Cliffside galloping a thrill for Poldark star
BEVERLY HILLS, California — Before starting an interview, Aidan Turner checks that he won’t be a bother.
“If I need to shut up a bit, let me know, OK?” the Irish actor called out to others using a hotel conference area. “You don’t mind if I smoke this vapour thing?” Turner then inquired of a reporter sitting opposite him.
Very considerate, much like Ross Poldark, the 18th-century soldier-turned-mine-owner he plays in PBS’ Poldark. The remake of the 1970s drama series begins its second season today on Masterpiece with a two-hour episode (8-10 p.m).
The reincarnated Poldark struck some viewers as more of a “do-gooder” than Robin Ellis’ portrayal of a moral but wilful man in the original series, Turner acknowledges. But he says change is ahead for the Revolutionary War veteran engaged in new fights on his home turf of Cornwall, England.
When the series first began, Turner said, he realized that a sweeping dramatic arc was needed to reveal Poldark’s character, for better and worse. After betrayals, a wrenching family death and criminal charges that could cost him his life, Ross isn’t Mr. Perfect anymore.
“I knew we were going to have to crash him down, and he makes huge blunders and mistakes, unforgivable kind of actions this season,” Turner said. While his “heart is there,” he said, Poldark thrashes opponents and cruelly confronts his lost love, Elizabeth, played by Heida Reed.
Sporting a black leather jacket and a beard nearly as dark, the actor himself looks a bit dangerous. But he’s affable, smiles freely and is far more engagingly talkative than his character.
Turner’s grin is especially notable when he discusses scenes in which his character guides a galloping horse along the Cornish cliffs. They’re a staple of the series and always “thrilling” to shoot, he said.
“You finish a take and think, ‘This is my job? How lucky am I to do this?’ ” he said.
But his favourite season-two scene takes place in a courtroom, with Poldark defending himself against murder and other crimes.
“These days, you don’t have a lot of time to learn the lines and prep. You might give yourself a week ahead or a few days. I gave myself a month or five weeks of learning the dialogue and playing with it,” he said.
“I was quite happy with how it turned out. It reminded me of the old theatre days, with four or five pages of really chunky stuff.”
He also enjoys the domestic turns in which Poldark and wife Demelza, played by Eleanor Tomlinson, simply talk. “She’s such a wonderful performer. She’s so real, so truthful,” Turner said of his co-star.