How Aidan Turner Turned a 70s Masterpiece Theatre Reboot into a Mini-Revolution
From Vanity Fair
by KRISTA SMITH
Photographs by JASON BELL

The 32-year-old actor began his career as a dancer. “I was six when I started. I represented Ireland in ballroom and Latin-American dancing for 10 years.” He has the trophies to prove it, but, he admits, “I sort of hated it. Then suddenly you start winning, and, well, I’m quite a competitive person.” (He later attended Ireland’s Gaiety School of Acting.) His dance training helped shape the now famous physique that has fans of the show, which became a Sunday-night phenomenon in Great Britain last spring, drooling and taking to social media to complain whenever he doesn’t take his shirt off in an episode. “It is slightly awkward,” Turner admits. “I will never be fully at ease with it.”
Later this year Turner will be seen alongside Rooney Mara in Jim Sheridan’s The Secret Scripture, but for the time being, Ross Poldark is the official Mr. Darcy of the 2015 summer season.
