Aidan Turner has revealed that he never had to audition for his role in hit series Poldark.
The Dubliner, who’s become a TV heartthrob since that Poldark shirtless scene, admitted that his role in the BBC series was the first job he’s ever been offered without having to audition for it.
“I usually audition for things but they just sent me the scripts and the books, and asked me if I wanted to play the role,” he told Radio Times.
First time: This is the first role Aidan was ever offered without auditioning first | TWITTER
The 32-year-old was given three months to get into character – which included practicing his English accent, getting fit, taking up horse riding lessons and, oddly enough, figuring out what to do with his hair.
“It gave me tonnes of time to keep reading the books and the script and to figure out how I see the character and mentally prepare for it, get the accent down, get in shape, have horse riding lessons.
Preparation: Aidan had just three months to prepare for Poldark role | BRIAN MCEVOY
“Physically, I saw Ross in a certain way. He’s strong, does a lot of manual labour, if he’s not on the horse he’s down a mine, he’s building stuff, he’s got a farm… It just made sense for him to be fit and strong.”
“So I went to the gym a bit more, ate a little less, all those boring things. Unfortunately, there’s no little pill you can take to grow a six-pack.”
Not great: Aidan admitted he wasn’t great at mastering the scything skill
Speaking about his notorious scything scene on the show, Aidan admitted that he doesn’t think he mastered the skill very well.
“Anyone who knows scything looked at that scene and thought, ‘Oh, dear God, what is he doing?’ A couple of experts criticised my technique and they were dead right.
“There was an expert there, looking at me while I was doing it and shaking his head. I’d go back and say, ‘Show me again,’ just to make him happy, and then I’d get back in front of the camera and carry on swinging it around,” he added.
