An Outlander Evening with Series Cast, Author, and Producer

but stars said something unique Chris Albrecht who's the head of stars said to me we love this make the show for the fans and trust that anyone who is not a fan of this year of the books already will become one by the time they see this show so it was an amazing amazing all right all right well welcome welcome to our panel tonight I'm Lesley hazel executive editor of Cosmopolitan magazine steady we're thrilled here to have with us tobias menzies Diana Gabaldon and Ronald D Moore let's hey kiss that's some strike that's what girl yeah do you say matching so be odd to wear odd socks in there let's get a little bit of the origin story of how this series of awesome boots turned into a fantastic television show Ron how did you come across the source material this is something that your wife turned you on to my wife and my producing partner Meryl Merrill's my producing partner Terry's my wife we were having dinner about five six years ago as Battlestar Galactica was winding down and yeah and they started we were just talking about future projects and what we were passionate about what might be a something to pursue and then Marilyn Terry started talking about Outlander and turned out they were both huge fans of these books but they're never spoken about it directly and so they got very animated and very exciting and I just kept drinking and eating and like whatever and they said no you'll love this you know it's right up your alley you love history and historical fiction and strong female characters and you'll really like this so I sat down and read the first book and I was very taken with it from the very beginning I really liked the central character of Claire I responded to the the richness and detail of the period which I didn't know very much about I didn't know too much about you know Scotland in the 18th century but I was fascinated with it and I really liked the way this story laid out that there were a lot of twists and turns and a lot of reversals of fortune that I didn't see coming and by the time I reached the end of the first book I was sold I said okay well this is a great project I can see how this became a television show and other seven more oh that's great nice and so I said I'm in and then we tracked down the rights holder his man in Jim Kohlberg and at that point in time Jim was interested in pursuing a feature version of Outlander and I said well I really don't think it's a feature I think it's really a television series and so we just sort of agreed to disagree at that point and said let's keep in touch and literally every year Merrill would call Jim and say hey how's that feature going and he'd say well yeah we're working on it and then we'd call back the next year and this went on for several years and finally to your tune half years ago he said you know maybe it is a TV show and I said great I'm in and brought it to Sony television where my production deal is based and they read it and they were sold and then I met with Diana Merrill and I flew up to Scottsdale spent a week in with Diana sort of talking about the story and the characters in the process of adaptation how we would approach it and that was a great meeting and then we went out and started pitching it and pitched it two stars left his stack of books about yay big on their table and they actually read them which was a shocking thing you know because typically if you're taking a book out into the marketplace studios and networks will buy it and they'll say well basically we bought this for the cover and we don't really care what you do with the book but stars said something unique Chris Albrecht who's the head of stars said to me we love this make the show for the fans and trust that anyone who is not a fan of this year of the books already will become one by the time they see this show so it was an amazing amazing so Diana oh this man shows up with his beautiful flowing hair and says I'm gonna make your books into a TV show what worked for you about his pitch or his vision or were there some tension yeah tell me I mean oh no no there was actually no tension mind you this was not in any way my call to make the option belong to Jim Kohlberg he could dispose of it as he liked or making it wanted but yeah but once I met with Ron and and Meryl we had a really good time we found out that we were more or less on the same wavelength they were talking you know character basically and you know this is the central thing of a story I mean in any story it's always about the characters and that's what I'd appreciated about Ron's work prior to that and I certainly appreciated it in regard to my own characters and that he appreciated who these people were and that who they were was the heart of the story it didn't have that much to do with the setting or the time travel or whatever it was who this woman is you know and what she's going to become and what's going to happen and who is this man or these men's the case may be and what is their relationship with her and that's what drives the story and I said yes you got it exactly and so they discussed with me their ideas for adaptation now I have some small experience in translating text into visual images I used to write comic books for Walt Disney but uh and I have written a graphic novel based on Outlander but you know it's a different