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Aidan Turner caught everyone’s attention when he stripped down on Rivals — and he is now breaking down why he wanted Declan’s body to look authentic on screen.
“He’s a dad and he’s a journalist so I think it’d be a bit weird [to make him look too sculpted],” Turner, 41, exclusively told Us Weekly about his approach to those shirtless scenes. “I’ve often seen actors in films or TV shows where their character’s job doesn’t necessarily call for them to be [very buff]. So you see them naked and you are going, ‘Hold on a second, I know what that takes. I know the hours, the dieting and the strenuous physical activity. I know you don’t have time for that.’”
Turner didn’t want fans to question whether Declan’s appearance was too perfect after seeing him at his most chiseled in Poldark.
“I didn’t want it to be one of those moments where it’s just a TV body. I want it to feel real,” he noted. “I tend to keep fairly in shape. So the pressure was all me. And we were really lucky because we had these amazing intimacy coordinators [for the show’s NSFW scenes].”
He continued: “Our concern is that we get the shot. But I think certainly most of my peers in this show don’t really get too self conscious. We kind of just get on with it. We knew what we were getting into. If you’re signing up for a Jilly Cooper show, you know what world you’re stepping into. Sex is part of it and if there’s more then there’d be more.”
Based on British author Cooper’s novel of the same name, Disney+ and Hulu’s Rivals centers around a feud between two men fighting for control of a television station in 1980s Britain. Rivals stars an ensemble cast that includes Turner, David Tennant, Alex Hassell, Bella MacLean, Nafessa Williams, Katherine Parkinson, Victoria Smurfit, Emily Atack and Danny Dyer.
“It’s always lovely [to hear how well-received the show and Declan is]. Any actor who says he doesn’t want to hear nice things like that, I don’t believe them. It’s always nice to hear those things, especially in the early days of a show being released,” Turner told Us about the positive reception to the show. “I’ve been aware of how it’s been received in this country [in the U.K.], which has been really positive.”
Now that Rivals has been renewed for season 2, Turner is excited to keep giving the fans what they want.
“There’s a funny thing that happens when you’ve done a fair bit of work over 20 years. You land the plane on some things and some you completely miss the airport,” he quipped. “When you do land the plane, you start hearing from people that you’ve not heard from in a little while. My friends whom I haven’t spoken to in months have just emailed me saying they love the show. And it’s like, ‘Wow, it must be really touching people.”
Turner, who is not on social media himself but hears about the buzz secondhand, feels very grateful for the outpouring of support, adding, “But not having the social media element, it does keep you very much out of the loop. But I love to hear that it’s being received on a really positive level. … I suppose to some degree it is always still a surprise when people respond to a show and really like it.”
He concluded: “Being an actor there is a lot of disappointment and some shows you think will travel that don’t — and you get confused by that. I just gave up years ago trying to figure out what the business wants and what the markets pick. So it’s so lovely to hear you say these things though [about the support]. It puts a real smile on my face.”
Rivals is currently streaming on Hulu in the U.S. and Disney+ internationally.
For more reasons why Turner is one of the people we are googling shirtless this week, pick up the new issue of Us Weekly, on stands now.
