I'm doing Well
I'm doing well. As always, lovely to talk to you.
So I've done it a few times in the last few months because you can say that
I feel like we're not we're never not talking to each other.
Yeah, exactly.
Well, at least when you're talking about Belfast
this time, even though Belfast is wonderful,
but you'll get to talk about
about that again for a few more months, I'd imagine.
Congrats on Outlander.
Thank you.
It's been moderately successful thus far.
People have seen my mom and dad.
That's enough.
Isn't that just Mom and Dad?
That's all
I mean, this.
All those years ago, as you know, the guys are just telling me
it will be coming up to ten years in a year or two. You guys have been.
You've been doing this, and you've been there from the beginning.
How how has this kind of changed things for you?
You know, you've been there for so long.
You've seen the evolution of this character and the trajectory.
Have you got your head around the fact
that it's been that long and people are still so invested in this series?
Well, it's
it's I mean, it's mad. you don't really ever expect.
You know, I think you're going to I mean, at least me
I go into every job with the try and have zero expectations.
Just hope that on the day today, it's fun, right?
And this job was no different.
Like, we started in 2013.
We started shooting.
And it was kind of like, oh, you know, maybe this will be a fun year in Scotland
and I'll get to do this. And then I'll go back to L.A.
and it'll have been a lovely experience.
And, you know, here we are almost nine years later
and it seems to just be growing every year rather than, you know,
I think some shows peter out and, you know, they sort of
people forget about it, but this doesn't seem to be the case.
And it's it's just such a it's a wild privilege you know,
you remember do you remember the time, what it changed for you
in terms of maybe being recognized or, you know, the fanbase?
Was there a moment?
Maybe season one or season two where you just go, oh, this is
this is this, this is bigger than I anticipated.
And you know, I think it's it's funny.
I mean, it was very popular in the States sort of early on.
And that sort of, you know, occasionally when we would go to the U.S.,
you get a glimmer of that.
But in the U.K., it still felt very under the radar.
And so I think the first time
I got stopped in a supermarket in Glasgow, I was like, oh, you know,
I've been walking around
basically in my pajamas and like, you know, getting away with it.
And now you realize you're like
better a better scrub up a bit when I leave the house. No,
I'm taking you back to the beginning of what was what was your initial
kind of draw to take Claire and obviously it was only one season then,
but they've obviously been the source material and everything else.
What was your initial kind of draw to her and the series as a whole?
Well, I remember I read the book before I'd done my chemistry test with Sam (Heughan),
and I just remember being
so excited by all of the action and sort of
all of the things that my character was going to get to experience and go through.
And the fact that she was such a mouthy, bolshy
and, you know, real justice warrior, you know,
she kind of stood up for what she believed in
and she took people to task and all of that just seemed so fun.
But yet there was a real softness to her as well.
And, you know, she loved so fiercely, but she fought so fiercely
like those things you know, I think being able to sort of
go through the expanse of human emotion is is a really enticing thing
as an actor, you know, to be able to have these big emotional moments,
but also funny moments in action, all of those things.
You know, it just seemed like such an all round exciting prospect.
And it was and still is, which is crazy.
Yeah. And I mean, you've done it for for so long.
I mean, very rarely do people you as actors get to do go back to a character.
You know, unless you do one of these bigger movies
that are connected franchises or do a show like this, it's
very rare that you get to do it.
How unique challenges that to go back and play?
I guess with this one, it's a little bit different
given the source material was so, so good in a way is kind of evolving.
Yeah. You know,
I mean, I think one of the challenges is that you don't want to get stale, right?
You don't want to
you don't want to sort of feel like you're going back
and doing the same thing over and over again.
And I think the great thing with the premise of this show is that
it does feel like every season there are very new things to explore.
Be there the external things or the internal things, you know, I think
this season has been a really special one
for me in terms of Claire's internal journey.
And I've been able to you
know, she's unraveled in a way that we've never really seen before.
I've been able to unpick her in a way that I've never done before and then,
you know, allow that to sort of build back up.