different beast there are things you can do in visual images that you can't do in text and vice versa there's a lot of stuff you can do in text that you can't do in a visual image but both of those have their strengths and they see them as very complementary things not competing at all so I was and I was totally thrilled with the idea of having a sick guaranteed 16 episode season rather than a two-hour feature film and so the heart of the show of course is Clara's character which you probably set out to cast first but I hear it came right down to the wire well at the outside of the project I said because I'm an idiot I said you know the we're gonna cast Claire first and Jamie is gonna be the one that will cast at the last minute as you know in the books Jamie's the king of men and he's all these things that the fans built up in their heads and who's who the hell's gonna be that you know so I think that's going to take forever and of course it was exactly the opposite Sam was the very first one that we cast and it was just a very simple process the tape came in and the word went around the office like lightning like we found him I was like what what we're just beginning so no no you should got to see this tape watch the tape and sure enough it was like oh my god there he is that's him so let's grab him now you know don't be stupid and then it was the great Scarlett O'Hara search to find Claire you know it's a very difficult it was a very difficult role it's every scene every day it's a tremendous amount of work it's an a we had ice ed that to me the fundamental quality of the character was her intelligence you had to have an actress that really projected you know this is really smart quality because she lands in this time and she's able to adapt very quickly and I said everything flows from her intelligence her strength of character her adaptability her sexuality you know her warmth all of its because of this mind and the sort of intelligence so you had to have somebody that you could watch think on camera and someone who is going to be talking to you in voiceover so it turned out that was a much more difficult proposition than I think I anticipated the outset and we saw a lot of really good really talented actresses and we just kept saying no no it's not there it's not there it's not there and we were getting really close we're starting to get starting to sweat it a little bit because we're approaching the shooting point and then Katrina's a tape came in and it was a very similar thing to the discovery of Sam it was just this word went around like lightning we found her and I wasn't really and looked at the tape and whoa my god there she is and then we said let's put her and Sam together and see what the chemistry was the chemistry was great and that was it where the sold in Katrina you're sort of playing two roles in a way someone in 1945 and then someone in 18th centuries he's pretending to be someone else how did you approach your character why I really don't see Claire as playing two roles at all I think she's essentially the same woman I mean you know she's first and foremost a woman of the 40s she's just after coming off this experience of working on the front lines of the war you know the Second World War and and that's kind of the prism with which I sort of see her world through and when she is thrown into the 1740s everything is is happening to her you know a new and it's a very you know in one way it's kind of different difficult because it's very reactionary but in another way that's quite easy as an actress because I believe they did it completely you know just to make it feel like it was it was happening to me for real because I was thrown in at the last minute everything was in you think I cast eight months - yeah but no I mean it's it's it's a very very exciting role it's it's you know she's such a strong character she's very complex and and it really you know it's just such a dream role as an actress to get to play you said backstage it's a very physical role maybe you also have to do some like nurses training or something as part of this have what was that all about oh I do a mean bandage nose it was really you know these are some of the great things about being an actor is like with each project you get to learn these new skills I'm not a nurse but um but you know it was great I I we have a consultant on set and she sourced this document that was from the war that was it was a British Army document and it was all about bandaging in the in wartime and you know myself and funnily enough her name was Claire or onset doctor um so Claire and eyes that done and we kind of discussed different you know kind of things that we could use within the 1940s so weird she has whiskey colored eyes and curly hair maybe she should have let me see that really but uh you know yeah and but it is it's a very physical role and a lot of it happens wearing a corset and many yards of heavy heavy wool which is not always the easiest thing can I say when we're doing those at that episode and the next one as well there was a lot of continuity in the bandages and our continuity woman were just like hold up her hands in and be like I don't know how to do it get Katrina over and Regina comb-overs be like oh my god what have you done just she's obviously from the Bronx like oh my god facing south oh my god what have you