‘High Potential’s Aiden Turner Talks Two-Part Romance With Morgan

SPOILERS: This post contains details about the High Potential, Season 2 episode ‘The One That Got Away’

Season 2 of ABC‘s High Potential sent audiences into the midseason finale with a little eye candy and a big cliffhanger, both courtesy of guest star Aiden Turner.

Ahead of this week’s episode ‘The One That Got Away‘, the British actor teased Deadline that his insurance investigator character Rhys “sort of makes [Kaitlin Olson’s Morgan] fall in love with him a little bit” in the two-part mystery that continues Tuesday, Jan. 6 at 9pm.

“I mean, I enjoy being eye candy,” said Turner. “There was a big responsibility I knew, that wasn’t necessarily weighing on my shoulders, but being a fan of the show myself and watching it with my lady Jessica, they’ve got such a great loyal fan base.”

Following a museum art heist, Rhys joins LAPD’s major crimes unit to help recover the stolen painting, much to Morgan’s annoyance. As she reluctantly bonds with him while going rogue to investigate the theft, newly introduced Capt. Nick Wagner (Steve Howey) brings the hammer down and takes Morgan off the case, prompting her to drown her sorrows in a drink with Rhys.

As Morgan gets him shirtless in his hotel room, she spots a scar on his shoulder matching a thief from a previous heist, as well as a big wooden crate about the size of the stolen painting.

Turner explained that this week’s episode was “so intense,” given the steamy make-out sesh and a high-speed chase, that the writers “ended up deciding to extend it into two.”

“So, that was a really nice sort of a compliment because that first one was really tight, and now they’ve sort of extended it over, so they ended up writing a lot of more interesting stuff,” he added. “They gave a lot more backstory about me, and then Kaitlin’s character divulged a lot more about her—not necessarily insecurities—but she became a little bit more vulnerable. So, that led to us sort of getting together.”

Read on about Aiden Turner’s experience joining Season 2 of High Potential as a guest star, as well as what’s to come in the midseason premiere.

DEADLINE: Tell me what it was like joining the cast as this mysterious outsider. 

AIDEN TURNER: Any time you join a new cast, there’s always sort of expectations, worries people aren’t gonna be nice, director’s gonna be barking at you, you know. But to be honest, everyone was so kind, so welcoming, so professional. It really felt like a family from the first morning, at 7 a.m. everybody was just so polite and welcoming and excited. It was just so much fun. 

DEADLINE: And your character Rhys, he’s this insurance investigator in the art world, and he dresses very fancy. Did you enjoy his wardrobe? 

TURNER: Yeah, it really made me feel like I was back at a private school in England, near Cambridge, just outside London. I always had to wear a shirt and black pants, shoes, always smart. I didn’t have a little pocket square when I went to school, but there’s nothing like feeling like you’re being dressed by a huge designer like Ermenegildo Zegna or something. The suit fit like Tom Ford, the pocket square, the waistcoat, it was nice. It was really good. They didn’t make me wear a tie, which sometimes it makes you feel like you’re being strangled. I felt like I was walking along Savile Row in London. 

DEADLINE: Did that help you kind of build the character too and get into his mindset?

TURNER: I think the wardrobe always really makes you feel like the character. In other roles, I’ll be put in a leather jacket, which I never wore before, t-shirt, jeans, boots, and you feel kind of grungy and private detective. So, the wardrobe really makes an actor feel like the character, and these guys did just such an amazing job, from the shirts and the suits, the shoes, the briefcase, it was just so much fun. To be honest, they made it easy for me to slip in the character. 

DEADLINE: Tell me about building the dynamic with Kaitlin where you’re at each other’s throats at first, and then by the end of the episode, you’re in each other’s pants. 

TURNER: [LAUGHS] Yeah, that’s pretty much how it went. In the beginning, when Rhys was introduced in the bullpen at the precinct there at Fox Studios, the writing is just so good. You could tell that Kaitlin’s character Morgan, she was peeved that there was a another consultant, and and that she couldn’t sort of handle the the case on her own. I mean, that’s how sort of Morgan reacted. “Hang on, there’s another consultant. I’m the only consultant, why is there another consultant?” And so, the bickering started then, and then when, Nick Wagner, played by Steve Howey, right at the end of the introduction to Rhys, he said, “You two can ride together to figure out the case and start working on who stole this piece of art.” It’s just the banter back and forth which I’ve always loved, especially there’s a lot of that in in England. You know, when you watch Love Island and stuff, the girls and the boys are always like, “Well, if we have some good banter, then then there could be some romance.” And that’s what we had from the get-go. 

DEADLINE: I love Kaitlin’s work and she really does something incredible with this role 

TURNER: She does, doesn’t she? I mean she’s quick witted, he’s got some great one-liners, she’s got a great personality, she’s a hardworking woman, three kids, and she sort of tears herself in half with looking after her children, and then working so well at solving these cases and helping the LAPD find the criminal. I mean, she’s amazing. 

DEADLINE: Also it’s nice to see, even if it’s short-lived, her get lucky. How did you feel about being the eye candy of the episode for that scene? 

TURNER: I mean, I enjoy being eye candy. There was a big responsibility I knew, that wasn’t necessarily weighing on my shoulders, but being a fan of the show myself and watching it with my lady Jessica, they’ve got such a great loyal fan base. I definitely wanted to make it look good, seem real, and give the fans basically what hopefully they’ve been looking for. You know, after 16 episodes, she hasn’t—she’s got close to having a romance. And I feel like, within the show, you kind of see her longing for a good man. So, I felt like it was a big compliment for me to be the man that was lucky enough to win the audition and to be lucky enough to be on the show with such good writers and a great director, and such a great talent like Kaitlin Olson. And so I really didn’t want to screw it up. So, I really worked hard on trying to make it as authentic and as real as possible. 

DEADLINE: And then of course, there’s the big twist at the end where we’re kind of led to believe that he’s possibly the thief. So can you tease what’s to come after the hiatus? 

TURNER: These two worked together in the beginning, they’re bickering, and then all of a sudden, they sort of share some some of their past. Rhys gives some insight that he may not be exactly what she thinks he is, which is this pompous, high class, art recovery specialist that’s well traveled, and he starts—not to give too much away—but tell a lot about his upbringing. It sort of makes her fall in love with him a little bit. He also goes out of his way to really help her look good in front of the police. She has some kind of little problem with Wagner because he has sort of a problem with her, and that she’s not a cop, and why she’s getting all this attention. He’s brand new, so I think there’s a little conflict there with him being from a LAPD family for so many years. I can’t really talk about too much. That first episode was so intense, and there was so much action and so much happened that, they ended up deciding to extend it into two, and then it sort of spread that over two hours. So, that was a really nice sort of a compliment because that first one was really tight, and now they’ve sort of extended it over, so they ended up writing a lot of more interesting stuff. They gave a lot more backstory about me, and then Kaitlin’s character divulged a lot more about her—not necessarily insecurities—but she became a little bit more vulnerable. So, that led to us sort of getting together.