- When people find out you're Scottish, what's
the first thing they ask you or tell you
that they know about Scotland?
What do you wear under your kilt?
OK, that one's [INAUDIBLE].
Yeah, yeah.
Or they claim to be Scottish.
Yes.
Yeah.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
"Men in Kilts."
- Men-- - --in--
- --in-- - -- Kilts.
-- Kilts.
A road trip with Sam and Graham.
Welcome to EW's Three Rounds.
I'm Ruth Kinane.
And I'm here with the cast of "Men in Kilts,"
Sam Heughan and Graham McTavish, to have
three Scottish drinks and a little chat
about their new TV series.
Hi, guys. - Hello.
Hi.
- Lovely to see you. - How are you?
[INTERPOSING VOICES] - --drinking with me today.
[LAUGHS]
And a fellow Scot, of course, as well.
Well, we're probably all going to get, as we say in Scotland,
steaming, real fast.
Steaming.
RUTH KINANE: So round one is an Isle
of Harris gin with tonic water and a slice of grapefruit.
Slange. Slange var.
Slange.
- Slange var. - Cheers.
Cheers.
Cheers, mm.
Now, that is absolutely delicious.
Mm.
Can I just mention that I do love this gin?
And I think Scotland does amazing gin.
They do.
Obviously, people know Scotland for whisky.
But we make great gin.
The distilleries have just taken off.
It's incredible.
Yeah, it's so fashionable right now, gin.
Let's talk about "Men in Kilts" a little bit.
Where did the idea come from?
Am I right in saying that, originally, it was
going to be a podcast, and then it
kind of turned into a TV show?
Yeah well, Sam and I had been talking about this vaguely
for a long time.
And then he rang me in my kitchen, actually, and said,
hey, why don't we do a podcast about Scotland?
And I pretended to know what a podcast was.
And I said yeah, great. Great, great.
And then he came back--
I think it was literally a couple of days later--
and I said what about GoPros?
And I went OK.
But then he suggested we do it with a full crew.
And we did.
And it was extraordinary.
It went from an idea in March, and I think we
were shooting it in September.
Yeah. That's right.
Yeah, yeah. - Right.
What was something new that you both learned about Scotland
while you were doing it?
Ooh.
Well--
Wow, wow.
It's tough because everywhere we went, every character we met,
and also some of the things we saw or touched-- you know,
we actually got to touch weapons that have been used
in these battles in Culloden.
And that, for me, was really eye opening
and an amazing experience to actually touch the past.
I suppose the variety.
I mean, it's really like what Sam was saying,
just what Scotland has to offer and all
of those different areas--
food, music, history, landscape, the people.
The characters that we met were stranger than any fiction.
I mean, they really were. - Yeah.
You couldn't have made them up.
Amazing. - Yeah.
Yeah.
[HIGHLAND MUSIC PLAYING]
GRAHAM MCTAVISH: A land that is cut
through with lochs and mountains that weave
like some kind of tartan kilt--
Oh, I knew you were going to go there.
--which is called Scotland.
Scotland.
It must make you feel really proud as well,
when you're traveling around, just to feel
like, this is my country.
Were there ever any moments where you were
a little bit emotional, maybe?
Just feeling the patriotism?
The landscape of Scotland, when you travel through it,
it tells a story.
Everywhere you turn, there are stories that are popping up.
And you can see it in the landscape.
You can see ruined buildings, people
that were forced out of their homes during the clearances.
Some of these buildings are still there.
And just going to somewhere like Trumpan
Church, where a terrible massacre took place,
and there it is.
And when you step into those places,
I think you really do have a very real connection
with the past, very tangible.
Did you guys have a favorite place
that you went to, maybe somewhere
you hadn't been before?
Is it hard to narrow down? [LAUGHS]
Uh, not-- [INTERPOSING VOICES]
--abseiling off [INAUDIBLE].
[LAUGHS]
That was fun.
For you.
I obviously tried to put Graham in places
where he didn't feel that comfortable because--
Yeah, it's all this talk of history.
It's nothing to do with it. - No.
No. - This is just a ruse.
No.
