Aidan Turner speaks to Backstage about energy dynamics and tennis in new drama Fifteen-Love

Jul 22, 2023 at 1:15 AM
Aidan Turner speaks to Backstage about energy dynamics and tennis in new drama Fifteen-Love

Poldark star Aidan Turner believes his new collection will get audiences questioning why they select to consider sure variations of occasions.

In Fifteen-Love, the actor performs a tennis coach accused of misconduct by a former participant – and at first, it is not clear who’s telling the reality.

Turner advised Sky News’ Backstage podcast it was one thing of a lesson by way of reserving judgement.

“In our first couple of episodes we’re playing with that – where’s the truth in this relationship?” he stated. “As an audience, who do we believe and on what grounds, and with no evidence who’s coming across as somebody who’s believable or not?

“Okay, simply because someone is likely to be slightly messy or chaotic of their life or no matter, and one other particular person may need fairly a subdued disposition, why is it that we go for that particular person versus someone else? And ought to we be extra cautious with our decisions?

“Because that’s quite a dangerous thing, to make those initial judgements on somebody just because of the way they might hold themselves or conduct themselves that has actually nothing to do with the truth of what the situation is. And therein lies the trouble with this kind of situation, you know: who do we believe in, and on what basis?”

While the present is ready on the earth of tennis, it’s actually about exploring energy and relationships relatively than the game itself. Turner says it displays real-world points, which till 2022 meant a sports activities coach was not sure by the identical legal guidelines relating to positions of belief as, say, a instructor would have been.

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“I remember the initial conversations with Hania [Elkington], our writer, and she was just explaining to me the Sexual Offences Act and how that worked, and how a person of trust with a relationship – like if you had a doctor and a patient, or a teacher and a student, that kind of thing – how that that didn’t correlate with coaches,” he stated.

“So you may have a relationship with someone you have been teaching and this loophole has now been stuffed in however for therefore lengthy this had been an enormous downside that folks have been simply not speaking about for some cause, and that was actually, actually stunning to me.

“That’s something else I think our show does point to, is: what are the safeguards now? What are the parameters? How do we protect players? What should we expect with coaches and what isn’t right?”

Ella Lily Hyland and Aidan Turner in Fifteen-Love. Pic: Prime Video
Image:
Turner on set with co-star Ella Lily Hyland. Pic: Prime Video

Turner’s co-star, Ella Lily Hyland, who performs his accuser, Justine, stated that seeing the areas the place tennis stars prepare helped her to get in to character.

“I think when you’re in those environments, you can just see it and imagine it, I guess,” she stated. “And maybe that’s because we were telling that particular story so sometimes it can kind of be in your head but [there were also] countless accounts of this kind of thing, like you could research for years, really sadly.”

While Turner is maybe greatest recognized for his main function within the interval drama Poldark, different current characters he is taken on have included a medical psychologist in police drama The Suspect and Leonardo Da Vinci in a biopic collection concerning the artist.

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But Fifteen-Love introduced a chance he’d not had earlier than.

“I think he’s like no other character I’ve played before, off the bat I would say that. On reading the first couple of scripts, I thought they’re really smart. I think Hania is a brilliant writer, I think there’s lots of things that she’s saying in this story that need to be said, I think it feels important and I think it’s just beautifully well-balanced with great characters.”

Plus it gave Turner a chance to brush up on his tennis expertise – one thing he admits he did want.

“I’d done a bit, played a lot of badminton and I thought that would correlate, stupidly – it doesn’t, it’s an entirely different sport. They both have handles and rackets, that’s it, there’s no other comparison!

“So yeah, it was tough, it was onerous. I did not do fairly as a lot coaching as the opposite guys did, however I did a bit and I used to be all proper, I believe I’m convincing as a coach… I believe!”

Fifteen-Love is out on Prime Video. Hear our assessment within the newest episode of Backstage, the movie and TV podcast from Sky News