We were so excited about Outlander finding a home on British television that we considered visiting Stonehenge in hopes of travelling to the future. Imagine our excitement when we learnt that the fantastic new adaptation of Diana Gabaldon’s hit novels was going to be available on Amazon Prime Instant Video from March 26! Not only that, new episodes will be up on Amazon within hours of their transmission on Starz in the US from April 4.
We just had to speak to Caitriona Balfe (Claire) and Sam Heughan (Jamie) to ask them what makes Outlander so special, how they feel about the massive fan response and getting into those pesky costumes (or out of them for the more intimate scenes!)
We even got to speak to esteemed sci-fi producer Ron D Moore (Battlestar Gallactica) about why he wanted to adapt the books.
SAM HEUGHAN (Jamie Fraser)
Had you read the books?
No, I didn’t know anything about them! It was only when I was asked to audition I realised there was this enormous world that Diana’s written – 8 books so far and she’s writing the 9th now, with companion books and short stories. It was exciting and also terrifying when I discovered Jamie Fraser’s a fan favourite, as they’re all very opinionated about how he should be. As an actor it’s fantastic to get so much material to read. You don’t have to make it up in your mind, it’s already been prepared for you. I’ve since read them and they’re great, I constantly go back to the books. There are so many details that you can then link back to the show. There’s little things that I hope fans notice about Jamie that are details in the book.
What drew you to the role?
Ron Moore! I’m a big fan of Ron, isn’t he lovely! I was a fan of Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica, so that was a huge draw. Being able to play a highlander, with a sword and riding a horse was definitely a part of it too! Also, being in a show that will hopefully span a bit of time will be really interesting
What was the casting process like?
The casting process was very quick, actually. I’d just come back from Los Angeles, had this meeting – they sent me about 20 pages to learn over a weekend, and then I went in and I had a Skype meeting with [co-executive producers] Maril and Ira and very quickly. Ron flew over and I did a screen-test, which was kind of intimidating but a lot of fun too as one of my best friends was reading opposite me. [After that] it happened very quickly, like a whirlwind, and I remember getting the call: I was in Waitrose and my agent called me and said ‘you got the job.’ I shouted very very loudly and everyone in Waitrose thought I was being mugged.
How’s the fan response been in the US?
There have been some interesting fans! It’s weird to be in a show that’s been successful over there, and people over here don’t know it, so it’s exciting to see how it goes down here. We film in Scotland and we’re kind of in a little bubble as we don’t really leave Scotland much, but every time we do leave, [for example] we did Comicon in San Diego, it’s like wow people are actually watching this!
Was it a lot of pressure to play a romantic lead in a beloved series?
He’s such an amazing character and that’s a real gift for an actor. I guess with all those things you have to forget what everyone thinks and make it for yourself. I’ve really learned to love the character, he’s interesting, he’s fun to play, and he’s constantly changing. Where he gets at the end of season one is a really interesting place, I have no idea where it’s going to go. Even though you can read the books, as I have, it’s not until you actually play the part that you realise you can feel how he’s feeling.
Are you happy with the reception of your character?
Yes! so far. The fans have been terrific, they’ve been so supportive. There are a lot of fans of Diana’s books already, who’ve transferred to us, and Diana’s been really supportive too. And we’re winning new fans who hopefully enjoy the story as much as we do.
How was filming in Scotland?
I’m Scottish, but I’ve been away for about 14 years, in London and in Los Angeles, so going back was just magical. It’s very similar story that happens to Jamie. He’s coming back from having fought in Spain, he’s an outlaw, he can’t go home, and he returns home and has all these ghosts or unfinished things that’ve happened to him in Scotland, so he’s dealing with his past a lot. I went to drama school in Glasgow and then there I am with old friends.. it’s just terrific to do that. We don’t use any CGI, there’s no – it’s all real, it all looks like that, so it’s great that people get to see Scotland in all its beauty.
How do they create the scars on your back in the show?
Many hours of makeup! We have a terrific makeup team. The scarring of my back is actually two separate pieces. I had to have these moulds – you go to Pinewood studios and there’s these guys who chuck all this weird latex on you while you’re in your pants. You stand there and don’t move for hours. You don’t even get to lie down, cause then it all looks different if you lie down as the muscles relax. Then every morning if we’re doing a scene where my top comes off, my poor makeup women spend about three hours every morning putting it on and painting it and throughout the day they have to touch it up and it takes about an hour to come off as well. By the end of the season Jamie has even more scars. I’d be in makeup at 4am until 8am, then we’d finish at 10pm and it’s another hour to get out of it. It’s crazy, but it looks terrific!
