Daily Mail - Daily Mail Weekend Magazine
I wish I hadn’t looked SO FIT last time!
With Poldark set to return, Aidan Turner tells how he’s paying the price for that scything scene, why he won’t let fame change him – and what’s in store for his dashing hero next
Hold on to your tricorns and t ighten those breeches – Poldark’s about to gallop back onto our screens and put some late- summer sizzle into Sunday nights. The pulsating saga of seething family tensions, thwarted love and failing copper mines in 18th-century Cornwall was the most talked about drama of last year, pulling in some eight million viewers a week and turning its star Aidan Turner into a heart- throb overnight as dashing hero Captain Ross Poldark.
It’s fair to say that since the night he burst shirtless onto the screen scything a field in episode three, both Aidan’s career and his everyday life have undergone an explosion. Until then best known as dwarf Kili in the Hobbit films, he shot straight to the top of every casting director’s wish list and has even been tipped to be the next James Bond.
Today, however, he confesses to a couple of surprising regrets over the show that transformed his life. ‘It was my idea to take my top off in that scything scene and that was probably a huge mistake,’ he laughs. ‘But it just seemed to make sense to me. Ross is in the field, it’s a really hot day, there’s a lot of work to do and it seemed to me it wouldn’t have been realistic for him to keep his top on. It was never supposed to be sexually provocative, and I was a little bit taken aback at the reaction, but it wasn’t the worst thing that could have happened to the show because it put us on the map a bit.’
Perhaps even more surprisingly, he adds, ‘ I also think I got myself a bit
too fit for series one, and I’m paying the price for it now. I’ve been kicking myself, saying, “Why did I set Ross up that way, why did I train so hard?” At the time I didn’t think it would be too difficult to maintain the look I had in the first series, but actually it has been. This year I’ve taken on four or five acting jobs, which wasn’t perhaps the greatest plan in the world. I felt a bit burnt-out coming into this series and it’s made getting into shape for Poldark that much harder.’
But fear not ladies, he doesn’t look like he’s carrying an ounce of surplus fat today as he relaxes in his caravan between filming scenes on the second series, still dressed in Poldark’s tight-fitting cream linen suit, white shirt and slightly scuffed leather riding boots. ‘Ah, but you haven’t seen beneath the waistcoat,’ twinkles the 33-yearold Dubliner, roaring with laughter. ‘That might be a different story.’
Fans can judge for themselves when they’re treated to Aidan’s naked torso in the very first episode of the new series, again based on Winston Graham’s novels, which starts on 4 September. Ross is deep inside his mine, hammering away at the rocks in the desperate search for a new vein of copper to help alleviate the crippling financial worries that have beset him and his wife Demelza. With sweat streaming from every pore, the sixpack is still very much in evidence.
The first series followed Captain Ross Poldark as he returned from fighting in the American War of Independence in 1783 to find his father had died, the family estate had gone to ruin and his sweetheart Elizabeth was betrothed to his cousin Francis. Over the course of the series, Ross brought his estate back to life, installed urchin Demelza as kitchen maid and reopened the family copper mine. Ross and Demelza fell in love and married, shocking the local gentry, but their baby daughter Julia tragically died of diphtheria. After a dispute with his business rival George Warlegga n br oug ht Ross’s mine to the br in k of closure, Ross encouraged the local impoverished mineworker fami l ies to help themselves to the cargo coming ashore from Warleggan’s new ship when it was wrecked off Poldark’s land. But there were violent scenes on the beach and Warleggan’s cousin Matthew, who had been on the ship, was found dead.
‘Dating an actress can be quite dull and taxing’
Now, as the show returns, Ross is facing the hangman’s noose on charges of theft, inciting a riot and murder.
‘We pick up in series two exactly where we left off,’ says Aidan. ‘It’s an incredibly hard time for Ross and Demelza. They’ve lost Julia, they’re having trouble with the mine and he’s facing execution. It’s as bad as it’s ever been for them both. It breaks Ross to see Demelza suffering because he can’t do anything about it. Ross needs to be in command, but this is completely out of his control. Ross and Demelza are broke too and in the first few episodes you see them selling their furniture, which is desperate and humiliating for them. It’s not a bright, breezy start at all, but for an actor it’s certainly exciting to play. Ross is going to have to hit rock bottom before he starts to come up again.’
Aside from Poldark’s money worries, Aidan reveals his character’s personal life will become tangled too as the love triangle between Ross, Demelza (played by Eleanor Tomlinson) and El izabeth ( Heida Reed) rears its head again. ‘ Ross’s relationship with Demelza will suf fer at the hands of his relationship with Elizabeth in this series,’ he says. ‘It’s hard to know why he can’t just let Elizabeth go but he idealised her for so long when he was away at war that he can’t turn those feelings off. His marriage isn’t going so well and he makes a big mistake that almost destroys his relationship with Demelza.’
It was revealed earlier this month that a scene in the original book where Ross rapes Elizabeth has been toned down for the TV series. ‘ It seems consensual in the show and it just seems right,’ says Aidan. ‘He goes to talk. He doesn’t go to commit a crime. They talk and it seems like there is still this spark between them, this unfinished business emotion- ally. Certainly that’s how Ross feels. He doesn’t force himself upon her.’
There will be fisticuffs though as Ross, living on the very edge, gets embroiled in several fights with archrival George Warleggan, played by Jack Farthing. ‘ Ross’s feud with George hits new heights in this series,’ says Aidan. ‘George wants to destroy Poldark and he’s been training and boxing so he can handle himself. He’s quite vicious in some of our fights, there’s a lot of strangling, throwing ourselves into bookcases and smashing glasses. I put his head in a fire at one stage.’
