Sam Heughan and Caitríona Balfe tell us what's in store in the final season of Outlander
With Jamie and Claire’s love story always at the heart of the historical time travel series, playing them has been life changing for its stars.
The wait is over as Outlander returns with season eight, the final season of the hit historical time travel series adapted from Diana Gabaldon’s books that has been on our screens since 2014. Winning millions of fans, it put Scotland front and centre as viewers followed the dramatic love story of Jamie and Claire Fraser, played by Sam Heughan and Caitríona Balfe on MGM+.
This season Jamie and Claire return home to Fraser’s Ridge after years away and face up to intruders, family secrets and answers as to how far they will go to defend what they love.
Away from Outlander Heughan has appeared in films To Olivia, SASam: Red Notice, alongside Ruby Rose and Andy Serkis, The Spy Who Dumped Me with Mila Kunis and Kate McKinnon, action comic book movie Bloodshot with Vin Diesel and Love Again alongside Priyanka Chopra and Celine Dion. Also, he returned to theatre playing the lead in the RSC’s Macbeth last year.
Alongside playing Claire Fraser, Balfe starred in Kenneth Branagh’s award winning film Belfast, opposite Orlando Bloom in boxing drama The Cut and espionage thriller The Amateur with Rami Malek and in Ford v Ferrari and Money Monster. Forthcoming films including Tenzing, alongside Tom Hiddleston and Willem Dafoe, the new film adaptation of Sense and Sensibility with Daisy Edgar-Jones and George MacKay, and A Long Winter, directed by Andrew Haigh.
As the Outlander plot threads of previous seasons are tied up, as ever at the heart of Outlander is the bond between Jamie and Claire and ahead of the launch the pair took time out to speak about the characters who have changed their lives and careers.
Does the final season tie up the plot threads from previous seasons?
Caitríona: I don't think it's possible to tie up everything. We’ve seen these characters for over 10 years and there's probably an infinite amount of possibilities of how it could have ended. We don’t even fully know yet which one was chosen. I think we have to all appreciate that's the journey these characters have gone on and I hope the fans are happy. We’ve put our heart and souls into it, and hopefully that's what resonates with them.
Sam: It’s exciting. We shot different options of endings and the book series is continuing so we've had to make our own ending. That's partly the reason we came back for season eight, unfinished business. This is an ending and a lot of storylines and questions are tied up in some ways, but it's impossible to finish it all. I'm excited to watch it with the fans and be a fan myself.
Were there any surprises?
Caitríona: I think the whole season is quite surprising. Normally, before a season starts, Sam and I get a breakdown and read the book and you have a good sense of what is going to happen. But because Diana's story continues past where we were ending, this was a whole new version and we didn't know going into the season how it was going to end. So it was sort of surprising the whole way through. We would get the scripts and find out firsthand what was going to happen.
So the rumour that Sam knew the ending is not correct?
Sam: I knew the ending of the books. When we started Diana told me the last couple of pages of the final end of the books, but she hasn't published that yet - it hasn't got there. Our ending is different, but there are some similarities too.
How has it changed your career being in Outlander since it premiered in 2014?
Sam: It has changed our lives. A quarter of our lives have been in Scotland doing the show, and of course it’s changed our careers. It has given us a lot of opportunities. We’ve made great friends. It's given us more experience and I'm very thankful for it.
Caitríona: In many ways, it's given us careers, at least for me. I wasn't doing too much before it so I'm very grateful to it.
Did you have any inkling of how big it was going to be when you started?
Caitríona: No. You get auditions and you’re never quite sure what it is, and I remember when I finally found out I had to test, it went from ‘this is just a couple of scenes’ to ‘oh this is a book’ so I read it before I tested and realised, ‘oh, this is a series’. It has a huge fandom and then you start to get an inkling of the appetite for it, but we never knew if all the audience would join us and like the show.
Sam: Because it was the early days of social media, watching that and seeing what their reaction was...
