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Poldark tsar Heida Reed lets us in on a new series secrets – be prepared ofr some unxepected plot twist!
‘Oh God, I’m so not English. I’ve just failed the test!’ wails Poldark star Heida Reed, as she attempts to pour tea into fine china cups while neglecting to use the strainer provided. We’re taking afternoon tea at a posh London hotel and the 28-year- old Icelandic actress puts down the teapot in defeat. ‘I love this tea, it’s the best I’ve ever had,’ she says with a bemused smile. ‘But British people are incredibly obsessed with tea, especially the PG Tip [sic].’
Luckily, you can forgive Heida (pronounced Hay- da) for not properly ‘getting’ tea because she’s thoroughly excellent company. Eight million of you will know her as Elizabeth from BBC One’s smash Sunday-night period drama Poldark; the buttoned-up, repressed, subdued first love of dashing hero Ross Poldark (Aidan Turner), who ends up unhappily married to his cousin, the somewhat less dashing Francis (Kyle Soller). ‘I am nothing like Elizabeth!’ exclaims Heida, whose Twitter biog reads ‘frequent idiot’. ‘I’m such a talkative person, I rarely shut up. I’m very goofy, I don’t take myself too seriously and I like to make fun of myself.’ Without her Poldark guise (the elaborately pinned hair, corset and 18th- century gown), the actress goes unrecognised by the scores of women nibbling on scones around us – and I’d wager they are all avid viewers of the drama. Only on closer inspection do you notice how ridiculously beautiful Heida is, with her smiling green eyes, perfect bone structure and immaculate skin. (An ex-model, she’s fanatical about cleansing her face, she says, having suffered mild acne in recent years and fretting about its impact on her career.)
But never mind all that – on to the most pressing issue of the day. Does series two of Poldark – which hits our screens next month – feature more topless scything from Aidan Turner? As it was filmed during winter, we’ve heard that it won’t. ‘Well, there is some scything but it’s not Ross,’ says Heida. Disappointing news indeed. Last year, viewers went wild for that scene when an extremely buff Poldark sultrily reaped his hay, sans shirt. When a photograph emerged of Aidan’s pecs being defined and burnished by a make-up artist, it did nothing to dampen female ardour and the 33-year- old Irish actor was catapulted to heart-throb status. Heida smiles: ‘It’s nice to be in a show that has an iconic moment. But I hope that people enjoy it for more than a topless scene. I think the British public wanted a Mr Darcy moment – there hadn’t
been anything like Colin Firth coming out of the lake for a while. [Aidan] looks great, I understand the popularity.’
Does she personally find him sexy? ‘Who doesn’t? Of course!’ she smiles. ‘I think a part of you is always attracted to the person your character is attracted to. That’s a part of my acting process.’ She’s too polite to say it, but I get the sense she finds the outpouring of lust for Aidan a little tiresome. ‘There are some women who think that men being objectified is some sort of cosmic retribution. I’ve heard, “It’s their turn now,”’ she says, serious for the first time. ‘I don’t think that’s a progressive way of thinking. As a feminist, I think feminism is about gender equality across the board. We shouldn’t objectify anyone. Of course, there’s an element that’s fun and it can be harmless, but there’s also a serious element.’
A quick Poldark primer, in case your TV was broken for the duration of last year: based on Winston Graham’s historical novels (and previously adapted for TV in the 1970s), the story begins in 1783 in a Cornish coastal mining community. The first series sees Ross Poldark return home from the American War of Independence to discover his family mining business is failing and his childhood sweetheart, Elizabeth (believing him dead), has married his drippy cousin Francis – who, unfortunately, doesn’t scythe in such a sexy way. Ross goes on to fall in love with and then marry his maid Demelza, whom he rescues from poverty and domestic violence. But he still holds a torch for Elizabeth – and the feeling is reciprocated although not acted on…yet.
Heida is clear on which man she’d choose: ‘Ross, definitely. But he has a massive pride issue, he feels like he’s above it all and he’s allowed to break the rules for the greater good. And Francis is underrated. Elizabeth thought he’d be a good husband and father, and he probably would have Clockwise, from top: Heida and co-stars Eleanor Tomlinson and Aidan Turner with their Bafta win in May; on-screen with Aidan in
a cast selfie; in her role as Elizabeth been, had he not been riddled with insecurities once Ross came back.’ While Elizabeth spends much of series one biting her tongue and accepting her fate, in series two things take a dramatic turn. Several dramatic turns, in fact. ‘It starts in a very sensitive place – Ross and Demelza have lost their child, which Elizabeth feels slightly responsible for [the little girl succumbs to a highly contagious virus that she catches from Elizabeth and Francis]. So there’s a rift between the couples that they’re all trying to fix,’ says Heida. ‘Elizabeth and Francis’s relationship becomes stronger, and he redeems himself a bit. It’s sweet for a while…before the s**t hits the fan.’ She pauses to slather jam on a scone. ‘There’s an insane turn of events – for Elizabeth more than anyone else. She goes through an incredible amount of change.’
Series one was about setting out the show’s stall, she says, while series two is darker – both literally (it’s winter) and figuratively, as it drills down into the characters’ true feelings and motivations, while throwing in some unsettling plot twists. ‘Elizabeth always needs to feel like she has a special place in Ross’s heart. When she believes that’s not the case she starts working towards that, and he always responds. We get to see a more manipulative side to her,’ says Heida. It’s a love triangle that looks set to run and run – filming of the third series commences in the autumn, and there’s talk of six series in total, each covering two of Graham’s 12 novels.
Relationships are far less tortuous off set, with the young cast getting along famously. ‘If friendship was the only thing I got out of [being in Poldark], I would have been happy. I see them all the time and I know they’ll be in my life for ever,’ says Heida. ‘There’s Eleanor [Tomlinson, who plays Demelza], Ruby [Bentall, who plays Verity Poldark], Jack [Farthing, who plays George Warleggan], Kyle [Francis] and Luke [Norris, who plays Dr Dwight Enys]. Aidan is part of it too, but he’s very busy and doesn’t live in London like the rest of us – he’s in Dublin.
‘Last year I took Eleanor, Jack, Kyle and Ruby to Iceland for a week – we drove around and spent some time in my grandmother’s cottage. Iceland has always been known for its incredible otherworldly landscape and quirkiness,’ she says – and, of course, the fairy-tale success of its football team in reaching the Euro 2016 quarter finals has won it a few more fans. ‘We were the Cinderella story of the championship and people always seem to root for that.’ Did she watch? ‘Of course! I called my dad after every game. We’re such a small island nation, so we stick together very tightly. We’re extremely proud. Always have been, always will be.’
Back in London, the cast goes to the pub and tries to see each other’s plays. They have less time for socialising while filming in Cornwall, with the working day starting at 5am to get Heida into ‘ that corset. I hate it – it’s so tight and I can only eat soup and smoothies when I’m wearing it,’ and not finishing until around 8pm. But Heida and Ruby rent a lodge together on location, and have the gang round to play Icelandic card games so complicated that they keep having to stop for Heida to Google the rules. As to why they all clicked, she says: ‘We seem to want the same things out of life. We’re not chasing that Hollywood high, just good stories and working with good people, and doing stuff we’re passionate about. And we all respect the project – we take it seriously as a job, not as something that might bring us glory.’
That’s not to say she lacks ambition. Growing up on the outskirts of Reykjavik, with a pianist father and dental hygienist mother (which
I hate that corset. It’s so tight I can only eat soup and smoothies while wearing it