Aidan Turner says that society 'can't dismiss' victims of abuse like in Fifteen-Love

Watch: Aidan Turner discusses tennis drama Fifteen-Love

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In new Prime Video drama Fifteen-Love, it's hard to know who is telling the truth when retired tennis player Justine (Ella Lily Hyland) accuses her ex-coach of sexually abusing her years earlier

But actor Aidan Turner tells Yahoo UK how society "can't dismiss" victims of abuse especially when it's a 'he said, she said' scenario.

Turner's tennis coach Glenn uses his power to fight to clear his name when Justine makes allegations against him.

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The show, which premieres on 21 July, takes time to reveal the truth, exploring Justine's mental health and examining how she is seen by others as delusional when comparing her version of events to Glenn's.

"I think it's really interesting and what I loved about the first time reading it, and what you see in it, is it looks at that burden of truth, who do you believe in? On what basis?" Turner says of the show's approach to Justine's story.

"What makes you believe somebody over somebody else when there's no evidence, like in this situation?

"What is it about somebody's character, what is it about their own disposition, the way they hold themselves? The way they dress, what their friends say about them?"

Society 'can't dismiss' victims of abuse

Not only does the show pit Justine and Glenn's version of events against each other, it also sees people accuse Justine of being obsessive and erratic which means the odds are constantly stacked against her to be believed.

Fifteen-Love, Turner says, allows the audience to question everything they see and gives them the space to debate who they feel is telling the truth: Justine or Glenn.

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"I love that vehicle that we have in the show," the actor goes on. "With Justine we see her and we visit her in this show at a time when life is quite chaotic, and her thoughts are too.

"She might come across as somebody that possibly, to some people, might not be as believable as somebody who's well-groomed, who's quite suave and confident, who has the backing of his peers and people around him, a solid family, all the hallmarks of somebody who should be, by all accounts, truthful.

"It's just an interesting dichotomy, I think, to break down with our show what stage you believe somebody and what stage do you not? What is it about somebody you do or don't believe?

"I think it's that first look at somebody as well, to [understand] we can't dismiss somebody saying something happened, we need to explore [it].

"It needs to be fully explored and I think... something else that our show does really well is that it identifies safeguards and safety measures that need to be in place, I mean these sort of situations shouldn't ever happen and they are.

"It's so easy if you find somebody with Glenn's character, disposition, or intentions, that he can manipulate situations to make them work in his favour, and it's very dark and sinister if that's the case."

For Hyland, the excitement of taking on the role was playing who had "fallen from grace". She says, "I felt like there was a real force and power behind it and had a really special energy with the piece as a whole.

"I felt like that was really interesting to try and imagine playing, and what that would be like... trying to condition your body and to be strong, and to be indestructible like these athletes are trying to be, and then to see her having fallen from that height."

Playing with the truth

Hania Elkington, the show's creator, deliberately chose to depict Justine in a way that made viewers constantly question where they stood with her, especially when her behaviour becomes more erratic as time goes on.

She explains: "I wanted to explore Justine's experience not from the outside but as far as possible from the inside, and the truth is that if big traumatic things happen to you it can take a long time for you in your head to really figure out what happened, because the human mind is very good at defending you.

"You try and protect yourself and try and make a story that makes sense to you and that you can live with, and actually unpicking some of those things whether they're lies that you created or truth that you've hidden away, that was really to me the biggest excitement about the show.

"What's great about TV is you have six hours, so why not take on that psychological challenge? Why not do justice to the difficulties and the complexities of this issue because women are often dismissed as emotional or confused

Justine is emotional and she is confused, and she's you know she's not a together person, [but] does that mean she doesn't deserve to be listened to?

"Some of the things she's saying may not be true but let's look into that, let's devote that time to her. So, Justine was always at the forefront my mind."

Fifteen-Love premieres on Prime Video on Friday, 21 July.

Watch the trailer for Fifteen-Love