What was it like to film those whipping scenes?
Unfortunately that’s just the start, really. Those are the moments that kind of cement the beginning of the story for Jamie and Black Jack and this weird triangle between then and Claire. Filming those episodes were fun. It was freezing in Scotland in Blackness castle. The scenes are quite graphic and traumatic and I think the prosthetics look amazing. Tobias did manage to hit me a few times
– I don’t let him forget that. I actually had real welts on my back by the end, it was awful.
What’s your favourite scene in the series?
There are so many. The wedding is interesting, it’s almost one long scene. It’s about two people getting to know each other and falling in love. I also love the stuff towards the end, we’ve got some great episodes coming up where we begin to learn more about Jamie, who he is, and his love for Claire is tested a lot, so they were fun too.
If you could travel back in time, where and when would you go?
I want to go forward in time to be honest. I’m kind of a sci-fi fan. I want to go to the moon, or I’d love to go to Mars or something. I don’t suppose there’s much acting work on Mars though.
What’s the craziest thing that’s happened since the show came out?
This is all pretty crazy, isn’t it? I get to fly across the world and talk about a show that I love and that’s kind of weird. Last week I was having a meeting in LA on the rooftop of a hotel and I’m sitting there and I look out and there’s a huge big me! [There was] a huge big billboard on Sunset, and that was kind of a big moment. I ran the LA marathon last weekend and ran right past our billboards and that was amazing too.
Any crazy fan encounters?
Not crazy… Passionate! Excited! They’re really amazing, our fans are so cool. They’re very vocal, we have a lot of interaction on Facebook and Twitter, and they do a lot for our charities (Sam and Caitriona both have their own charities). I recently organised a charity fitness event, and we raised over £50,000 for leukaemia research. They’re really behind us.
How was it filming some of the more intimate scenes?
Terrible! It’s never particularly fun to film something so intimate with 15 hairy Scottish crew members watching and filming you. We were very aware that, as with any of violence or sex, we didn’t want it to be gratuitous for the sake of it, it has to move the story forward, so we work very closely with the writers and Ron and we read the scripts and talk about what we want the audience to to see and exactly how that’s gonna work. We do it like a play, we rehearse it and block it out and then you’ve gotta just shoot ith. Caitriona’s amazing, and we have a lot of fun. We laugh a lot. But yeah, kinda weird.
What are your plans for the future?
Season 2. We start shooting at the end of spring for about a year. We’re just getting scripts now, and it’s basically gonna follow the next book, which is exciting, because a lot is based in France, and the French court, and then we build up to Culloden, which was a really big event where a lot of these highlanders that we’ve just learned to love get wiped out, so it’s kind of this impending doom.
CAITRIONA BALFE (Claire Randall/Fraser)
Were you a fan of the books?
I wasn’t, because I didn’t even know about them! When I found out that they actually wanted to test me for it I went and bought the book at my local bookstore and read it in 4 days (I did very little else but read in those four days!). I had my test the day after with Sam, so I think it was great that I got to get a full sense of the world and the character I was stepping into, I was really excited after I read it as it seemed like it would be a lot of fun to do!
What drew you to the role of Claire?
She’s just a fantastic character! She feels like a very fully formed woman, very complicated, smart, driven, a survivor, funny, and a little headstrong… so yeah, it just felt like it would be really fun to play. I don’t think you get opportunities like that very often, so it felt like a ‘grab it’ moment! It really is a unique series.
Do you see yourself in the character of Claire?
I hope that I have the same lust for life that she does, I have been told that I’m maybe slightly stubborn like she is, but yeah, I think that obviously Ron and co. saw something of her essence in me, and vice versa, and I’ll take that as a compliment!
What was the casting process like?
I sent [my tape] off and forgot about it, and it wasn’t until a couple of weeks later that I heard back and they said they wanted to see more. At the time I had handed my passport into the Indian Embassy, because I was supposed to go to India, and I couldn’t get my passport back! That part was very stressful, because if they’d wanted me to go to London I couldn’t go, but luckily they changed it so that Sam came to LA and we had the ‘chemistry test’, and it went really well! From the minute I got into the room, Sam and I just started chatting. It just felt very immediate that we got along and he’s such a fantastic guy that it was really fun. I thought ‘this would be a really great person to work with’. A week later they told me I got the job, and then three days later, I was in Scotland!
