MTV's "Skins" Preview: Creator Talks Remaking the British Teen Drama

[JamesG]

MTV's "Skins" Preview: Creator Talks Remaking the British Teen Drama
by Sandie Angulo Chen
posted Nov 2nd 2010


Fans of the edgy British teen drama "Skins", which airs in the U.S. on BBC America and is also available on DVD, probably already know that the hit series is being adapted for American audiences by MTV and producer/creator Bryan Elsley.


But what even smug "original fans" may not know is that, like the U.S. version of "The Office", the U.S. edition of "Skins" will not feature one-for-one copies of the U.K. show's cast or story lines.

We spoke to Elsley about what current devotees of "Skins" should know before the MTV version premieres in 2011.







Obviously there are some big differences in the cast – the names, genders, even races in some cases.
What changes should current fans of "Skins" be prepared for?

I think the way to think about it is that the writers who write on the show have obviously seen the U.K. version of the show, and initially the first season echoes the story-lines and themes of the first series of "Skins", but the reality is that once these American writers go to work on these characters, things start to change very quickly.

There are a couple of episodes which are very similar to the U.K. version, but surprisingly it takes a turn away very quickly, and audiences will be surprised at how different the show is.





The first episode, which surrounds Tony (James Newman), seemed strikingly similar to the original episode, with Nicholas Hoult.

It's not by any means shot-for-shot, but that's fair commentary. It's very similar to the first episode of U.K. "Skins".

I think it wasn't as difficult to translate as perhaps we thought, but the second episode of MTV "Skins" is a completely original episode reflecting no story in the U.K. series.

And then there a couple of episodes that are somewhere in-between, and as the series goes on, the imaginations of our writers kick in and are quite original.











Some British shows, like "The Office", have translated quite well, but others like "Cold Feet" didn't reach the American audience.

Why did you think "Skins" was a good candidate for an American version?

The reason that the show went well in the U.K. is that there was a gap in the market for a realistic teen show, and looking around, it didn't seem like that gap in American television was being particularly filled by anything.

But the whole thing was driven by people in the U.S. asking us if we would come. We were responding to interest from the U.S. market.






How can "Skins" differentiate itself from the many other teen dramas on TV here?

The differences seem minor, but in actual effect. are quite significant.

All the kids in the show are played by actors who are the same age as their characters. That isn't that normal either in the U.S. or the U.K. teen shows. Our cast really are 16, 17, with a few who are 18 years old.

And the other element is that the show is written to a large extent by very young writers who are in their early twenties. We also have a lot of teenagers who are part of our writing process and inform everything we do.






Do you think that it's not about very wealthy teenagers, like "Gossip Girl" or "90210", makes it easier to relate to?

I think that's just one of those things that happened by accident because we just tell the stories the young people who work with us want to tell, and we've got nothing against telling stories about more prosperous kids, but that's just not the way the stories came out...

I should say that in the U.K., where we've written the original show for five years, we are great fans of American teen dramas, like "The O.C." and "Buffy", which we watched religiously, so it's not that we think we're superior in any way.

We're just different.






American culture is obviously different than British culture, but are adolescents similar no matter where they live?

There's a certain amount of commonality among teenagers in the Western developed world. They are involved in very intense friendships. They are on the brink of sexual awareness; they are often flirting with illegal substances and considering to what extent they are going to misbehave from their parents' point of view.

Of course, all the other elements, that are the nuances of the culture, are totally dependent on the location, and that's why MTV "Skins" has a large team of American writers here.











In the U.K., you switch the cast every two years, creating these "generations" of characters and story-lines.

American audiences aren't used to that on scripted shows. How will you handle that here?

It's not common in the U.K. either, and we're currently in our fifth season and third cast. It did cause a bit of a stir when it first happened.

But our show is about teens in their last two years of high school, and when that's over we have to go back and start again. There was a certain nervousness about it, but the fans came to appreciate the new casts and liked it a lot.






Not only is your show an academy of sorts for young writers, but it's a launching pad for young actors, like Nicholas Hoult and Dev Patel, who went on to Slumdog Millionaire.

I do have a lot of pride in the cast of "Skins", but I also think that one should be very careful not to take credit for actors' achievements. What's made them successful is their own talent.

I do have a fond memory of picking Dev Patel out of a lineup in an audition, because I thought he was funny and had big ears, which were the two reasons my attention was drawn to him.

But someone else would've discovered Dev if we hadn't. I'm sure of it.






So we're on all alert that these MTV "Skins" actors you've cast may be a big deal too.

Absolutely. And you'll find that they're nothing like the U.K. actors.

http://www.tvsquad.com/2010/11/02/mtvs-skins-preview/