Can I throw you off a cliff, basically?
[LAUGHS]
Yeah, for me, I mean, there are
so many great places we visit.
But I think the islands, for me, are really remarkable.
They're another part of Scotland, another world.
And they have so much history as well.
And not only through Scottish history but the Scandinavians,
the Vikings coming over.
And it really is--
there's so much to dig into in Scotland.
And a lot of those communities in the highlands, particularly
the Outer Hebrides, Gallic is still the first language,
which is really amazing.
It's like a different country.
It's so cool.
- And they make great gin. - [LAUGHS] Yes.
Isle of Harris. We love it.
Oh, well.
On that note, I think we can move onto our second round.
So we've just got to down these really fast.
What's next?
Round two is a pint of tenants'
lager, a Glaswegian lager.
SAM HEUGHAN: Ah, yes.
OK, so round two to this lager.
I have this cool glass.
Since we're getting a little bit tipsy,
let's talk about your guys' friendship.
So you obviously met on "Outlander."
What was you guys' first impression of each other?
And why did you think now that you would make OK travel
companions for this show?
I was very annoyed that he was an inch taller than me.
Very annoyed.
It was one of the first things I noticed about him.
In all seriousness, one of the things I noticed about Sam
was how generous and warm he was towards me.
He made me feel completely at my ease.
And it was great, actually.
We had a really good meeting.
But I was slightly annoyed about the height thing.
It was great to meet him.
And then, unfortunately, then I had to work with him and--
[LAUGHTER]
--drive a campervan around Scotland with him.
There is no way that if somebody had said to me on that
day in So-Ho, you're going to be traveling around
Scotland in a campervan with him in a few years, I would never--
We're going on the trip of a lifetime.
We spent a lot of time here, obviously,
shooting "Outlander."
What is portrayed in the show is truthful in many ways.
Time travel is truthful.
Yeah, I wasn't necessarily thinking of the time travel.
Was there any point where you actually did feel unsafe?
Because you did a lot out there things.
There were some cold moments in the North Atlantic Sea.
Any points where you were just like, why did we do this?
No.
I mean, you didn't.
No.
You were fine.
It wasn't that I felt unsafe.
Um, terrified, I would say.
The motorbike and sidecar, I mean, literally
like a tiny metal coffin that I was in as I was being driven
around at speed by a man who had barely
ever been on a motorbike, let alone
driven a motorbike and sidecar.
And that was leaking fuel.
It was.
It was pouring out a lot of fuel.
I mean, basically every scenario was to bring
Graham closer to his demise.
GRAHAM MCTAVISH: Yes.
Again, I think this is what the viewers want.
This is what people are asking for.
[LAUGHTER]
Learn a bit about Scotland, see a man--
--but mainly there to make me suffer.
-- confront his mortality.
Yes.
Yeah, honestly, it's TV gold.
So we need more.
We need more of it.
Can we talk about how many different voices Graham has?
Because [LAUGHS] my favorite thing was just
when you guys would just go into weird voices
that weren't your own.
We spent a lot of time driving together.
And I think, honestly, we get along very well.
And I think we both have similar humor.
It's kind of a Monty Python stroke.
And I think it helped Sam as well to sometimes feel that he
was in a van with someone else.
Yes.
Now I could be like Jason Statham and just--
(AFFECTED) and talk to him like that.
We felt little bit like an audition for something.
But I don't know what he was auditioning for.
No, nor do I.
Very good.
Well, I think we're about time for our third round.
But very quickly, how many kilts did you guys actually wear?
I think there was four.
Five?
Oh no.
Way more.
Way, way more.
So we revisit one of our good friends who's a kilt maker.
And he designs some kilts for us.
We obviously used a lot of our own personal kilts.
And I have to admit, they're so comfortable.
And they're great.
Riding the town on a bicycle, maybe not.
I would recommend people wear a kilt while watching this TV
show.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
HIGHLAND DANCER: The soldiers would dance the swords
before they went into battle.
The origination of Highland Games would come from the clan.
SAM HEUGHAN: This land tells the story of its people.
OK, should we do our third round?
I'm really not making good progress here.
