For our April cover story [Issue 16], Elizabeth Aubrey caught up with actor Aidan Turner to discuss his current life on stage at the National Theatre, becoming a household name with BBC’s revival of Poldark, and his everlasting love for the theatre – check out the exclusive excerpt below
Turner arrived at our photoshoot in central London straight from another full day of rehearsals at the National Theatre, where his new play, Les Liaisons Dangereuses was due to open on March 21st.
“I had months and months of travelling back and forth between Bristol, where Rivals was filmed, and London [where he lives with his wife and four-year-old son], and I thought it would a great idea to take one weekend off after I wrapped for Rivals and go straight into a really intense rehearsal for this play,” he explained.
Turner stars as Vicomte de Valmont in the play alongside the equally talented Lesley Manville and Monica Barbaro.
“You finish the day and you’re absolutely physically and mentally exhausted,” he says of the rehearsals.
“It’s two hours [in length] and myself and Lesley hardly leave the stage at all and [we’re] telling the entire story from the very beginning to the very, very end. It’s very challenging and even with a couple of weeks to go, it still feels there’s a lot of work to do. But it’s really rewarding work.”
Of his and Manville’s leads, he says “they’re both really dark characters. They destroy people’s lives. They get their kicks by what we’d describe as cancelling people, publicly shaming people by having relationships with them, ruining their reputation. He’s very narcissistic, selfish and manipulative. He’s got a real silver tongue,” he laughs, “but an interesting character to play.”
Turner was a frequent player on the stage after he left the Gaiety School of Acting in his native Dublin in 2004. “I sort of exclusively did theatre for about four or five years in Ireland,” he says – including a play straight out of drama school at The Abbey Theatre – Ireland’s national theatre.
His big break on screen came in 2009 playing a brooding Gabriel Rosetti in Desperate Romantics. He had a standout role in supernatural drama Being Human – a show watched by Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson – who spotted him in this and cast him in The Hobbit trilogy, giving him his first taste of Hollywood.
Elsewhere in the interview, Turner explores Rivals season two, including meeting the late Jilly Cooper, working with David Tennant and what to expect from his character in the new season.
Les Liaisons Dangereuses has limited availability and runs until June 6th 2026.
Read the full interview, including talk about Disney+ ‘Rivals’ season 2, and see the whole shoot in Something About Rocks issue 16, available now.
