{"id":6766,"date":"2016-10-06T16:23:40","date_gmt":"2016-10-06T20:23:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/aidan-turner\/"},"modified":"2016-10-06T16:24:18","modified_gmt":"2016-10-06T20:24:18","slug":"aidan-turner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/aidan-turner\/","title":{"rendered":"Aidan Turner"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"3-Aidan-Turner\"The period drama Poldark<\/em> tells the story of a heroic British soldier who returns to his native Cornwall after fighting in the American War of Independence to find his father has died, his land is ruined and his betrothed is about to marry his cousin. Based on novels by Winston Graham, Poldark<\/em> was originally adapted for television in the \u201970s. Recently Mammoth Screen, which is owned by ITV, made a new version starring Aidan Turner as Captain Ross Poldark. It has broken ratings records on BBC One and garnered critical acclaim. Turner talks about playing this flawed hero whose strong moral compass leads him to do anything for his townspeople and for the woman he loves.<\/p>\n

TV DRAMA:<\/strong> Did it weigh on you to be reprising a character that was so beloved?
\nTURNER:<\/strong> It didn\u2019t really. You need to take responsibility for the role and know it\u2019s quite a coveted one. You want to nail it and get it right. I\u2019m aware that the first series was a big hit, but that\u2019s kind of where it ends. After that you take the books and Debbie [Horsfield]\u2019s scripts, and you work on it and then just go for it. Whatever research and work you\u2019ve done prior to shooting is what\u2019s going to be [on screen]. It\u2019s quite unhelpful to be on set and feel the weight of it and think, Are we getting this right? What did Robin Ellis [who played Poldark in the original series] do and did he do it better? I haven\u2019t seen the \u201970s version of the show and I don\u2019t plan to before I\u2019m finished with Poldark<\/em>. I wanted to make Ross mine and for me, garnering ownership over the role was about believing in myself and ridding myself of any self-doubt before the shoot.<\/p>\n

TV DRAMA:<\/strong> What appealed to you about Ross Poldark? He\u2019s a complex fellow, with a strong moral compass, but he\u2019s also impulsive.
\nTURNER:<\/strong> Yes, he\u2019s temperamental. He\u2019s not good at delegating any work to anyone else. He\u2019s a very proud guy and he wants the weight of the world on his shoulders. I think that\u2019s when he feels the most comfortable. He needs to be in control all the time. Not just because he solely trusts himself, but also if anything does go wrong he wants to bear the responsibility. I don\u2019t think he likes other people to feel like they\u2019ve been let down. He felt real to me from the very first read. There\u2019s a lot going on with this guy, and every emotion he\u2019s feeling I can recognize and seems to fit with what\u2019s happening in the story. I don\u2019t need to throw myself very much into that time of 1783 and imagine what\u2019s going on culturally, historically, politically in the country. I can just tune into what this guy is saying, what people are saying to him, his relationships with other people, and through that figure out emotionally where he\u2019s at. That seemed to happen all the way through reading the first couple of episodes. I related to him straightaway. He seemed like a modern man, but I don\u2019t mean modern as in contemporary; there\u2019s something about him that\u2019s moving with the times.<\/p>\n

TV DRAMA:<\/strong> What do you like about Ross?
\nTURNER:<\/strong> He\u2019s real for me. He\u2019s heavily flawed. That\u2019s what I loved so much about the first [season], people saying, He\u2019s this great upstanding moral character and he\u2019s the people\u2019s hero. He is all of those things, but he\u2019s a man as well. He makes some fundamental mistakes. Emotionally he\u2019s not adept at all. He can never really read Demelza [his wife]. He\u2019s not great at figuring out what she feels. He has trouble figuring out what he\u2019s done wrong. He\u2019s a proud guy too, so [he doesn\u2019t always say] What did I do? But he is thinking, Could I have caused this? He bypasses his emotional highway all the time. He\u2019s way more comfortable on a battlefield screaming orders at soldiers or down in a mine figuring out which vein of copper they\u2019re going to blow up with gunpowder than he is sitting down and telling Demelza how proud he is that they\u2019ve had a baby girl or how much in love with her he is.<\/p>\n

TV DRAMA:<\/strong> What can you tell us about season two?
\nTURNER:<\/strong> [At the end of season one] Ross gets arrested for inciting a riot and for the murder of Matthew Sanson. George Warleggan wants Ross put in jail and hanged, and he\u2019s the guy that can make it happen. So [at the start of season two], we see Ross getting arrested. He\u2019s brought to the courts and awaits the charge. He\u2019s released on bail so he can sort out his counsel and figure out what he\u2019s going to do. We left Demelza and Ross in [season] one on the side of the mountain in Cornwall letting go of a ribbon with their baby\u2019s name\u2014they\u2019ve just lost their child and now he\u2019s being arrested. In those days you didn\u2019t survive a jail sentence because the jail was so rampant with disease and the conditions were horrible. He doesn\u2019t think he\u2019s going to get there, but he\u2019s just putting all of those thoughts to the side. It\u2019s a tough start for them, for a couple that\u2019s had so many highs in the series, when they were making some money and having children and in the midst of marital bliss. Now it\u2019s rock bottom for them. You wonder, Are they going to survive it? What\u2019s going to happen if Ross does go to jail? Will Demelza be able to take care of this house? Where will the money come from? She can\u2019t support herself at all. It\u2019s a scary time for them. The only way is up for them. We\u2019ll see what happens!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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