‘Rivals’ Aidan Turner and Victoria Smurfit Breaks Down Season 2's Most Vicious Fight

Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers for Rivals Season 2, Episodes 7-9.It's been a long wait since June to find out whether Tony Baddingham (David Tennant) and Maud O'Hara (Victoria Smurfit) will get their comeuppance after their affair led to Monica Baddingham (Claire Rushbrook) dying in a car accident during a storm. Rivals is never short of drama, and that's not all for the Baddinghams, as it was revealed earlier in the season that Sarah Stratton's (Emily Atack) baby is also Tony's illegitimate child.

To explore these cliffhangers and more, Collider joined Aidan Turner, Smurfit, and Atack to discuss the first three explosive episodes of Rivals Season 2, Part 2. They break down Declan and Maud's extraordinary argument on Bonfire Night and reveal whether Declan will finally give in to the urges he's been repressing out of fierce loyalty to his wife. Atack shares why she enjoys playing Sarah at her most vulnerable and why the most confident characters are often not what they seem. The trio also reveal what goes on behind the scenes on the Rivals set and whether being part of a series that's so much fun to watch is equally enjoyable to film.

Aidan Turner and Victoria Smurfit Break Down Declan and Maud's Explosive 'Rivals' Showdown

“You don't get many of those in your career”

Image via Disney+/Hulu

COLLIDER: Well, I didn't think Rivals could get more dramatic, but the last three episodes, they've really blown it out of the water. And I have to ask first: that big showdown between Maud and Declan. Have you recovered from that? In the kitchen?

SMURFIT: I was just saying my hips are still sore!

TURNER: [Laughter] I feel really bad about that.

SMURFIT: No, don't be. Don't be daft!

ATACK: What happened?

TURNER: Well, I kept on hitting the dirt.

SMURFIT: It's only a hairy second, isn't it?

TURNER: I kept throwing you down quite hard. It’s one of those ones...

ATACK: Did you hurt yourself?

TURNER: Yeah, it still hurts.

SMURFIT: We did it quite a lot

TURNER: It's a year ago now; it still hurts.

ATACK: She does her own stunts.

SMURFIT: She does. Anyway, so yes, it was great. It was weirdly fun to do because it was such a juicy, beautifully written scene. So, it was like all the emotions, all the justifications, all the failings, all the passion, all... you know, it was just, oh, it was just juicy, wasn't it?

TURNER: It was. It was.

SMURFIT: You don't get many of those in your career.

TURNER: You don't. It's also, not that this should really matter — but it kind of does for me — it was a night shoot, and there's something that happens at nighttime. I find when I work, it just all goes a bit weird, and there was a strange energy in the air, and I kind of went wild. Maybe it was a full moon or something, but I felt a bit crazed that night. Did you?

SMURFIT: Well, yeah. You kept feckin’ me in a fire!

Is that something that you do as an actor to get yourself into that sort of big emotional state? Because you're really asked to go from zero to 11 in a really quick space of time.

TURNER: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you just kind of do it, but it's also like, you want to stay present. Sometimes I think we split the scene where he runs out, but you're in the moment from moment to moment. So you can't play what's ahead of you.

SMURFIT: When you know where you're starting and the stuff that's behind you, you don't think about what's coming. You know where you're at, and then you put your foot on the gas, and you're playing with great actors, then it's all just sort of there.

There's a few moments, actually, in that where Declan was stood in the trees and him obviously being incredibly angry there. There were times where it was quite similar to the visuals we got of Tony and him being really angry. So I wondered if that was a conscious decision, or you thought about, actually, is Declan going to get to that Tony level of anger throughout?

SMURFIT: Ooh, I love what you've done!

TURNER: He did get really angry. I think he completely lost control.

SMURFIT: He did, yeah.

TURNER: I was just saying earlier, I mean, which I sort of forgotten about, but I feel thankful there were other people around. I feel really scared when I think of what he would have done had no one else been there to stop him. It was a kind of blind anger he had.

Emily Atack on Sarah Stratton's Vulnerability And The Reality Behind Her Confidence

“You really root for people that are making all these terrible mistakes.”

Image via Disney+/Hulu

I'm looking forward to seeing what happens when Sarah's secret fully comes out because it's been teased. A few people know. But when Tony actually finds out that has gone around the whole village, that's going to be mad. That's going to be another confrontation, I think! But I wanted to ask you, what's something you enjoy the most? Is it playing somebody who's really confident or at their most exposed? Because there are a lot of scenes in this where you're having some quite emotional moments.

ATACK: Yeah, I was really grateful for that. And I think what it touches on is the obvious thing that so many outwardly confident people are often inside, kind of, battling something else, battling vulnerability. And, yeah, women like Sarah are definitely that. I think she's learned to be a certain way. She has to be a certain way to survive in the world that she's in. You know, a male-dominated world, the world of telly.

I think that what's so great about the writing is characters like Sarah, who would have been so unlikable in other TV shows, but there's something about this. There's something about Rivals where you really root for people that are making all these terrible mistakes and making all these mental decisions.

I was really happy when I read the script that we got to expose that vulnerability underneath all the hair and the makeup and the confidence and sexiness. Because that's kind of true to life, really. Not me, just [laughs] confident people; they're often covering something.

Aidan Turner on Whether Declan Will Forgive Maud After Her Affair With Tony

“I don't know if he's going to be able to forgive.”

Image via Disney+/Hulu

So now that Declan has found out that Maud and Tony have been an item, he has obviously been very loyal to Maud before. Does this mean he might have a change of heart? May he explore seeing if Cameron's still interested? Is he going to explore some of those urges?

TURNER: I don't know what urges he's going to explore, but I think it's going to be difficult for him to come to terms with this. I think she hurt him in the most fundamental... I think it's been really hard on him, and that's going to continue. There's obviously so much love there, and they have this really strong connection, and there's been things in the past — different infidelities and affairs that they've managed to wade through, but this feels different this time. So, I don't know how it's going to play out. I don't know if he's going to be able to forgive. Maybe he will. I don't know.

Is there a behind-the-scenes moment for you that really sums up what it's like to have been a part of that set? Because it looks really fun from where we're watching at home.

SMURFIT: It's a lot of fun!

ATACK: It's so fun.

SMURFIT: I think a lot of the memories, when we do... in a lot of the episodes, we have a set piece, as we call it, which is most of the cast all together at a Hunt Ball, at the polo, you know, all these different set pieces. And it's usually got an incredible story. Everyone's together, so they'll pull this group of people in, and the rest are held in the tent or in a room, and invariably what's happening is games of chess, games of cards, games of— what was that spy game that Brendan Patricks always brings?

TURNER: It's called Codenames.

SMURFIT: Codenames, where you're — it's basically like The Traitors — all lying. And, and so there are all these tables full of different, different actors sitting together playing the games. And it's so fun to watch everybody dip into the game; they're called, they go off to work, and then just somebody else will take over the game that they're playing. And it's like a big, weird family, dysfunctional children, and absolutely no adults.

You just made me think, actually, that all of the characters in Rivals, they'd be too good at playing The Traitors because they'd all be good at lying, and no one would be able to identify them.

ATACK: It's kind of like they are playing The Traitors!

TURNER: I don’t know if Declan would be very good at lying. Maybe not him, but, yeah, everyone else, maybe!

Rivals Season 2 returns with a three-episode premiere on Wednesday, November 11 on Hulu and Disney+ in the UK.