CarterMatt Awards 2018: Aidan Turner of Poldark wins Underrated Actor!
Welcome to the CarterMatt Awards results! Hundreds of thousands of you have voted over the course of the past several weeks in a number of different categories; in this piece, we’re pleased to present a final vote tally.
For this particular article, we’re putting the focus on the Underrated Actor category and the criteria here was clear from the start: Honoring someone who never gets the proper love that they deserve. The nominees cannot have been given a nod at either the Golden Globes or the Emmys in the past calendar year, but have to be equally as deserving as some of the people who are.
This was a fairly close vote for much of the run, with two actors in particular separating themselves from the pack. We want to give some recognition here first and foremost to Shadowhunters star Matthew Daddario, who has an extremely devoted following who did what they could to give him some love. He finished with over 35% of the vote, which is hardly a number to sneeze at.
In the end, though, the champion here was none other than Poldark star Aidan Turner, who took home the title with roughly 50% of the total vote. Turner’s win coincides with Poldark winning Underrated Show this year, and it serves as a rather fantastic reminder of how much love is out there for the British period drama.
What makes Turner so great as Ross Poldark? It starts with his understanding of the role. It’d be so easy to play Ross as the sort of unflinching hero you see in other epics, but the truth here is that this character is so much more complicated than that. This is a guy who is pensive, indecisive at times, and quick to anger at others. He’s someone you do want to root for, but he is also flawed and capable of mistakes. Rather than being an idea hero he is a real person; that is what makes him so compelling to watch. Turner gives him the necessarily gravity and pain, depending on the scene. He made the duel with Monk Adderly one of the season’s most notable scenes, while also taking on some wonderfully vulnerable moments with Eleanor Tomlinson’s Demelza.
Turner joins the ranks of such past Underrated Actor winners as Major Crimes alum Tony Denison, Hannibal star Hugh Dancy, and Matthew Gray Gubler of Criminal Minds. Depending on what happens with Poldark season 5 (the final season) and the awards circuit, there’s a pretty good chance that Turner could be eligible for the award once more in 2019.
What do you think about the Underrated Actor results? Be sure to share right now in the attached comments, and check back soon for more results.