Caitríona: Yes, they weren’t too happy about, ha!… some of our casting. Moi.
Sam: Well, I think there was ‘he's an inch too small’ or ‘she doesn't have whisky coloured eyes’…
Caitríona: …’whisky coloured eyes, curly hair, or a round arse’. And I was like, ‘you haven't seen my arse yet’. How do you know?
Sam: Now I think we've proven to them…
Caitríona: …we are them.
What's the best thing about Sam as a co-star?
Caitríona: His kindness, humor and support. I think you've always had my back. It can be stressful and tough filming really long days and there's always certain things that can grate or whatever, and Sam always makes me laugh and keeps it light. He has always been such a huge support. I can't think of anyone else I would have rather gone through all of that with.
What's the best thing about Caitriona as a co-star?
Sam: I think her diligence or dedication. She's one of the hardest working people I know. Her humour, 100%. I think that's what we connected on a lot. And her friendship. It's honestly been an absolute pleasure and who else would you want to do over a decade with?
How has over a decade working with your co-star shaped your acting and what have you taken from them?
Caitríona: I've learnt a lot from Sam. I think he’s very level headed. Whereas I might have an Irish fire that can sometimes come out a little, I think Sam's considered. If there's conflict or stuff he's very calm and approaches it in a very level-headed way and that's something I really admire. And just his work ethic as well. He never stops. Sometimes, I'm like, ‘you need to rest more’. It's just incredible to see. And how much he cares about everybody and his capacity for helping other people too is really amazing.
Sam: I do ask myself sometimes ‘what would Caitriona do in this situation?’ Because I think you wouldn't let people get away with something, or this decision, you'd be like, ‘no!’ and stand your ground, so perhaps you have given me more… You have given me more professionalism, but also a drive and an understanding of where to put boundaries. Also when I go on other jobs I always measure it now to this one because it's so seminal and a huge part of my life. So I go, ‘oh, it's not Caitriona’, or ‘how would she have done that?’ It's hard to not measure other co-stars now to the people we've worked with I think.
What trait of your characters would you most like to possess yourself?
Caitríona: I think Claire's resilience is something that's quite extraordinary. And her forthrightness in fighting for other people is also very impressive and something I would maybe like more of.
Sam: I like his humor. I would like his unwavering loyalty to those he loves so it makes him do things which are extreme and I think that's pretty cool. I don't think I'd like any of his responsibility - for everyone’s welfare, his wife, his children, and the people that have joined them, ‘the blow-ins’, then the whole of Fraser’s Ridge, his men - because he’s a general - he has so much responsibility. And then the repercussions of what he does, in the past or the future. It's a lot.
Did you keep anything from the set?
Caitríona: I robbed the whole place blind. No, I didn’t! I got to take Claire's rings from multiple marriages.
Sam: I have a full Jamie Fraser outfit in my house that was gifted. I didn't steal it. I never wear it. I'm not going to. I did steal some other parts of the outfits, like a Scotch bunnet which I thought was from season one but I've realised it's someone else’s so I might give it to him. Although it’s filled with moths. I left my house and came back and the whole place had a moth infestation.
Why is Outlander so popular?
Caitríona: Diana [Gabaldon] has this really brilliant premise for a world where it covers so many bases. You've got at the heart of it this really aspirational love story, and who doesn't want to be inspired by love and feel that that kind of timeless, metaphysical love exists? I think that's something so powerful. Then it also has all of the historical elements. And it's got family, it's got politics.
Sam: I think the heart of it is Scotland as well, even though we haven't really been there much in the last few seasons, although there are moments we return or flashbacks. So I think Scotland has been a huge part of the story, its own character, and it's welcomed or encouraged people to come and visit. I think there's a romanticism to Scotland that has helped the backstory and the backdrop of the whole love story.
If you could time travel, when would you go to?
Caitríona: The beginning of time. Just to see how it all started.
Sam: The beginning of us on Outlander because it's a seminal moment, and it would be nice to be a fly on the wall and watch the beginning of it just to see. Because I remember it, but it would be nice to go back and watch us work our way through, or fumble our way through, learning on the job.