Car.
RUTH KINANE: Round 3 is a wee dram
of Sassenach Whiskey, which you can have neat or on the rocks.
If you didn't know, this is my whiskey.
Who would have thought it?
Graham.
Is that really generous?
Is that too much?
That's a Scottish--
that's a dram.
- That's a wee dram. - Cheers.
Cheers.
Slange var.
What should we be tasting, Sam?
What should you be tasting?
RUTH KINANE: Yeah.
Hopefully, you can still taste something
after the other drinks, but--
[LAUGHTER]
Do you guys have a favorite Scottish--
maybe just like a fast food.
Doesn't need to be something fancy.
Maybe it's just haggis pechora.
Oh.
Oh, nice.
Or a square sausage in a roll.
Oh, so good.
But actually, mentioning the square sausage, on our wrap
night in Braemar after the Highland Games, in the morning,
I wasn't feeling too bright.
And I got a local square sausage,
which is sausage which is a square, as it sounds
like, flat, in a bun, with an egg.
And it was, honestly, I still think about it to this day.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
Yes.
SAM HEUGHAN: This is a great example
of amazing Scottish seafood.
I wanted to--
wondered if you guys can explain a little bit
about ceilidh dancing because it's such a thing that we
grew up doing in school.
We hate it when we have to learn it in school.
And then you go to a wedding, and it's
the best thing ever because everybody knows the dances.
GRAHAM MCTAVISH: Yeah.
Ceilidh is traditionally, it's a meeting, basically.
And people would sing and storytell and, obviously,
play music and dance.
And we have these set dances that some of them
actually aren't that old.
We learned in "Men in Kilts" actually, that they're not.
GRAHAM MCTAVISH: Yeah.
They have been created only in the last 100 years or so.
But we were taught them in Scotland, in school.
And I remember hating it, having to learn these dances.
And now it's the best fun ever.
I absolutely adore it.
And everyone is involved.
And it's so fun.
It really is.
Well, it also means you sweat out
the alcohol, so [INAUDIBLE].
And if you don't have bruises on your arms at the end,
you weren't doing it right, I figure.
[LAUGHS]
I went to once on Mull.
And this young lady was catapulted into the drumkit.
What do you guys think is a big misconception
people have about Scotland or about
Scottish people in general?
Well, the one that really annoys me
is the idea that Scots aren't generous.
They will share their last loaf of bread with you.
They'll go out of their way to help you out
if you're having a tough time.
So they're very community minded, the Scots.
When people find out you're Scottish, what's
the first thing they ask you or tell you
that they know about Scotland?
What do you wear under your kilt?
I knew that one's going to be--
[LAUGHS] - Yeah, yeah.
Or they claim to be Scottish.
Yes.
OK, to finish off, because we're just about at time,
I'm going to give you some Scottish slang expressions.
And I want you to repeat them back and then explain
what they actually mean.
So the first one is haud yer wheesht.
Haud yer wheesht.
Quiet and shut up.
[INAUDIBLE] Shut up.
[LAUGHS] Get laldy.
Get laldy.
Means to go for a big time.
Go and have a great party.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
Go 100%.
Us right now.
[LAUGHS] Awa' an bile yer heid.
Awa' an bile yer heid.
It's kind of the most polite--
Clear off.
--way of just saying, get to.
Lang may yer lum reek.
It refers to a chimney.
Long may your chimney smoke.
Basically, long may your life be.
Yeah.
I was referring to Graham's huge chimney.
A huge chimney that will never get cold.
OK and lastly, let's get mad wae.
After these three, I think we will get made wae.
Let's get mad wae.
It basically means [INAUDIBLE] let's have a party.
And let's have a lot of fun, which is--
Let's just go crazy.
It always, always refers back to having a great time.
I know.
It's great.
This was a very apt decision for this interview.
[LAUGHS]
Right.
Well, let's finish our whisky and get mad wae, guys.
Get mad wae.
Indeed.
Thanks for watching EW's Three Rounds with "Men in Kilts" Sam
Heughan and Graham McTavish.
Slainte.
[MUSIC PLAYING]