Netflix's Steve writer reveals why the film underwent huge changes from the hit novel Shy

That source material is the 2023 novella Shy by acclaimed writer Max Porter, which followed events at a reform school for boys with behavioural difficulties in the mid-90s. In the novella, they are told from the perspective of its titular teenaged protagonist.

Porter has adapted his own work from the screen, but – as you can probably tell from the title change – he has somewhat altered the focus of his story. Although the role of troubled teen Shy is still a major one, the writer has significantly fleshed out the character of the school's overworked head teacher Steve, played by Murphy.

"It just was never a question of doing the book directly or any kind of conventional adaptation," he told RadioTimes.com about the decision to shift focus. "I'm not really into illustrative adaptations where you're basically just plunking it from one medium into another – I don't think it would have generated anything interesting."

But there was another reason, too, that Porter wanted to make the change.

"I wanted to write a part for Cillian that would really push him into a new and difficult space," he explained. "So I knew that we were going to keep the Shy story, but build the film around this teacher.

"And that then became a beautiful few months, thinking and working and trying to find his dialogue, trying to find his energy, realising that he was going to be struggling in his own way, and how that struggle would map against Shy. So creating a kind of reflective surface across the teenage experience and the teacher experience."

Because of this change, most of the actors didn't need to spend too much time with the novella in preparation for the film – but the one major exception was Jay Lycurgo, who stars as Shy.

"I read the book all the time to the point that when I was in workshops with Max and Cillian, they were saying there is a script to read also," the actor explained. "But that's the thing, I was kind of fortunate in that sense that the book is just filled with so much detail about Shy that I could lose myself and it just turned into my biggest resource."

He continued: "Every day when I was on set, you would find me in the corner with my Walkman, with my headphones on, just reading the book, probably reading the same passage again.

"But it just helped me stay in what he's thinking, what his imagination is, what his relationship is with his mum, what he hopes was his ambition. So it was an incredible resource."

"I mean, [Lycurgo's] copy of it was weathered like a Bible!" Porter added. "He carried it around, and I made him mixtapes and playlists. So all the time he had Shy's sounds in his ears, and he really went in on the book in a way that no one else needed to – everyone else the script would sustain them."

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