What have you been working on since Outlander finished filming?
Caitríona: We've both been busy the last while. I have a few films coming out this year, which were really fun and it was nice to do different things. There's the film Tenzing about Tenzing Norgay due out, Sense and Sensibility [where she plays Mrs Dashwood] and A Long Winter [an adaptation of the Colm Tóibín novel]. And next I start filming on The Housekeeper with Richard Eyre [with Uma Thurman, Anthony Hopkins and Phoebe Dynevor, adapted from Rose Tremain’s book].
Sam: I played Macbeth at the RSC, which was a dream come true. [The RSC production in Stratford-upon-Avon was set in a 20th-century Scottish gangland pub]. And I've created The Galloway Distillery in the southwest of Scotland, which is a wonderful part of the world that people should visit. I’ve started shooting Embassy, which is a new thriller action series, and it’s fun. [Heughan plays an SAS soldier in the six part-series with Anna Kendrick and JK Simmons.]
Caitríona: It was so amazing to see Macbeth as Glasgow pub gang culture, it worked so brilliantly. And you were really incredible in that.
Sam: Thank you. Yeah, it was so fun. Really cool, very different to doing film and TV, but also it felt very fresh. I mean, hard to do a fresh take on a classic, but I think it did.
For Sam to be back on stage in Macbeth and also returning to where he started at The Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh at an in conversation event to mark its 60th anniversary, were these full circle moments?
Sam: I definitely think that. Personally it's kind of weird because in some ways, on Outlander you're so consumed by it, you forget a little bit about where you were or what you were doing. And even in relationships, friendships, hobbies, because there was just never any time to do that. Also going back to theatre for me felt full circle and The Lyceum especially, because that was where I was first on stage in a production of Macbeth. So it was amazing to be back in that theatre where it all started, where I fell in love with acting. It was cool to be more experienced and remembering being an usher there and youth theater, then to be on stage talking about your career. It's amazing. Also, kind of slightly depressing. It's like, ‘all right, that's it, is it?’
Caitríona: Hardly. It’s just the beginning of a new chapter. Outlander is so time-consuming we didn't have huge opportunities for doing other stuff so this new chapter with the possibility of variety is so exciting. To just try on many different hats and see what happens.
What's the most bizarre experience you’ve had of all the attention Outlander brought?
Caitríona: It's sometimes the strange places you meet fans. I had to have a medical procedure once where I was getting put under and the anesthesiologist started singing The Outlander theme tune to me, which was very disconcerting.
Sam: I was on a train down from Scotland to London recently, really early in the morning and I’d had an event the night before and didn’t feel perhaps at my best. I sat down, the only person in the carriage and the train guy walked past and went ‘I know who you are, my wife will go crazy’, then he came back and all the train guards came and took selfies, at six o'clock in the morning. They were very sweet, it was nice, but it was one of those moments where you're like, ‘what's happening, where am I?’ But it's kind of lovely when people recognise you like that.
Caitríona: Also the longer it's been since we finished, you have more distance and you're on other things and sort of forget about it, then somebody says your name, and you're like, ‘yes?’ then realise they're an Outlander fan and it sort of throws you for a second, but it's lovely. My son definitely finds it confusing. He’s like, ‘what does that person want?’ and you try to explain.
Finally, do you have a message for Scottish Outlander fans?
Caitríona: It was so nice to film in Scotland. Local fans would come to filming locations and it was always so nice to meet them, so thank you for allowing us in your communities and being so welcoming to us.
Sam: Outlander has done so much for Scotland that I think Scotland has maybe slowly woken up to: we have employed so much talent, used hundreds of locations, trained up new crew and we’ve got new film studios and more productions coming to Scotland, so we should be very thankful for what we’ve got.
Caitríona: I think it's shown the world what a great filming location it is. You have so many more productions who now come to Scotland because they saw what was possible with Outlander.
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