Owain Yeoman talks Benedict Arnold, ‘Turn Washington Spies’
Just ahead of the premiere of Turn: Washington’s Spies third season on AMC, Owain Yeoman talked about returning as Benedict Arnold during an interview with Media Mikes.
Parallels to the 2016 election are drawn during the interview, “It’s very interesting I think, the parallels between—and I think it’s something that the show is consciously trying to market this year, is the, you know the parallels between the Red states and the Blue states and how things, depressingly, probably haven’t changed for a few hundred years.”
Yeoman continues: “You know, we’ve still got the same old gripes and the same old battles. I think it’s very smart of AMC also to kind of market a you know, ‘WWGWD?’—What Would George Washington Do?—type campaign… And it’s true, he’s the father of our nation, of this nation, not necessarily my nation! [laughs] But you know the nation that I’ve come to call home,” he tells Lauren Damon at the premiere screening panel last week at the New York Historical Society.
“And I think it’s incredible how the show really does speak to the current political climate. And we couldn’t be more in the sort of fervor of it all with [the New York primary vote] going on here last night. So I think that’s our hope, that people really see that though hundreds of years have gone by, the themes and relationships and political climate is definitely still the same.”
Turn is based on a book by Alexander Rose, follows the Culper Ring, an unlikely batch of spies from Long Island who helped George Washington turn the tide of the American Revolution.
Season three promises Arnold’s “TURN” (pun intended) and Yeoman is very excited: “Yeah, I mean like I’m finally becoming the traitor I always hoped I’d be! [laughs] It’s kind of a dubious prospect. He’s one of the those characters who when you tell people who you’re playing, they’re like ‘Oh you’re playing That Guy, I’m sorry’ but it’s a great challenge. I love discovering a more human side to him because I think you know he’s known very one-sidedly as America’s biggest traitor and there’s so much more to him. He was a great hero, the hero of Saratoga, and he was a real person…”
Yeoman continues, reflecting on the grade school stereotype, saying that “…it’s important to understand that he was one of America’s greatest generals before he became the famous traitor.”
Check out the full interview over at Media Mikes HERE
Jamie Bell, Seth Numrich, Daniel Henshall, Heather Lind and Angus Macfadyen headline a great cast.
Turn: Washington’s Spies returns Mondays on AMC for its third season beginning April 25.
