Turkish talents
Turkish stars Can Yaman, Meryem Uzerli, Bariş Baktaş and Yağmur Yüksel open up about their latest projects – El Turco, Ru and Vendetta – and offer an insight into their approach to acting as series from Turkey continue to build global audiences.
Can Yaman, Meryem Uzerli, Bariş Baktaş and Yağmur Yüksel are already household names in Turkey, but thanks to their latest series, the four actors are set to increase interest in Turkish drama around the world.
Almost 20 years after Binbir Gece (1001 Nights) first became a global sensation, scripted series from Turkey are now hugely in demand. The country has become the third biggest exporter of television series internationally, behind only the US and the UK, thanks to growing fanbases in Asia, Europe, Latin America and North Africa.
According to Parrot Analytics, demand for Turkish series – known as ‘dizi’ – grew 184% between 2020 and 2023, compared with 73% for Korean series.
That growth has been built on the back of crime, period and melodramatic love stories featured in shows such as Binbir Gece, Muhtesem Yüzyil (Magnificent Century), Yargi (Family Secrets), Erkenci Kuş (Daydreamer), Bitter Lands, Aleph, Çukur (The Pit) and Kara Sevda (Endless Love).
Now, Yaman, Uzerli, Baktaş and Yüksel and their three new series – El Turco (pictured above), Ru and Vendetta – look poised to continue the success of Turkish drama internationally.
Here, DQ hears from the actors about their latest roles, their approach to acting and seeing Turkish drama go global.
Can Yaman
Billed as the first English-language Turkish series, El Turco also marks an English-language debut for its star, Can Yaman. Yet it was only by luck he was able to take the lead in the historical drama, after another project was delayed.
He plays Balaban, a janissary fighting for the Ottoman Empire in the Battle of Vienna, who is condemned to death by a brutal act of betrayal. He manages to escape, but is gravely injured and collapses. When he comes to, he’s in the remote village of Moena, high in the Italian Alps, where a woman kindly nurses him back to health and he begins to settle into his new home.
El Turco, as he becomes known, then becomes the protector of the village, helping his new neighbours resist the demands of the feudal lord. But when an old enemy, the ruthless knight Marco, reappears, Balaban must prepare for a final showdown.
A star in Turkey thanks to roles in dramas such as Erkenci Kus and Dolunay, Yaman moved to Italy to take part in Sandokan, the retelling of the classic pirate saga. But when the project was delayed by the Covid pandemic – it is expected to have its global debut this year – he took the chance to star in Italian series Che Dio ci aiuti and Viola Come il mar, before taking on the role of El Turco on location in Hungary.
“The fact we pushed back Sandokan and I did El Turco was luck at the end of the day,” Yaman tells DQ. “The Hungarians helped me a lot, to work in terms of horse riding and sword training. Then when I came to Sandokan, I was all prepared, because El Turco was a rough period of time. The climate was rough, it was freezing. The Hungarians were very disciplined, and my stunt coordinator was a philosophy graduate – he was a horse whisperer.
“Before we started, he talked to me for maybe three hours about horse psychology. He wanted to teach me how to behave when I’m around horses, how to touch [them], how to communicate [with them], so he actually helped me to change my body language so I could become that character.”
Yaman was drawn to the project by the fact its origins lie in a true story, and because his own journey as a Turkish man living in Italy reflected that of the protagonist.
“It was written 20 years ago but it was never the right time to produce it,” he adds. “The conditions just kissed together and we were able to do it. I’m on cloud nine right now because it’s a breakthrough project for me.”
The actor describes Balaban as a solitary figure who is seeking vengeance, as well as trying to save the people around him. “It’s a love story as well actually,” he notes. “He’s trying to clear his name and falls in love with a witch and saves the whole town because they have a common enemy.
“Physically, he’s like a beast. But he’s very human at the same time. That’s a contradiction. It’s something you have to interpret, which excited me a lot, that conflict. As an actor, it was a challenge and a thrilling part, and the fact I was going to act for the first time in English and [this is] the first Turkish project in English with a high budget, everything was so exciting about it.”
Yaman admits he was initially worried about speaking English, and says it was a challenge for him “to find the right voice” for his character alongside his dialect coach. But that wasn’t the toughest part of making the six-part project, which is produced by Ay Yapim for Turkish streamer Gain and distributed by Madd Entertainment.
“The injuries were the hardest part,” he says. “I had all kinds of injuries. I remember a certain period of time I was using [pain relief] Voltaren three times a day because we had to finish it. We had limited time – five, maybe six months – so even one day was precious. If I wasn’t there, the project would have lost a lot of money [through delays].
“I didn’t care about the pain. I just took the pill and moved forward. It’s a psychological transformation so, even if you suffer, you have to enjoy that suffering because my character is also suffering. So it’s good. I use that emotion. We have to be equal. If my character is suffering, I have to suffer as well, so everything becomes even more realistic.”
On the back of his first English-language series – Sandokan will be his second – Yaman is now weighing up his next move as he constantly seeks ways to improve and challenge himself. Projects in Spain are top of the list, after the polyglot started spending five hours a day, six days a week, learning Spanish.
“I get bored really quickly so I have to change,” says the actor, who initially trained as a lawyer. “After acting in Italian, the fact I was acting in English was good for me. But now in 2025, my aim is to act in Spanish. I like challenges; they excite me. If I can act in Spanish, why not? Let’s go for it.”
Meryem Uzerli
Previously seen in series such as Magnificent Century and Eskiya Dünyaya Hükümdar Olmaz, Meryem Uzerli takes the lead in Ru, an eight-part series that asks whether love can overcome seemingly insurmountable odds.
