He’s famous for playing the titular character in Poldark, but actor Aidan Turner swaps 18th century mayhem for 21st century tennis politics in brand-new drama Fifteen-Love.
Aidan, 40, takes on the role of Glenn Lapthorn, a tennis coach accused of having sexual relations with a student. Not being on the court for a lot of the drama, Aidan thought that playing the occasional tennis match would be the easy part, but he couldn’t have been more wrong.
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“I played badminton at school and I thought this was going to be a breeze because it’s the same thing. It’s totally not the same thing!” laughs Aidan.
“It’s really difficult. I didn’t train for as long as some of the guys did. It’s a tough sport, and I still find serving almost impossible.
“For me, it was a lot of deep diving on YouTube with tennis coaches, seeing how they conduct their seminars, the sessions, see how they speak to players, their vernacular, what vocabulary they use, their physicality, how they touch the players and what they focus on. There was a lot of that.”
The six-part drama tells the story of former tennis prodigy Justine Pearce [played by Ella Lily Hyland]. Five years on from the devastating moment her tennis career ended, Justine makes an explosive allegation against her former coach, Glenn, with whom she reached a semi-final at the French Open. As the police begin to look into the matter, friends and family begin to take sides. But which of them is telling the truth?
“When Justine makes her allegations it’s a complete disruption of everyone’s sense of reality because Glenn’s such an integral part of their world,” explains Ella. “It’s awful for Justine to feel unsupported, but it’s written in a way where we empathise with everyone, and we understand how difficult it is to suddenly be asked to see someone in a completely different light to how we’ve known them. It’s a complicated one.”
“The thing about Justine’s accusations is that it’s completely possible that Glenn is a predator hiding in plain sight,” adds Aidan. “He’s so trusted and has so much time alone with these young players. He’s charming and he’s charismatic.
“Glenn’s the person that you would leave in charge of your daughter or your nieces or nephews at a training camp. When Justine makes her allegations, there’s a lack of belief there from her friends and family and colleagues, and you can see why because he’s so popular.”
Unlike Aidan, Ella, playing an ex-tennis prodigy, had to get some serious practice on the courts, even before filming began.
“I hadn’t played tennis before at all, so I started learning when I was auditioning, which is quite a dangerous thing to do in case you don’t get the part,” she says. “But I really wanted it, and my cousin is a tennis coach, so he took me on and gave me a few lessons. Then when I got the part, I was immediately given such a wealth of resources. We had incredible coaches and teachers. Our consultant Naomi Cavaday played at Wimbledon so getting to speak to her about the experience of being on tour was the biggest part of the research for me.”
Their characters are going through an awful ordeal as the authorities set out to discover the truth. And in order to get to know Glenn and Justine on a deeper level, Aidan and Ella spent a lot of time together on set in character.
“We danced a lot,” says Aidan. “We had a week of rehearsal when we didn’t pick up a script, but we stayed in character for hours and walked around together. You feel silly for a moment and then once you’re into it, it feels real and important. So going on set for the first day, I felt like we knew each other so well. We immediately hit the ground running which was really important.”
Both actors are Irish playing British characters, they also had to spend time making sure their accents were faultless.
“It’s funny because although Aidan went to a different school to me, we had the same voice teacher, which is mad,” laughs Ella. “I had a voice teacher who gave me loads of exercises beforehand but it was good on set because I was learning from Aidan and being like, ‘“Okay, how was he saying that?’”
“Ella’s accent is flawless,” says Aidan. “I couldn’t hear any Irish tones at all. I don’t know if I can say the same for mine. I’d heard before we started filming that Ella was Irish and I thought, “God, two of the leading characters of the show playing British but being Irish, that’ll be interesting!” but she’s an incredible actor, a hugely talented person, and does a great British accent.”
Fifteen-Love is available on Prime from 21st July.
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