Poldark season 3: The rigors (and the weight) of playing Osbourne

On this past episode of Poldark season 3, we had an opportunity to meet for the first time the Reverend Osbourne Whitworth. He’s a crazy character, but also an evil one given his money-grubbing ways, his influence, and how Elizabeth is trying to set her cousin Morwenna up with him against her will. Even though she spurned some of those advances for now, you have every reason to be concerned about what could happen down the road. She may love Drake, but how much does love really matter in this world sometimes? Elizabeth married George, after all.

Christian Brassington is the actor taking on the Osbourne or “Ossie” role for the season, and playing this part was about so much more than getting himself in the right mental place to dive into the character; he also felt the need to look the part, which meant having to gain a good bit of weight in order to bull off the appearance that he had in mind!

Speaking on this subject to the Radio Times, the actor did his part to lay out the picture of some of what he ended up doing:

“I started off trying to do it healthily – lots of eggs and protein shakes – but there was a morning when I had a six-egg omelette with a packet of spinach and a packet of mozzarella and with that a protein shake with powdered oats in it. I sat there at 9 o’clock in the morning thinking: ‘I am not going to be able to do the show feeling sick’.

“I have to admit I moved away from that and lagers, burgers and ice cream came into it. It was pretty good. Lots of red meat! Going to the gym and doing the weights I felt pretty good, but when I got to the top weight I have to say I didn’t feel so fantastic.

“The Poldark producers didn’t demand that I put on the weight, but this character, when you read the description of him, he’s a big guy and he needs to be like that and I love that side of things. I like losing the weight, putting on the weight, and transforming the body for the part. I hope it works; I hope it looks good.”

Through one episode, we’d absolutely say that it is so far and so good. Ossie is a notable presence, and he is every bit as easy to dislike as you would likely want for such a character to be all things considered. He doesn’t have many redeeming qualities, and instead he’s going to just try and push and push to get his way. Even though he may be a widower, he’s not doing a whole lot to appeal to others with likability.

The big thing to hope for now is that Morwenna steers clear of his grasp, and continues to build something a little more real with Drake.

As for some happy news…

The Poldark ratings are in, and they are once again a nice improvement from the prior week! You can read more on that subject just by heading over to the link here. (Photo: BBC.)