Aidan Turner blasts past directors over filming ‘awkward’ sex scenes

The 40 year old Irish actor, who has previously spoken about male objectification, now takes on the role of a top tennis coach accused of abuse in drama Fifteen-Love.

The series flicks between the past relationship of Aidan’s character Glenn with Ella Lily Hyland’s Justine, to Justine bringing the allegations forward several years later, after a tennis injury left her out of the spotlight and Glenn moved on to other rising stars.

‘It was an important story to tell,’ he told Metro.co.uk. ‘I just think that vehicle of who has the burden of proof, as the audience, who do we believe and why one character over another?

‘They’re both speaking their own truth, and who do we call out on being the liar?’

As the drama follows the heavier topic of the career-breaking allegations in a MeToo era, moments of their past romance filter through, including some steamier scenes.

Talking about those, Aidan admitted working with an intimacy director was ‘absolutely necessary’ when filming with Ella Lily.

He told us: ‘It’s just a few years ago when it wouldn’t be commonplace to have an intimacy coordinator on set. And then a few years before that, I mean, the term wasn’t even known.

‘It was awkward in some moments. Not always, but directors, I found in my experience, weren’t always great at doing that.’

He went on: ‘They had the rough parameters of what they want, but then would slowly Homer Simpson back into the bush and disappear a little bit and then you’re left with just the two actors going, “Okay, let’s figure this out”.

‘But in our story here, absolutely, we needed somebody.

‘To have the scene do what it’s supposed to do, and not just a generic thing, whatever the intimacy of the scene is, to try and achieve that creatively with the intimacy coordinator you can really get into the depths of that with that physical movement.

‘I think it’s the breaking down for me, that’s the biggest thing, it’s to really break down into a very technical way what’s required and then you kind of build on that again.

‘Once you have all the building blocks and technical bits, even like where you put your hands and if they’re having sex at what kind of what pace are they doing it.

‘You know, is there kissing and it’s just all the little bits and then when you start to put that together, you can build character and emotion, and everything but you’re safe in that surrounding.

‘And then the scene is better because it’s interesting, and it does what it’s supposed to do as a vehicle for the show and telling the story.’

He added that having an intimacy director on the show was ‘needed’, saying ‘I don’t know where we would have been.’

Fifteen-Love launches on Prime Video UK and Ireland on Friday, July 21.

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