done Anna she should redo the bandages and they're perfect every time so she's very good I love your cracking out your New York accent yeah I kind of fit in do you think that's great I'm working in here hey I've got about 300,000 questions from woman on the internet for Sam that we're sending should we go away and come back we want minibar but talk to us about being an eighteenth century man because this is you know for those of us who hang out with guys from Brooklyn with top knots and beards and so very sensitive um this is a different kind of man that we're watching remember homes in 2014 Jamie's very sensitive no he's a it's a it's a great great character to play there's some you sort of meet him at the start of the story and he's displaced and he's come back to Scotland and there he is and I think it's slowly just teasing with you about who he is and I think the course is here is you're going to find out more about him um the the books are a great source of inspiration but for me it was about going back to Scotland I'm originally from Scotland and had been away for a long time and so yeah so thank Scottish people ah really I'm Scott yeah no it's a it's really good it's to go back and I think I just felt a lot of empathy or with Jamie I think and going back to to my home country and so the place I was born and there's a lot of stories there and a lot of memories and it just feels right and I hear that you put on the kilt faster than anyone else yeah pretty quick yeah you have to obviously I was about to do it then you have to lie down on the floor and you pleat it up and there's a long process you put it up into these and then you lie on the floor in your trailer which is smaller than you are yeah sometimes your feet up it makes the trailer Rock a lot like I'm like what exactly is going on in there if the trailers rocking don't go getting my kilt on okay no it's a oversee things yeah you can wear it in many different ways and I think even it it's a discovery of you know what the kill can do and that was all down to to Ron's wife Terry who's fantastic awesome designer Terry I think I think we've all found a way into the character is definitely through the costumes you know this period makes you stand a certain way or and for myself you know it was really interesting to discover you know that that side of the Highland culture tamiya katrina says she's not playing two different characters so that question was crap for her because definitely playing two different characters I've known for two dozen guys die on paper and so I don't know how the production works like your one character one day and one the next or you were able to sort of stick with one and move to another head of this way yeah it's it's been quite mixed up luckily I haven't had to play two different characters on the same day but I feel like maybe did you ever come back oh yeah hey I ever did one day and then the next day say that again did you ever do Frank one day and Jack the next day I think so yeah um I think there's gonna be a day some point where it's gonna get very tight and I'm gonna have to like think I was like Tobias you have to put that wig on quick go yeah easier to tap into your inner historian or your inner badass I don't know I think we all know the answer to that question um yeah really good answer the question though so how do I think she answered it yeah um no um I think um no it's been really exciting to play two different parts who are very different um I remember when I first talked to Ron about the project he said something very interesting which has stayed with me throughout which was that he was almost as interested in what was different about the characters he was as interested in what was the sale about them as what was different about them so he's a two men both shaped by war Frank has been through the Second World War and Jack has been through a war two hundred years earlier a very dirty insurgency war the Jacobite rebellion and that's been a real touchstone you know so I think you know one of the challenges of playing determine do two parts is that you feel responsibility to make them different um but I think you also have to trust and the production the costumes and all the settings will give you a lot of that so that you know that the danger is that you sort of start doing like a funny walk for a while and then oh you know a pact from the other side yeah do you see I'm the other guy now yeah so that's what I do so yeah so so trusting that the the story and the the the the narrative will do a lot of the work for you and and you hope that if you get it right and you do your work well enough that the difference will be you know a little bit in the eyes and that's a bit more exciting than you know sort of laying it on so and I hope I hope that we've had moments where that's been achieved so yeah Ron there's a lot of sex in these books really define a lot you know what's alone hey um you know Game of Thrones has a lot of sex and nudity and they've kind of taken some ribbing for that SNL did hilarious parody I don't know if anybody remembers that and when you approached this source material and part of what people love is Diana's sort of Frank awesome portrayal of what happens between two people how do you approach that where's the line too much sex not enough sex well I mean it's just all there you know it's all in the