Stephen Graham has hit out at Elon Musk over concerning ‘race-swap’ misinformation he shared on X about Adolescence.
The hit Netflix show, which is now the fourth biggest English-speaking show in the streamer’s history, focuses on a young boy arrested on suspicion of stabbing a girl at his school.
Graham co-created the show and stars alongside Owen Cooper, a young actor who plays his son in his first-ever acting job.
The show started a widespread dialogue on knife crime and the radicalisation of young men and boys online by incel rhetoric, with the Netflix series set to be shown in schools across the country for free.
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This, unfortunately, led to a blatantly false viral claim that Owen Cooper’s character Jamie, arrested on suspicion of murder, was a ‘race-swapped version’ of the Southport stabbing perpetrator Axel Rudakubana.
This attack left three young girls dead, with Rudakubana recently being jailed for 52 years.
The claim was posted to X by right wing commentator Ian Miles Cheong, claiming the show was ‘anti-white propaganda’, with Elon Musk replying saying ‘Wow’.
Musk’s reply exposed this misinformation to his 218.9 million followers, leading the discourse around the topic to an even larger audience.
Graham, speaking in a recent group interview with The Hollywood Reporter, has finally responded to this, hitting out at Musk for his claims.
The co-creator and star of the show said Musk and those making similar claims about the show had it ‘completely wrong’.
He said: “If they were to look at their facts, they would see that the horrific thing that happened in Southport happened after we finished our [show].
“It just doesn’t make sense. So they’re using this to pursue their own agenda. I understand the whole concept of freedom of speech, I get it, and I see what they’re saying.
“But I think there’s a fine line between freedom of speech and hate.
“Some people have said it’s ‘woke ideology,’ and they’ve taken it to an extreme."
He went on to add: “It was never about race … It was just meant to be a representation of a normal family that could live on your street. It could be your sister’s kids or, God forbid, your own kid.
“All of the stuff I was influenced by was social realism.”
This is not the first time the team of Adolescence have rejected the accusations that the show is ‘anti-white propaganda’ or that it is a ‘race-swapped’ version of the Southport stabbings, something which is blatantly false.
Jack Thorne, the co-writer of the show alongside Graham, said on the News Agent podcast: “It’s absurd to say that [knife crime] is only committed by Black boys.
“It’s absurd. It’s not true. And history shows a lot of cases of kids from all races committing these crimes.
“We’re not making a point about race with this. We are making a point about masculinity.
“We’re trying to get inside a problem. We’re not saying this is one thing or another, we’re saying that this is about boys.”
Topics: Adolescence, Elon Musk, Netflix, Stephen Graham, TV, TV and Film
Michael Slavin