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Conference Call Interview With Jamie Bell On Turn

Turn star Jamie Bell talks about the challenges of shooting an ambitious period piece and how being a father impacts his role on AMC's new hit drama.

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The women in Abe’s life are very influential in his decisions. Are we going to see more of those relationships develop through the season?

JB: Absolutely. Literally, it’s a split down the middle. For Abe, he has a complex because the woman he’s with, [Mary, played by Meegan Warner], is more kind of Loyalist-leaning. His true love [Anna Strong, played by Heather Lind], his dream girl, has a very strong Patriot leaning. So he’s totally split. The mother of his child thinks one thing, the woman who he loves and who he really should be with thinks another way. And those worlds collide on the show. And neither one is right, they’re both just from a different political perspective.

Abe is going backward and forward constantly throughout the season of the show. He doesn’t want to risk his family, but he has to follow his heart and he has to follow his passion. Personally his relationships with those two women definitely do have their highs and lows. When me and Mary start at the beginning of the show, it’s incredibly separate to where the season finale finishes. And also, between Anna and Abe. The journey we go through is very rich and has a strong arc. Anna Strong is also a spy in her own right. She is a member of the Culper Ring and she is just as crucial to this network as Abe Woohull is.

This is the first role you’ve had as a new father. How does this colour your performance as a character who is a father trying to protect his family and newborn son?

JB: When you have a child, you just immediately change forever. You put yourself second. You always have them in mind. When you relate to someone who has a lot of high stakes on the show, who is literally taking a passage that could be the end of his life, that weighs incredibly on his shoulders.

Knowing I was going to be a father and then becoming a father as we were shooting a season kind of plays into it a lot. I think the stakes would always be raised so much higher for me as an actor and so much higher for the character, knowing that whatever trouble he gets into – and he does get into trouble – that’s the first thing he’s thinking about… I may never see my son again. But it’s also a reason for doing it. He wants his son to grow up in a free country. He wants his son to inherit a country where he can make his own decisions. That’s a heavy thing.

In Turn, Abe has to live a double life. What are some of the difficulties of playing essentially two different characters each episode?

JB: It’s a lot of subterfuge. You’re always saying something but meaning something else, which is tricky. I remember doing scenes with Heather Lind, who plays Anna Strong, toward the end of the season, where I just actually got to play truth for once, which is such a relief. Abe is always hiding something, he’s always trying to gain intelligence, he’s always trying to work people to get what he wants, especially with his father or the British officers. This one time with Heather, when I actually got to play real truth, it was such a weight off. Why am I enjoying this scene so much? Because you’re not having to lie and pretend. You’re actually just getting to be real and explain to someone how I feel.

Abe Woodhull was just naturally good at lying. I think he, in some way, prefers lying to telling the truth. It’s just easier and I think he’s been lying to himself for a long time.

What was the most difficult part of the physical production of the show?

JB: It’s tricky for a number of reasons. It’s tricky because we shot the show in Richmond, Virginia, which is great because Richmond and Virginia are steeped in Colonial history. We actually shot the show at Thomas Jefferson’s childhood home, for example, and lots of other places that have significance in reference to war and history. We were also shooting the show during one of the worst winters on record and we were all wearing period clothes. There’s horses and livestock. A normal processing day of getting actors ready for a show… we’ve got girls in corsets, we’ve got powdered wigs, we’ve got special hairpieces, uniforms, tons of extras. It’s incredibly ambitious.

The attention to detail is pretty high. So, it was incredibly ambitious. We’re shooting an episode every eight days. Some of these episodes have battle sequences, some of these episodes have multiple horses or lots of crowds or lots of red coats. It was tricky, and we were also doing this in the snow. Everyone was pushed to the limit on this.

Will Turn shed new light on the roles that women, minorities and slaves played during the Revolutionary War?

JB: Absolutely. It’s something that we wanted to incorporate into the show. And it happens kind of early on in the show, as well, around episode four or five. Anna Strong is an essential element to this spy network. She was on the front lines a lot, she risked just as much, she was putting herself out there just as much. And we really see that in the show. For the issue of slavery, I think Turn is truthful to the times, but we do focus on those characters. They have strong story arcs and they are just as important and crucial to winning the war. I think the show prides itself on being historically accurate, but it’s also responsible of the show’s creators and the network.

That concludes the interview but we’d like to thank Jamie very much for his time. Be sure to catch Turn every Sunday on AMC.