book and it's all kind of organic to what the story is I mean you can see in the pilot episode or at the pilot did the first episode we you know Franken at Clare have sex and we spent a little bit of time in it but it's not definitive it's not the first time they've had sex it's not the most important time they've had sex but it was important to sort of say this is their bridge back to one another so we sort of treated it accordingly you saw enough of it to understand what it was about and then moved on that's different than say Claire and Jamie's wedding night which is you know a pivotal moment you don't even know how we've done it yet so you know we might have screwed it up for all you know but they don't have sex they don't have sex so your surprises you don't even know about it's pretty quick pretty quick so it you know it's it's it's what's appropriate to the story you know how much emphasis do you give you know how long do you spend on it what do you show it really depends on how it's informing the other journey of the characters and we just it's in the book and we just said all right well this is organic to the tale that we're telling and let's just treat it accordingly and I don't think we were ever tempted one way or the other we never said let's do more and we were never tempted to sort of shy away from it we just sort of said well what is true and let's let's go with that as the hallmark so Diana talked about this as well the books are so many different genres in fact I think when the publishers were trying to figure out how to market the books it was really complicated because it's an adventure and it's a costume drama and it's its history it's all these different things it's fantasy it's supernatural tonally when you approach that and you have a lot of experience with sci-fi you're kind of a Midas touch with with science fiction and supernatural things it seems much harder than so much what we see on TV is there some secret way you approach that or or are we just all loving fantasy and this is a big cultural moment for fantasy and that's why we're all here well you know the time travel element is it always seemed like it was just a catalyst to what the story was about you know so there was never a temptation to make to show completely about that because that's not the nature of the book you know at least not the first book and there's more time travel as books go forward spoiler alert but for this particular project in this particular moment time travel is just sort of what happened to this character that then propelled her into this series of adventures so we chose to sort of treat it like that and you know we when I was first thinking about the project I wasn't sure how I was going to visually portray that I knew mostly the things I didn't want to do because I've done a fair amount of time-travel my day and I knew I didn't wanted to do a light show I didn't want her to physically disappear as she touched the stone and didn't want her to go into the stone so taking all those things off the table then it was just a question of well what would we do and that took a while and but it was in the source material you know when Claire tells us the story she says she describes the journey and by referring back to this car crash that she was in and so I thought well let's do that let's let's show the metaphor for how she felt going through the stones and then just fade out and just bring up you know that she's in the 18th century instead of trying to sort of wow the audience because the truth is we can't wow the audience you've seen a thousand journeys through time at this point and it was better to sort of steer away from it and not and not try to like impress you than it was to sort of just go for some giant CGI you know fun I love that I do have a few Internet questions from folks who wrote in earlier at Jamie fair asks who can drink everyone else under the table and I usually need help standing up after yeah her legs completely go for the rest of our bodies fire like I succeeded I noticed Ron carries a flask apparently so now we're learning a little bit more and they're calling you the layered now because you've sort of they are put down stakes and Scotland I hear you I don't know that anyone's actually called me the warehouse but I would like that I might change out of there Mike on screen credit Mike and Marian Knowles wants to know what's the funniest experience anyone has had on set are you a group of pranksters are you are their practical joke we should probably admit this is like the question we all fear most um yeah I can tell you the funniest thing I witnessed even though I wasn't part of it it was before we started shooting and there was a time when the cast the Highlanders all got their outfits and then they got their swords and they were in the armor we have an armory like in the studio and so the cast all came in and all the Highlanders got their swords and their pistols and their gear and they all stood and they took photos and then suddenly they were all little boys and they were off like waving the swords and it was sort of you had all stand back as lest you be like kill but all waving these swords and running it was the funniest thing I've ever seen we were filming last week or maybe for them one of the characters Ian who has a wooden leg I like her and I know it was just the most