Was it a lot of pressure to play such a beloved character?
I wasn’t fully aware of the magnitude of the fan base at the time, which I think served me really well. I think more of the pressure was that I had never even done an episode of television before I got this series. I’ve done small parts in films, and I’ve done little bits and pieces, but this has really been the biggest role of my life to date, and the pressure was more about would I be able to do anything! But from day one on set, it felt really special and it felt like there was a special alchemy on set and everyone just got along and everything felt right. I think it was a good thing that I wasn’t aware of how many women’s dreams were resting on my shoulders! That would’ve been very scary! *laughs*
How did you find the Scottish setting?
I grew up in Ireland but I’d been away for so long. I left Ireland in ’99, so this was my first time being back in the UK in any sense, and Ireland and Scotland are so similar, yet brilliantly different at the same time, but it really felt like a homecoming. I remember standing in just the most beautiful landscapes and countryside and it really adds a magic to what you’re doing. I feel so lucky that we were able to shoot there. They have such an amazing heritage, and the fact that we get to use so many of the traditional people who weave baskets, and the women who have carried on centuries of traditions in embroidery and all of these things..I think it gives the show a real authenticity, and it makes us very proud of being able to show Scotland in a great light.
How is it wearing the costumes?
After lunch it gets very painful! The costumes from the 1940s were so wonderful, and I’m such a lover of vintage clothing. Terry [Dresbach, Costume Designer] and I really geeked out over all of the cuts and what we could use for that time, and that was really fun. Then we went to the 18th century costumes and it was so interesting to see how much they change everything: how you move, how you breathe, the way you emote… because when your lung capacity is cut off, you’re not grounded in the lower part of your stomach anymore… it just changes everything! It explains a lot about how women felt so restricted at that time, and that was great from a character perspective to be able to feel Claire going through that metamorphosis. It was really informative.
What’s your favourite scene?
God, one? That’s not fair! I mean just because it was so beautiful to film there, the very opening of episode five, where I’m standing looking out over the lake, and I recite a poem with Bill Paterson who plays Ned Gowan. That was a magical moment just in terms of where we were. But there are so many others!
Where would you go if you could travel back in time?
If I get to choose! It would be really terrible if you travelled back in time and then landed in some horrible moment… I think I would love to go to NY in the 1920s, it feels like it would be quite glamorous and lovely – provided I landed in a wealthy area, not in some slums in the lower east side! That would be fun though, in that kind of Great Gatsby era.
What’s the craziest thing that’s happened since the show came out in the US?
I live in West Hollywood, and just the other day I was walking along the street right around the corner from where I live, and next thing I know I turn around the corner and there’s this enormous billboard, the whole side of a massive building that’s the poster for the show. I moved to LA about 5 and a half years ago and was starting from scratch with a new career, full of aspirations but no idea whether it would work out or not, and to have that moment of seeing the full circle coming around, and thinking ‘wow, this has sort of worked out!’ It was really quite special.
How was it filming the intimate scenes?
It’s always a little awkward, but it can be very very funny. Sam and I usually giggle our way through it. What we really tried with this show was if we were going to have sex scenes they had to be really integral to the story and had to move the plot along. It was not going to be just some gratuitous bonking in the corner for no reason! I think we did a really good job with that. The first episode where you see Frank and Claire, it really informs you about where they are in their relationship: here are two people who have a lot of love for each other and are really tender, but they’re really struggling to keep their marriage together and build a bridge back to each other. When it comes to Claire and Jamie, it’s not a straightforward situation, and there’s a lot of emotions going through both of them. Claire feels a lot of guilt, a lot of apprehension about this, she feels drawn to him, but she still has a lot of love for her husband. I like the way that it was written in that you see very different stages of these people growing to know each other and her allowing herself to love this man. It’s a tough thing for her to set aside all of the guilt that she feels for her inadvertent abandonment of her husband.
Do you think that she’s in love with both of them?
I think that she feels a lot of love for Frank, but I think that it was her first love and it was a love that she never really had to question. I think that when she meets Jamie she realises that there’s a larger capacity within her to love deeper and more fiercely, that she never really realised was there before. I think that she and Jamie are really true soul mates in that sense, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that Frank was a good man to her, and she did love him, and I think that there is a loss for her there; that she really has to grieve that.
