In an interview with Collider for the film The Man who Killed Hitler and then the Bigfoot, Aidan Turner talks about leaving Poldark and his future plans.
Asked about how it felt now Poldark is completed Aidan said:
It’s really strange, and it’s only just
happened. Today is Monday (February 4, 2019) and we wrapped on Friday (February
1, 2019) in the UK. So, I wrapped and then flew over to Los Angeles, so to be
honest, it’s quite a fresh experience. I’m still just adjusting. It’s been a
very long time and, obviously, a very big job for me. Even though it hasn’t
been all of the year, it takes six months to shoot the show, and then there are
a lot of press engagements and things like post-production ADR, so the entire
job takes a lot of the year, maybe seven months, in total. And I’m in most of
the scenes, so it’s a very busy job. So, maybe it’s a little early to answer
that question for me. I don’t know quite how it feels yet. It doesn’t quite
feel real. It feels like I’ve got to have a sleep after this movie tonight,
wake up tomorrow morning, and put a tricorn hat back on and jump on a horse. It
doesn’t feel like it’s quite over yet. But that being said, it does feel like
we naturally came to an end. I know there are some more books that Winston
Graham has written, and they happen a lot later in Ross’ life, about 15 years
down the road, or even a little bit longer, so it just feels like we’ve
naturally come to an end with it. I’m very proud of our show and what we’ve
achieved, and the demographic of the audience that we’ve managed to obtain by
putting on this show. It’s been a real success, and I’m glad that we got to
finish the stories as far as we could go with it. I think we’re all very proud
of the show, but like everything, there does come a time to move on, and
naturally, we had to. It’s nice that we got to finish the stories, and that we
didn’t have to finish early or compromise, in any way. I think we’ve done a
great job, and the fifth series is looking like it might be one of the
strongest. It’s a strange feeling to speak to you and, for the first time,
actually hear somebody else, who’s not part of the production, say that it’s
finished and all over. It’s odd, but I think we’re all ready to take on the next
project.
Would Aidan consider another period piece?
I think, if the material is appealing, all
bets are off. I don’t think it matters, necessarily, what the genre is. If the
script is really strong, and you feel like a character appeals to you and the
story appeals to you, that’s it. I think it becomes difficult terrain for an
actor, when you start to choose based on what era you want to perform in. Maybe
for some actors it works okay, but I don’t know. I find that troubling because
you could miss out on some of the really good stuff, if you don’t want to, for
instance, play in a 19th century period drama, or you’ve done something
that’s Victorian, so you don’t want to anymore, or particular parts of American
history don’t appeal to you, so you decide not to read a script based on that.
I think that can be tricky because you can miss a lot of good stuff that comes
through. So, no, I don’t really look at it that way. It’s gonna be nice, for
the first time in years, I’m actually available completely and my schedule is
free, to meet some people, read some scripts, and just see what’s out there
now, and then make some judgements based on that, as opposed to narrowing down
my search results, as a result of me not wanting to put on a tricorn hat again
or a piece of costume, or whatever. I’m just gonna see what’s out there. It’s
an exciting time.
 |
| Lieutenant of Inishmore |
Does he have any projects planned?
No, I don’t. I was out on the West End, doing
a Martin McDonagh play (“The
Lieutenant Of Inishmore”). Martin McDonagh is one
of my favorite writers, and I did a play in the West End, right before I
started the fifth and last series of Poldark. I really enjoyed that.
There’s a possibilities of getting back on stage quite soon and doing
something. There’s the possibility of maybe working stateside for a little
while, but I just don’t know. For years, I’ve been very lucky and I’ve had jobs
lined up. I could work around Poldark with different things, like
this great Bob Krzykowski movie. I could squeeze all of these in because I had
time, but it was always a tight squeeze. I had to be careful of getting a
haircut, or of losing weight, or of putting on weight, or even simple things
like what country I would be in because I would need to get to fittings. So,
right now, it’s nice to have that freedom. I think a little break is probably
not a bad thing for me, just to consider where I’ll be going from here. It’s
nice to be free, for the first time in awhile, to see what’s out there, as
opposed to the usual actor thing that will probably never go away, which is the
constant fear of never working again, or the fear of just having to take jobs
because jobs present themselves. I can enjoy a position, even for a small
amount of time, where I don’t have to do that.
Would he like to do Broadway?
Yeah, I really would love to. There’s always a
possibility, when you do a play that’s successful on a West End production,
that you could get a transfer. There was a possibility in the pipeline, when we
were doing our show, but with dates and other things, we were going to lose
some actors and it was just gonna be quite difficult. That would be an amazing
thing to do. I think you’d struggle to find an actor on the planet who hasn’t
got that on a bucket list of some sort, where they want to do at least a small
run of a Broadway play. That would be quite cool, but it’s just finding the
right job, at the right time. It’s definitely something that I would strongly
consider.