recent thing but we were having to move quite rapidly from the corridor to another room and he's trying to catch up in his wooden leg but I was five and and there were stairs and yeah he was gonna give him a head start oh it's also kids was Laura and you you kind of had like rushed into this room and I'm supposed to walk behind Deanna knees hobbling along and the lighting on these like slippery pave stones and we're talking she's got a cat job and her sir yeah it's good huh Sam also doesn't really know how to get dressed and takes it usually takes a long time it's a lot of takes clothes on yeah the right way around it's easier taking them often but that was one of the costuming issues but if this is not a time of like right Tartans and all of this there's a lot of historical accuracy here yeah I think well I think that the bright tuppence and all that is obviously that was the Victorians it's a lot of authenticity this show being Scottish I was very keen that we kept that and just in being specific the costumes are fantastic Terry source the materials the colors from the particular areas so the colors are muted and dog but I think you know it just gives it this sort of gritty hard edge that I think the show really needs I completely forget what I saw say so so dance no much wine back it does not change no idea like it was like oh I know do you want to let me take it back Oh at pygmy Stoll wants to know what would you take back from the 18th century what do you like about the 18th century that you would bring to nothing right good I don't have hot baths everyone's so dirty nothing I bring my horse I bring sounds horse yes I think senseless right yeah people learning to speak Gaelic garlic Gallic something you knew before something under learn no no it's it's a wonderful part of the show and I think you see a lot in Episode one there it's a lovely color it was a way for me to get into Jaime I think he's a garlic speaker first and foremost it's it's a it is a beautiful language it's quite harsh to listen to but I think it's very descriptive a lot of mountains in Scotland are named after a name the Gallic names when you find out the names it's actually quite descriptive of what the places so it's a way to it's a sort of tool to separate the audience from from from the Highlanders and obviously they're talking about her and she can't understand that and that's the audience in the same place as Clara's but I think you're doing the show continues you learn more the audience will learn more words and I think as Claire does you begin to understand more and this is a culture that is kind of wiped out when klodin happens and yeah I think it's just it was a really interesting to learn and sort of research let's go back to the sex okay I think people are curious that when you film a sex scene what what are the challenges there oh I need husband huh and it's all we talk about there are many uh and I had the pleasure of having there are different challenges with spice and 700 favorite pose what's the difference no I mean it's you know they have they have these things that they give us false modesty where's your mind going um I haven't finished my sentence though these things called modesty patches uh that really don't protect your modesty dignity or or anything else it's just really not very cool um but you know I I have to say it's you know it is a very integral part of the story with both of with Frank and Claire and with Claire and Jamie especially and you know I you know I feel very lucky I have to very nice respectful actors to work with I once I want went to the bathroom and I are you have I dropped my modesty pouch into the urinal what last tie back on and I had to then tell someone they had to put it over the radio so whole crew not you fallacy pouch in the urinal we need it happens what do you say on this subject to bias have you dropped too um weirdly in the 1940s didn't have anymore well you you went you went for more of the skin short than the modesty packs I do that okay yeah yeah so that I could yeah I can't remember I think the I think this is like blotted out I'm it's very enjoyable I like I'm just rated weird addonizio doctor fun the whole event I've met think I struck me about doing this exceeded your doing sex scenes in a pretty busy room know is that a lot of people was like you know sound guys and there's some camera people and there's a person the clapperboard so it's a very kind of um a weirdly public activity but week acted on our wedding night what was it well um it supposed to be a closed set that means they have the minimal crew and people working there and we counted 14 people I think was 16 16 14 yeah that's not very intimate let me tell you hey no and for some people that's that's the thing whatever turns you on m-make special yes um Diana at three macaws he said when you saw this what was the most the scene that you had the most visceral reaction to to what I've seen so far yeah ah well in fact it was probably the wedding night huh yeah and that it was you know despite the of the challenges involved for the cast they did it wonderfully and you know it's a very tender and de Vaca t'v and sensual and you know it moves at just the right pace you know slow enough to imply the awkwardness of you know forced marriage but you know with the tension of people who are nonetheless strongly attracted to