acting careers. “It is a really tough profession. There were some extraordinary young people who worked on the show, and not just the ones who went on to be well known. There are people now finishing their PhDs, as well as some in PR and in marketing who are doing great stuff.”
Elsley, who comes from Dalkeith, in Midlothian, wrote Skins with his son Jamie Brittain and developed a team of young writers, including Kaluuya, who played Posh Kenneth. “These young people may be talented from the first, but actually they do need a long apprenticeship.
“Luckily that’s what some of them are getting. If you look at Kaya, for instance, she has had roles in some major film franchises and now, as she reaches her mid-20s, she really has something unusual to offer the industry.”
Elsley suspects young stars are better prepared for fame than they once were. “The two young actresses in my new show, Simona Brown and Tallulah Haddon, are very aware they need to have their heads screwed on,” he said.
Working with young talent, Elsley said, keeps him young, but he wishes the spirit of experimentation he finds flourishing there were widespread. “And let’s hope young adult stories do not become too commodified now that they are so popular. It is a very confusing time for entertainment. The joy of streaming platforms is that there is more freedom. Let’s hope it doesn’t have the stuffing knocked out of it as it becomes mainstream.”
