Diehard Outlander followers have seen the video of its stars’ chemistry take a look at. Now, Sam Heughan and Caitriona Balfe‘s Outlander audition is getting more behind-the-scenes details from Heughan himself. The actor details the “intense” audition in his new memoir Waypoints: My Scottish Journey.
In a new chapter excerpt, the star talks of their audition, a scene that would go on to become a beloved Jamie and Claire fight scene from Outlander Season 1 Episode 9, “The Reckoning.” You know the one. It features the line “You’re tearing my guts out, Claire.” Heughan writes in Waypoints that this audition marked his and Balfe’s first assembly. The present’s hunt for Claire was ongoing, and he says, “the chemistry had to be just right.”
“Despite their enduring love, the two characters can be quite antagonistic in their relationship,” Heughan writes within the excerpt, shared October 21 in Variety. “In the heat of that moment, born from love and frustration, we literally began tearing at each other until the director called time on us. It was intense, physically and emotionally. It left us breathless. She was wrapped in my arms, and I think we both know that Jamie and Claire had just come into existence together.”
They reprised their audition for Episode 9. The scene comes after Jamie, and the Highlanders rescue Claire from Black Jack Randall (Tobias Menzies). Jamie and Claire are just lately married, and their clashing views on the roles of husbands and wives (influenced by Claire being from the longer term, after all) brings their simmering anger to a head. Watch Heughan and Balfe’s audition beneath, as seen on the Outlander Season 3 Blu-Ray particular options clip.
Heughan additionally writes that Jamie’s safety of Claire mirrored in actual life on set, as Outlander was certainly one of Balfe’s earliest appearing roles.
“It was a big leap for her. I felt that I needed to be protective towards her, as supportive as Jamie is with Claire. In some ways, it seems as if that dynamic developed between us as actors and then went on to amplify and be explored in front of the cameras,” Heughan writes.
The actor once more confirms he is aware of how Outlander will finish, saying of writer Diana Gabaldon: “Gabs is a wonderful and fascinating woman who has always revealed so much to me about the character’s subtleties and motivations. When the first season went into production, she’d written eight novels in a planned series of 10. With the narrative mapped out in her head, she even told me what would happen in the closing pages of the final book. It’s been our secret ever since, with only perhaps Maril Davis, the show’s executive producer, also knowing.”
Waypoints additionally options dozens of by no means earlier than seen photographs from Heughan’s life, together with pictures from his early adolescence, hikes via the highlands, and Outlander behind-the-scenes pictures. The actor particulars his tough relationship along with his father, who deserted his household when he was younger, drama college rejections, blowing “big break” auditions, and disordered consuming patterns triggered by unhealthy requirements about male physique. The e book is about over Heughan’s solo six-day, 100-mile journey via the Scottish Highlands and is offered for buy beginning October 25.
Outlander, Season 7 Premiere, TBA, Starz