each other and all in all it's extremely beautiful but in terms of visceral reaction honesty compels me to add you have one fine-ass man how do you know she's talking to you how do you know she's talking to you she's looking over there I've never seen no I think you're looking to me I cut her I don't know it's amazing what you can do in CGI I'll be here on but Ron what was what was the hardest scene to film you talked about how it's hard filming horses there's a lot of things in here that are complicated what was what was the biggest challenge it's yeah the horses are always a challenge you know we have we talked to the cast to ride they all have different levels of skill when it comes to being on oars and the horses just take time you know it's it's the horses right out of camera and then cut and then reset and bringing the horses back around takes a while getting them into the right place takes a while it's set and do it again I'd never this is actually the first show I'd ever done that actually involved horses I don't think I'm doing a lot of them after this it takes quite a while anything with animals and children is the old Hollywood Hollywood se but I'd say the biggest challenge in terms of production is just the elements you know the it's a we shoot on location in Scotland at all hours of the day and night and all weather conditions it's hard it's it's really hard on the cast and the crew to stand out you know in the dead of night and the rain and mud that's over your ankles and do it again and do it again katrina's and they're in a shift and you know the Highlanders are ain't they're in wool but it's still pretty brutal and it's tough on the cameramen and sound crew and it's not an easy show to shoot by any means and whether as a challenge weather is an enormous challenge we only actually had to run there's something called weather cover on a show where if the weather is so bad you have sort of an emergency backup to run to weather cover and shoot some interior scenes and fortunately you've only had to do that a couple of times in the whole life of the show which is a miracle considering you know where we're shooting in the time of year you know through the dead of winter and all that so you can see something where you have a director do two episodes and then a new director comes inside we shoot them in blocks of two and then we do what's called cross boarding them so say the first two episodes episode one and Episode two were both shot by director John Dahl who actually deserves an enormous amount of credit you know he's not here but John John set the tone and set the style of the show and he shot both episodes one and two simultaneously so on each day you know you might be shooting a scene from Episode one you might be shooting scenes from Episode two you know later on in the day and it takes us about a month to shoot a block of two episodes and then there's a month of prep that then overlaps into the next block so at this moment well not this moment but right now where we are in the production schedule we're shooting episodes 13 and 14 and then we'll be shooting 15 and 16 going into late September and so those actors working with these different directors who come in and out what's that like for you um it can be I've realized that I always have a little while of a transition issue you know because you get so used to someone's language and you know after a little while there's a shorthand that develops between a director and an actor and and you know it's it's it can be it can be great having a new infusion of enthusiasm and new ideas that come into it but there's also that kind of thing of where you have to relearn someone's kind of language of filming but we've been really lucky you know we've had great directors throughout and we've been even lucky where we've had some directors come back and do a second block which has been really great because at that point then you just know them so well that it just it just makes it all them easier to kind of just get down to work because you know what you know how to get you know you know how to get the best out of each other at that point one of the interesting things about doing such a long-form drama 16 episodes is that I'm obviously it's you have your relationship with your um with your separate directors and that sort of you know depending on how you get along with them that's a variance but you're so primary creative sort of narrative relationship is really with the showrunner in this case Ron for your kind of distal calibrator performance over that many hours you know because these you know directors are coming in and out yeah we're very lucky to have run in that position I think we're gonna throw it out to the audience and get some questions from y'all we have a microphone down here go hi um I was wondering there's obviously been a lot of research that has gone into the show both from the actors and obviously Dianna your research astounds me and Ron was there anything while you were researching things that you were really surprised about or that you hadn't thought or hadn't known about and said oh yeah I'm so excited I hate this I was very surprised that there were no modesty patches in 1940 I was surprised by what Sam alluded to earlier the difference in just the color palette of the Tartans and the fact that the Highland culture had been wiped out