And how did you feel about Starz’ reputation for racier scenes?
I’m not gonna say that there wasn’t a bit of apprehension, especially because I’d never filmed a sex scene before in my life! I met with Ron before I accepted the job and I met with the powers that be at Starz, and everybody was very reassuring in the fact that they didn’t want to make the typical ‘premium cable’ type of sex show! They really were fans of the books and they wanted to focus on the characters and this love story, and I felt very confident. Ron is such an ‘evolved’ man, such an amazing human being, and he has the kind of emotional sensitivity that you can trust.
What can you tell us about the second half of the series?
Ooh.. get ready! I think the action really ramps up. We see Claire and Jamie’s relationship really getting tested.. the second half of the season is very intense. It’s not just external things that impinge on their relationship and put them in danger but they have to come to terms with a lot of internal friction too. These are two people who’ve come from different times! We’re going to see the repercussions of that, and I think that Claire has to come to terms with her new reality; she has to make the decision, is she going to accept her fate, or is she going to continue to find her way back to her own time? With those decisions there’s a lot of things that she’s going to have to accept, and maybe grow into a role that she wasn’t sure she was going to inhabit.
What do you have planned for the future?
At the moment I’m filming a movie called Money Monster in New York, which is a fantastic film. I keep trying to find out how I should describe it.. I think a ‘financial thriller’ maybe? It shines a light on the financial sector and the world of high-frequency trading. It’s directed by Jodie Foster which is exciting, and it stars George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Jack O’Connell and Dominic West.
I play the chief communications officer of an investment bank, which is like the spokesperson, and it’s a very cool role, because it’s someone who perhaps has never considered the repercussions of her job, and has always been quite ambitious and toes the party line, but when she makes some discoveries she has to make some big decisions. It’s a great role and it’s a great script, so it’s really exciting. After that it’s back to Outlander Season 2!
RON D MOORE (Executive Producer)
Were you a fan of the books?
I didn’t know about the books until about six or seven years ago. My wife and my producing partner had both independently read the books but had never really spoken about them. As Battlestar Galactica was winding down the three of us had dinner together and they both got very excited and felt that it was a good fit for me, so I read the first book and could see how I could adapt this into a TV series. I really liked the lead character, I liked the period, the historical detail, and I laid out pretty easily how I could cut this up into individual episodes for a series, so that’s how I came to the project.
It’s still sci-fi and fantasy, but quite different from your previous work.
It’s the time travel element that is the only real sci-fi. What I liked about it that’s different to anything else I’ve done is that it’s a period piece. Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica are period pieces too, they just happen to be in the future as opposed to the past. I like doing that kind of work, creating worlds that don’t exist for the audience, and taking out of their day to day reality to this other place, and that’s what I like about any period show.
Was it quite daunting to adapt such a well-loved women’s story?
It’s challenging to adapt anything that’s beloved to a fan-base, but I don’t think of it as a women’s show. It’s just a show to us and we try to tell the story as best we can. With regards to the fan base, it’s bearing in mind that these are beloved books and fans have been reading them for a really long time so they’re looking forward to the experience of watching the TV series, so you’re always at pains to try to capture the spirit of the book, even as you make changes, because you’re adapting any piece of material you’re making changes along the way but you’re always trying to get back to where the story was in the book and not to reinvent the characters so people who love the book can recognise the story when they watch the show.
Did you have any background knowledge on 18th century Scotland?
No, which is actually one of the things that I liked about it. I like history and I like historical fiction. I didn’t know much about this period and this place so it was interesting to learn about an era I didn’t know very much about.
How was filming in Scotland?
It’s a lot of location work, so it was a lot of filming in the mud and the rain at all hours of the night. It’s tricky and challenging. I think the American contingent of the production was surprised at how cold it can get in Scotland, I’d be out on location in Gore-Tex and multiple layers of clothes and boots and still be cold, and meanwhile there’d be some young lady in the camera crews who’d just be in short sleeves or a vest. I was like, ‘wow, they make ‘em tough up here!’
We heard that you wore a kilt on set?
Yeah, I had three kilts made, so I wore them to the set to prove I can be just as tough [as everyone else]!
How did you research the historical element of the series?
