Aidan Turner
Aidan Turner
Aidan Turner is an Irish actor. He is best known for his roles as Kíli in the three-part fantasy film The Hobbit and John Mitchell in the supernatural drama series Being Human. Notable television roles include those of Dante Gabriel Rossetti in Desperate Romantics, Ruairí McGowan in The Clinic, and Ross Poldark in the 2015 BBC adaptation of The Poldark Novels by Winston Graham. He also portrayed Luke Garroway in the film adaptation of The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones...
NationalityIrish
ProfessionMovie Actor
Date of Birth19 June 1983
CityClondalkin, Ireland
CountryIreland
I was really into films when I was younger, but I feel like a bit of a phony sometimes - I started acting because I didn't know what else to do. I filled in all these university application forms and honestly didn't want to do any of the courses.
To make a career as an Irish actor, generally it's the case that you move to London. When you make that move, you do tend to stand out.
I don't speculate too much about the future. That's the thing about this job - it's so fickle. You take the jobs, you read the scripts and, if something interests you and you like the people who are working on it, you go for it.
On a beautiful clear Sunday morning, myself and James Nesbitt jumped out of a plane together at 18,000 feet.
When you walk onto a Peter Jackson set, you can see straightaway that money isn't an issue.
There's no point in really making something if it doesn't appeal to a lot of people or the masses or if it's not seen by a lot of people.
You can have a good vibe and a good feeling about something, but you never really know how it's going to be received and how an audience is going to react to it.
Sometimes during a show or a film, while you're shooting it, you'll think, "This is great, it's going to be fantastic, the script is incredible, and the actors are great, and everything is working out brilliantly." And then you see it, and you kind of go, "Oh god, it's not as good as I thought it was," and it doesn't get an audience to watch it. It only does a couple of festivals and then dies and whatever.
You can't beat a love triangle.
It's hard to know at any stage whether a show is going to work or not. Every few years, a different trend comes along.
I didn't want to feel like I was mimicking or copying someone else's performance, whether it's subconscious or not.
Every actor wants to change things up a bit. You don't want to be pigeonholed, and not just because of what the industry might think.
I feel like a bit of a phony sometimes - I started acting because I didn’t know what else to do. I filled in all these university application forms and honestly didn’t want to do any of the courses.
When you're part of an ensemble and share the screen with so many people, you become close to them because you're hanging out all the time. Obviously you have your ups and downs, but that kind of brings you closer in many ways.