pretty much in the 1740s and that what we kind of know as Scottish Tartans when you go to a tourist shop or something in Glasgow and Edinburgh and you buy these bright greens and reds and pinks and yellows and so on that none of that existed that the color schemes were far more muted so my whole impression of what Scotland meant you know in the old days was was pretty radically different and you um Dinah you wrote the fuss but I researched it all I did yes no I was mostly surprised at the state of under clothes in the 18th century which is to say that they didn't have them you had shift and you had stockings but there was nothing in the way of drawers but I was a a a cameo actor for a day and a half and I will tell you why they didn't wear under clothes it's because it is almost impossible to go to the bathroom in an 18th century dress one of the great challenges of working in here exactly hi um I just wanted to know if anybody has read ahead the books or have you asked I Anna what happens to your characters and if you do no what are you most looking forward to filming if we get a second series um I have I personally haven't really had time I from the day that I got passed which was September 11th last year I was in Scotland three days later I I was living in LA at the time and I haven't you know I kind of I had read the first book and since then it's kind of been scripts but my sister somehow managed to read all seven books in about three months and she loves telling me what's about to happen to me and I keep saying stop I don't want to know I'm kind of trying to just focus on what's happening right now like did you know did you know I'm like oh but I'm looking forward to when we finish I'm gonna definitely get straight into book two and then and then it feels very important I said I read book one a few times and in book 2 almost finished but then it felt like too much information I feels very important that we play the moments now and also the script you know we're staying very close to the book but yeah it just feels that we shouldn't get ahead of ourselves but is we all kind of a rough idea we know what could happen if we went to another series I was intrigued reading the beginning of the second book that the jacks brother turns up yeah you're not playing so I think anyone else you want to play is it gonna be an Eddie Murphy series yeah under table that's a good idea come on though Akron negotiations began it's just like this hi thank you so much that show was absolutely fabulous really really enjoyed it my name is Leslie and I'm kind of a question for in different ways each one of you I know Diana has said that even though you folks are the characters you're really not the characters that she sees when she writes the books or she reads the books for herself and I was wondering who do you visualize when you're reading the books do you visualize each other do usual eyes yourselves in the parts that's a good question um obviously the first time I read the book I didn't I don't even remember who I visualize I had four days to read it before I test it and I was gonna just read it I was not I don't know sir I was just like plowing through it when I've gone back so I go back a lot to it I think actually yeah I think that way yeah I think some house weirdly we're all in there I think I'd uh I think I hear I think is about a voice I mean you get a sense of this character you you don't picture it in images and I don't know how you write Donna but I always had writers say that either you you look the voice and I think that might be the same with a playing a character um I mean I found I read yourself um there's lots of me versions of me by him like everything let's sort of get away with her it was like it's different when you're reading when you're going to be adapting and working on the piece it's a sort of different and something you sort of concentrate on certain characters and thinking about you know what you're gonna sort use or so um you know it's like a different sort of type of reading in a way yeah that's all I have to say about that hello hi sorry I don't want to fall off this balcony oh um so I find it sanim I noticed in the show that you guys are really keeping to how graphic a lot of the medical things that Clara encounters are um and I know we all went come let me like pop the shoulder back in uh is that gonna be something that is I know we talked on the sex topic for a long time but I feel like Clare's medical experience is huge in the books and is this something that you're gonna really try to keep true to in the series or is this kind of gonna be like you know we can only get away with so much through stars that we don't want to show all this blood we've got some stuff no stars is particularly fearless and that work when it comes to any of this stuff hey I don't think I've ever gotten to know from them that was about too much we can't look at that anymore you know yeah they're they're not worried about that so we we play the the medicine there's some there's some ugly things that happen and we'd pretty much show it not to sort of just shove it in your face and make you uncomfortable but there are times when things happen that are uncomfortable to people are particularly grisly and we try to again try to go for what is true in this in the scene and again we don't overdo it and we don't shy away from