Fortunately Diana had done a lot of the basic research for us, so a lot of it was already contained within the books, and then we would hire outside consultants. We had a historian who would vet all the scripts and stories, we also had an herbalist, and someone who was researching the weaponry, the medicines.. so each department would take care to do all the research for their particular specialty. The costume department would do all this in-depth research into the fabrics of the time, the dyes, what people wore – what we think they wore and what they actually wore…same thing with the art department and armour. At certain points you make a decision, and say okay that might not be entirely historically accurate but it’s close enough, or it’d be really difficult to change that element. We’re probably close enough for television. By and large we try to be as authentic as possible.
Has Diana played a big role in consulting on the series?
Diana’s really important to us. She sees all the outlines and all the scripts and the cuts I show her as well, and she always sends us back comments. She’s very supportive, and she’s always been very happy with what we’ve done, even when we’ve changed a lot of things from the books. Sometimes she’ll say, “oh you might wanna redo this, you might wanna look at this line, because that’s important to another book,” or “this is a line that’s a particular fan favourite,” and nine times out of ten we can change it without too much trouble.
[Fans, check out Diana’s cameo in episode 4!]
Where would you go if you could travel back in time?
If I could go back, I would go to the opening day of Disneyland, ’cause I’m a big fan of the original Disneyland park and I would love to be there the day it opened. I’d be at the front of the queue!
What’s the craziest thing that’s happened since the show came out in the US?
You’re just so surprised by the fans’ dedication and resourcefulness. Just bringing things to fan events that you don’t expect, and they know more about you than you probably are comfortable with. They’re just very “surprising” in how much they know, and how much they want you to know they know! Sometimes they know the show better than you do, which is quite scary!
What are the benefits of the series being on Amazon Prime Instant Video?
The nice thing about Amazon is that they have such a deep catalogue of a lot of things, so you already have an audience that’s used to going to Amazon as a source of a lot of television and movies, so they’re a great central portal for people who are already accessing VOD. I use it in the States quite a bit because I like the fact that I can be watching something on my laptop and hit pause, and then I can go pick up exactly where I was on my iPad or my phone. It’s the inter-connectivity of the platforms that’s a nice feature of Amazon, and it just has such a big penetration in the UK so it seems like it’s a really good access point for anybody who wants to watch the show. Obviously if you’ve just bought the books it’s going to recommend that you show ‘cause you’ve already read the books and vice versa.
Equally, what’s it like working with Starz in the US?
They’re great, they’re probably the best network I’ve worked with. They’re very supportive creatively, they liked the books.. as soon as I’d pitched the show to them they’d already read the books which is impressive ‘cause they’re massive books – they’re fans! The notes I get from them are usually like, “Okay, you’ve changed this from the books, did you have to change that, why did you change that?” so they’re part of the fan conversation as well.
What’s your favourite scene?
I really like episode six, which is where Claire and Jack Randall are in a room together for most of the episode. It’s almost like watching a two-man play, and I think that’s really interesting, especially for television. It was kind of a risky choice to put them at a table where they would just talk for a very long time, but I believed in our actors, and I knew that Ira would do a really great job with the script. I’m really proud of that episode, it turned out really well.
Whose idea was it to use the same actor [Tobias Menzies] to play Jack and Frank?
That was my idea from the beginning. When I read the book it seemed like a clear choice. Claire thinks that it is her husband when she sees him in the past, and was struck by the fact that he looks almost exactly like Frank, so to me it felt like an easy decision to have the same actor play both. That’s the only way you’re really gonna get that part of the story out.
What can you tell us about the second half of the season?
The second half of the season gets more complicated, it has a lot of forward momentum! The story starts moving faster, a lot of twists and turns… Claire gets into more jeopardy, there’s a witch trial in the second half, there’s more revelations about Geillis Duncan, we get to Lallybroch where Jamie’s from and meet more of his family, and eventually the season builds towards a final confrontation between Jack and Jamie.
The first season covers the entire first book, and the basic plan is for each season to roughly cover each book. some of the later books get really big, so once we get there (hopefully), then we may have to decide how we might cut a book up. Right now it’s one book per season.
The first eight episodes of Outlander are now available on Amazon Prime Instant Video. Subsequent episodes will be available on Amazon a few hours after they debut on US television from April 4. Start your 30-day free trial of Amazon Prime today.