And that's been you know, I think to be challenged in that way,
six seasons in is is really unusual.
And I'm grateful for it because, you know, I think the fear is always
that you get bored or you stop being challenged, you know?
Yeah.
And I guess obviously you
were just talking to the guys and they were saying about how the fans
have already kind of
I want about and want to know about season seven, even though season six
has come out and that they seem to know more about their characters than they do.
Do you do you kind of share that feeling that they tend to there more than than
you guys ever?
Well, I mean, they definitely know more about the plot and what happens for sure.
You know, I
think sometimes you have to be careful when you start talking to them
because they're like, no, no, that doesn't happen. This happens.
You're like, all right.
You know, I don't remember the start
and now, obviously, you and you got a fantastic cast,
you and Sam , and you shared, you know, so many years
we've we've have this cast, but also Sam in particular,
how how is that kind of imbued itself on you, the fact that you've created
this kind of extra family and that, you know, it'll probably be bittersweet
when you guys have to have to say goodbye whenever whenever that will be.
Oh, my God. I don't want to think about that.
But that would be crazy.
And, you know, God, it's wild
like at the moment, you know, I'm I'm in L.A..
I know César [Domboy] I just bumped into him the other evening,
so I know he's here.
I know Lauren [Lyle]'s here.
I know Richard [Rankin]'s come in, and we're all trying to, like, arrange a little, like,
get together.
I saw Sam not that long ago.
He was here less than three weeks ago.
It's really, you know, it is.
It's like a family.
It's like we we've all experienced something that nobody else
will experience in the same way you know, lots of people on TV shows.
But this is our unique experience, and we share that.
And that's going to be a lifelong bond.
And it's the same with a lot of our crews.
A lot of our crew have been there from day one as well, which is mental.
But, yeah, you know, it's it's
I think we made a really conscious decision in the beginning, Sam and I,
you know, we knew that we were going to be the two that were sort of
at the center of this story.
And we made a conscious decision to have each other's backs,
but to also lead from the front and create an environment that was really welcoming
and really supportive because that's what you want.
We want to go to work in a place where you feel like
you're making sure that everyone's having the best experience they can.
Otherwise it's miserable, you know?
And why would you want to have that as your daily life?
Yeah, as has as I kind of define her, that she's rubbed off on you.
And in terms of your your work now and your acting work,
do you feel like she's
some of the characteristics have kind of seeped into you, into your consciousness?
So maybe subconsciously that she's kind of she's always there in some shape
or form?
Well, no, I dunno.
It's it's a funny one.
I think I wouldn't have gotten cast either if we didn't have so many similarities
but I think those realizations
probably only come with hindsight and I think I'm still so in it
that you don't really get to know.
I mean, I know I've grown as a person in the last eight and a half years.
I know that
this show has given me confidence that it's given me a lot of opportunity.
So with that comes confidence too.
And, but in terms of what her as a character has given me, it's
hard to just to sort of, I don't know, analyze that in a way.
And I'm sure if I'm looking back and ten, 15 years, maybe I'll be able to like
see that but right now it sort of it feels like I'm still slow in it.
Yeah.
As a final question, I ask this to the guys.
It's kind of a fun finale, though.
So at the moment they've both said
the eighties in the nineties are the two decades.
I would love to see their characters go into even for a short a short time.
Is there, is there a decade you'd love to see Claire
kind of sink her teeth into if she got the opportunity?
Oh, man.
I mean, I think if Claire
if Claire had been in the States
the last four years, it would be interesting
to see
you, interesting
to see how many of those women's marches she would have been
heading.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's that's kind of the perfect place for her.
Now, you've said I'm kind of, like, oh yeah!
That's that's exactly where she would have been. Perfect.
She'd have ruffled some feathers. Yeah.
And and this pandemic, I think she'd have a thing to say or,
you know, think about public health to say.
Sure she would Always lovely to talk
Thank you so, so much for your time again today. And
I guess thanks so much.