it just it depends on what's what's natural at that moment I had time for two more questions hi nice to see you again I'm Debby Kennedy down Pittsburgh happy to meet you again I wondered we've heard a little bit about your audition the chemistry test of Sam and Kat together could you tell us what those scenes were and what it was like um well you saw one of them tonight uh help stop he's going over stop help stop following over um yeah I think you guys have probably seen that scene done about a thousand times became a standing joke in the writers room that they never wanted to hear those lines again um that was one of no wait no that was one that I taped but that wasn't one that we did in the room um I'm trying to remember exactly there was uh I know what one of them was yeah I know one of them was we had a fight well yes I know there was uh there's there was a post-coital scene um oh yeah from the wedding we've already cigarettes some extremely ed each other uh something about snakes and and it was a business yeah they've got to yeah another one was um Tim it was the fight that we had Anna um Sam it was great it was it was you know I feel like we both kind of had a lot of fun that day we just got into the scenes and they became very real and at one point he got me in a bear hug and it wasn't supposed to be like that and I was just like dude this is my test what do you do it I could see she was really pissed off of me Anna it was kind of fun so it was really fun I think I think yeah I think we came out with like marks that I'd also say that I mean you know they were very close to what Diana's dialogue in the books were I mean I so we had were almost sceptre pretty much straight from the book and so that was really interesting so you they were and they were quite long scenes as well they were I was impressed yeah yeah well they were like 20 pages or something you know but really something gritty to get to get older or nothing else the joy of this the series you know you know was very impressive to watch I'll tell you yeah was the part where you shouted you do belong to me when you clutched her to you which point she shakes for yeah that's cuz I let it gets it back all right last pets been well I get the last question you did yeah um this question really I guess would be mostly for Sam but probably all of you clearly are filming in Scotland it's a huge year for Scotland 2014 they have a vote coming up Commonwealth Games a lot going on we've seen through Diana's story we've heard about the 18th century Scottish culture now we're visually seeing the beauty that is the Scottish Highlands but what is it that you would like us to know about the Scottish people what is it you hope that those of us who are watching across the world are really gaining and learning about you know what Scotland is wow that's a great question I think well hopefully we've tried to be as authentic as possible and as we said before this is a race that were kind of wiped out so it's a kind of celebration of that and there's specific time I mean it's so Scotland obviously has a big choice it's coming up but um it goes back four generations and Scotland has always been politically very very troublesome you know the clans always fighting amongst themselves Mackenzie's the Frasers the grants are you know and when there's a common enemy it was just you know the British then they band together but it's always been very difficult and I think the politics are really shown in the show you know with Jamie and Dougal and column and so it's nothing's changed you know there's there's all the always turmoil and strife and I think yeah it's a wonderful place to set a story and I hopefully you know you get to see an authentic Scotland I think Scotland's like really such a huge character in this show and you know I had not spent a lot you know been to Scotland a few times but only been to Edinburgh and it's really been one of the the great parts about this job is discovering the beauty of the landscape there and I think everyone you know we have pretty much predominantly a Scottish crew who are absolutely fantastic we get to you know employ a lot of amazing craftsmen you know from Herry employing knitters who are these old ladies who are living in like the outer wherever's you know they're knitting stuff for his show or we had these amazing basket Weaver's who you know this is an industry that was almost completely you know dead and because of our show we've been able to give them so much employment and I think that's something that we all really feel very proud of is that we've been able to come to Scotland and and really you know bring a lot of employment and a lot of support to the economy there and you know Scotland's beautiful and it shows on the show all right well thank you all for being here great answers a lot of fun

Channel: 92Y Plus

Views: 1,218,251

Rating: 4.8534312 out of 5

Keywords: 92Y, 92nd Street Y, Diana Gabaldon, Caitriona Balfe, Sam Heughan, Tobias Menzies, Ronald D. Moore, Outlander (Book), Outlander (Film)

Id: IioLJ29C2T8

Length: 52min 54sec (3174 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 29 2014

Reddit Comments

[u/Necramonium]

Found this old panel from just before when the show was aired in 2014. It is a great watch and shows the great humor that everyone in the cast has and already the great chemistry between them.