It all adds up to a darker feel in both the tone and content of the new series, helped by the fact it was filmed in the harsh Cornish autumn and winter. There’ll be more of it too, as the series has been expanded from eight episodes to ten because of what executive producer Karen Thrussell describes as the ‘explosive content’. ‘There’s so much more of this story to tell,’ says Aidan, ‘so it’s great the first series was so popular. Ross has everything. He’s very complex – there’s no black and white with him. He’s a man of principle, but at the same time he’s never dull. I can’t imagine ever getting bored.’
Which is just as well as series three will go into production this autumn while series two is still being screened. In the interim there’s been some downtime for Aidan, but he well knows the hysteria surrounding him is
‘There’s a lot of strangling and smashing glasses’
unlikely to die down soon. He now gets fan mail from all over the world, especially parcels of chocolate from Japan (‘I must have told people there I like sweets,’ he says with bemusement) and bizarre Poldark-themed gifts. ‘I’ve just had another knitted Ross through the post,’ he laughs. ‘They’re becoming quite the thing.’
And the lengths fans will go to for a glimpse of him, he says, are quite astonishing. ‘It does get quite strange. One day when we finished filming I got to the side of a cliff and there was a fan there. I’d seen her before, she was in New Zealand at the Hobbit premiere and she’d followed me around there, and on this day there she was down on the cliff. It’s quite remote here in Cornwall and even once you get here it’s difficult to find us on location – and it’s very dangerous to go climbing over those cliffs. I said, “What are you doing down there?” and she said, “I flew over from Switzerland today. I tried to find out where you were online, and somebody tweeted to me that you were on location. I had a feeling you’d be here today and now I’m here too.” It’s definitely strange… but it’s also quite endearing. There are people I admire, but I don’t think my admiration for anybody could compel me to find them at the side of a cliff in the remotest part of the UK... but whatever floats your boat, you know?’
For someone less easygoing, it could all add up to a slightly unsettling experience. ‘ It doesn’t rattle me at all,’ says Aidan. ‘I’ve never been rattled by anything – maybe I’m not scared that easily. I think generally all of that comes from a good place, and my fans are really kind and generous. And there are lovely parts to my life too – I mean, I went to Wimbledon this summer and I was sitting next to Stanley Tucci and Bear Grylls. Watching tennis and wearing a nice suit somebody gave me for free? Brilliant! Where would you get that sort of day otherwise?
‘But I won’t allow this being- acelebrity business to change my life. I don’t go to nightclubs, I don’t date famous people, I don’t do adverts. I’m not interested in any of that. It doesn’t do me any favours and it doesn’t feel healthy to me to allow myself into that realm. I’m an actor first and foremost, and work is what I want to do.’
He says proudly that he inherits his work ethic from his parents, electrician father Pat and accountant mother Eileen, who still live in Clondalkin, Dublin, where Aidan and his elder brother Colin were raised. ‘They’re honest, hard-working people, and that’s a light in them that I’ve always wanted to follow,’ he says. ‘They’re an inspiration to me in that way. My dad’s still working hard although he must be 62 now. And my mum, well, I think it was two weeks after giving birth to me she was back at work again, and she’s still working hard. She’s my accountant in fact, which is great because it means I know the taxman won’t be knocking at my door!’
It was his mother who encouraged the young Aidan to seek the world of performance via the unlikely avenue of ballroom dancing lessons. ‘What mother gets her son into dancing?’ he laughs. ‘We were living in an area of Dublin that was a little bit, I guess, on the dangerous side, and I think my mum wanted to get me off the streets.’ As it turned out, he discovered a talent for it and ended up representing Ireland in ballroom competitions.
The level of fame has risen exponentially since those days, but you still get the impression Aidan doesn’t real ise quite how famous he’s become. ‘It’s probably true to say I’m in denial about it,’ he says. ‘I don’t know how healthy that is but it works for me right now. I don’t have a huge aversion to being famous, it just doesn’t do a lot for me because I’m busy concentrating on getting Poldark right. When I’m filming I’m working 12-hour days then going to the gym for an hour before spending a couple of hours learning lines for the next day. It’s hard. You think you’re going to get weekends off and then you don’t, for whatever reason, so there’s not even free time then.
‘But don’t get me wrong, I really enjoy being a part of Poldark and we have a great position to build on. There’s nothing like coming back with a series that’s been successful because this job revolves around confidence and I imagine that takes a serious knock if you only just scraped a second series. I’d have just pulled myself up by the bootstraps and got on with it if that had been the case with Poldark, but I think it would have been hard.’
Still single at 33, he seems to be at something of a romantic crossroads. His last relationship was with Penny Dreadful star Sarah Greene, who’s also Irish and who received an Olivier award nomination for her performance in the West End production of The Cripple Of Inishmaan. They were together for five years until last November. Ask him about dating an actress today, though, and his response is surprising. ‘If you’re in my business and you find somebody who does exactly what you do, and you’re living with them, then you’re in the business all the time. You go home, you talk about the casting directors, you talk about the press, you talk about the next jobs you’re doing – it can become quite dull and taxing. There’s nothing like going out with somebody who doesn’t even care what you’re doing let alone have anything to say about it! Because then it boils down to what the real things are, you know? You’re left with the epicentre, the crux of it, what your relationship really is. And I think that’s what turns me on.’
Poldark returns on Sunday 4 September at 9pm on BBC1.