She plays Reyan, who runs the titular restaurant with her husband yet embarks on a passionate affair with Uzer (Burak Berkay Akgül), a man 20 years her junior.
“Showing your emotions to your deepest core is always risky, because you’re making yourself naked, not physically but emotionally,” the actor says of playing Reyan in the romantic series. “You cry, you laugh, you have intimate scenes, you just dive into that character, so that’s risky because, as human beings, we want to protect ourselves.
“It’s like a relationship. You meet somebody new and you first protect yourself a little but, as you fall in love, you open up your heart more and more. That’s risky for sure. It’s the same thing when you fall in love with a character. First you read it and start to feel it, and then you have to give it your all. At the end of the day, I’m very happy our show was so successful.”
Uzerli began to imagine herself as Reyan from the moment she started reading the script. Then from the first day on set, “you’re trying to get closer to her – it’s a natural process,” she says. “You get closer and closer. But you’re not always shooting chronologically. Sometimes we were shooting a scene from the fourth episode and then the third episode, but it’s a beautiful experience as an artist because you get to know yourself better. If that happens, I know something went very well, because if I can’t surprise myself, I didn’t take enough risks.”
Rather than exclusively focusing on the story of a new romance, Ru is actually about the toxic relationship between Reyan and her husband, the actor says.
“They own a gourmet restaurant together. He’s a very egocentric chef, he’s in the kitchen, he’s the boss there. He has this whole team behind him feeding his ego,” she explains. “She’s a wine sommelier and he has this narcissistic trait, so he’s not feeling her, seeing her, questioning her needs or having any connection with her. Two human beings are living in a household together, running this restaurant together, and she’s at a point in her life after the cheating happens where she’s like, ‘What am I doing here?’
“This younger guy shows up and gives her the feeling of seeing her and taking care of her needs. She feels light again. In the beginning, she says, ‘No, I can’t do that.’ At the end of the day, she tries to find her own voice and her own freedom and she tries to enjoy her life. What I find interesting is, when I watch it, the moment she’s together with him, she looks so much younger. She’s becoming light and her body language changes.”
Produced by Medyapim for Turkish streamer Gain and distributed by Madd Entertainment, the drama has now been renewed for a second season, which is due to begin filming this spring.
As for where Reyan might be heading next after an “interesting” ending to season one, Uzerli won’t say. But like many actors who become close to their characters, she isn’t afraid to make suggestions to the show’s writing team.
“During the shoot, from episode to episode, you start to be that character and there are some moments where you say, ‘Actually my character wouldn’t react like that,’ and the scriptwriter says, ‘No, she would because of that and that’ – and you’re convinced or not.
“There’s a discussion, it’s teamwork and it was a great team – it’s the same team in season two. The thing is that it is so important you are emotionally transparent with each other because then you connect and have the potential to build something great together. I’m very happy we do that as a team.”
Bariş Baktaş and Yağmur Yüksel
Bariş Baktaş and Yağmur Yüksel are the stars of Vendetta, in which their characters Baran and Dilan are forced into an arranged marriage in an attempt to end a blood feud between their families, “igniting a passion that will either blossom into love or bring devastation.”
Produced by Unik Film and Rains Pictures for Kanal 7, with Global Agency distributing, the daily drama has aired 520 episodes across its first two seasons. A third is expected to run to 80 episodes.
The actors receive the scripts for five new episodes every 10 days, while 10 to 15 episodes can be in the works at any one time.
With so many episodes to prepare for, “obviously it’s a hard process, but when you do something with passion and with love, it’s not hard to cope with the work around it,” Yüksel tells DQ. “And it’s teamwork. Everybody is so attached to their work and they are very responsible, so things go smoothly, which eases the process.”
Baktaş adds: “There is no getting tired when you do something with passion.”
Instead, the actors find the greatest challenges come with their characters’ journeys on screen. Yüksel remembers: “In the first season, Dilan suffered a lot. It was very difficult for me to prepare and act that, but then I thought there are actually people in real life who have these pains. I compared myself to them and kept going. That gave me a lot of motivation. When I put myself in their shoes, she even felt more attached to the story and my character.”
“For my character, there is a lot of emotional struggle,” Baktaş says of Baran. “He has suffered a lot in the story. My character is trying to protect the ones he loves. He’s even putting his own life [ahead of theirs], but to be this protective figure, he’s losing them. He’s trying to have dignity and stay strong [while] going through this pain, and he needs to support Dilan.
“The white in my hair belongs to my character because of the pain Baran is going through. I feel it very deeply on a personal level. When you are shooting scenes that are very sad and tragic, the brain doesn’t recognise it’s acting. We live that scene, so it gets us on many levels. The only difficulty we go through is emotional and psychological.”
Both actors were initially drawn to the project by the similarities they saw between themselves and their characters. “I find similarities with myself and Dilan, so I was very curious about Dilan’s story. I wanted to observe myself in Dilan’s journey,” Yüksel says.
Baktaş adds: “Before this series, I actually wrote a story similar to the story of the series. The name of the character in the story I wrote was Baran and the name of the main character in Vendetta is also Baran. It’s been an amazing coincidence.”
The actors are already seeing international interest in the series thanks to interactions on social media. “From all around the world, they are resonating with it – and there are still many countries where the series hasn’t been broadcast, but we have fans from these countries as well,” Baktaş says.
tagged in: Bariş Baktaş, Can Yaman, El Turco, Meryem Uzerli, Ru, Vendetta, Yağmur Yüksel