Sam Heughan & Krysten Ritter | Actors on Actors - Full Conversation

but your accent on the shows a lot thicker than is I've noticed just now and really that's right yeah yeah it does get thicker when I when I get drunk obviously or you're not right what I'm totally not right now or when uh yeah when I've spent a lot of time in Scotland as well it gets a lot stronger okay so it's not like a specific thing you're doing for the show that is your real accent you just like really bring it out oh no to get me wrong I I do do a sort of Highland accent from from around Inverness area and yeah it's hopefully got a lot more musicality to it didn't you have a dialect coach on site with you as well we do yeah you've got a dialect coach and I'm sure are you ever like doing um like love Sainsbury you're naked and the dialect coach is like coming in like oh say it more like a bit it does happen we've got a lovely uh a lot of it does we've got a lovely and dialect coach and she's she's a very lovely little lady trying it one moment Sam just a bit more on the fricatives and yeah the enunciation she's constantly like picking me up on but um it's great fun what about you and do you have a dialect coach I do not have a dialect coach on Jessica Jones because I'm just doing my yeah my natural accent have you done accents before just one time yeah you're gonna do it again it didn't go very well okay um but yeah that's that's for me one less thing to worry about I can't imagine um on top of all what which you have as well on top of all of the the blood and the filth and the stunts um there's a lot to think about the trauma and you know all of that stuff to then also have to do an accent on top I imagine is it's totally challenging it is chanting um as you said yeah we do have a very physical show there's a lot of horses and riding and fighting so yeah there's a lot to think about but um I don't know it's um it's a great challenge and actually every episode I always feel like there's you know something new to learn as an actor and I think that's you know the great part of our show that you get to learn a new skill yeah yours is pretty tough too you're pretty physical yeah I and I've never thrown a punch before in my life and at first I didn't like know where to put my thumbs you know yeah they're like Kristen be put your thumbs way okay cool I'll put isn't there but that's how you break your hand yeah actually when we met you gave me a little slap on the shoulder and it was pretty it was pretty strong I'm stronger than I'm working out it's deceiving um yeah I've been crushing five pound weights oh yeah um but I imagine on a show like yours that its period in there's costumes I imagine it's not comfortable being in period costumes all the time like what is the what is the dynamic like on on set on a normal day is it like sludging is it like really roughing it or yeah I mean I find actually the costumes are really helpful to find the character totally um season two actually we're in a completely different world and I think that the costumes actually sort influence you know the way the way you walk through Stan yeah um and so Terry dress back who's our costume designer she's done a terrific job and she really works with the actors to sort of help them find the character and and tell a story through the costumes I love the kill it's very it's very free it's uh it makes you stand in a different way right yeah and you have a very fine leather jacket yeah which you know really helps me find my character as well as soon as I we did a lot of fittings and weren't finding like the right jeans the right thing because um I just had to feel a certain way and I'm not nearly as cool as Jessica Jones's it's like finding that outfit that helps me really inhabit her and it was just like this fine line of not looking too feminine um having something that looks like it lives on the floor um because Jessica Jones was a care about anything and she just wants protection sort of from the world from anyone's gaze so finding that outfit was was really key and then I never really changed my clothes the entire time because Jessica's poor and she doesn't have a lot of money and I was like what I feel fine let's just keep wearing this well that helps for costume changes then you don't have any yeah yeah I mean I did have like doubles I wasn't really wearing the same pair of jeans for um for eight months but the Wardrobe for me I've always relied really heavily on wardrobe because that helps me like feel like Kristen helps me feel like like somebody else what about theater um yeah um is same you know anything like like I've when I play like somebody like totally wacky and quirky I need to have like the wacky and quirky clothes yeah um so I've always loved that relationship with a costume designer so where you come up with that I always have a big say and that is something that's really important to me yeah absolutely no I totally agree it does help him um I mean we're always talking very closely to our to our costume team and and hair and makeup as well as it's really important I find you can just add a lot of detail with that and I mean I spend a lot of time in our show covered in modern and blood right same I did to its you know normally you call your girls that do your hair makeup your glam squad yeah I don't Jessica chance they were like the blood squad just bloody you up but for me I was the least glamorous I've ever been I wasn't really there was no hair and makeup there wasn't like that whole thing so I was actually pretty comfortable and it was nice as a woman not to have pressure to look bright and bushy and beautiful like if I came in tired which I did um it was better yeah my folks are worse I looked the better it was yeah for the character I think you still look fantastic in the show but I'm sorry what mmm thank you how is your your day-to-day life changed since your show Outlander has a huge rabid fan base do you have any crazy fan stories or hmm I mean the show is is basically my life it's taken over my life you know we shoot like yourself I think you know for long periods of time and we shot for 11 months Wow this last year and then I'm on this press tour so um yeah it takes over your life but but everyone on set becomes your family um and so you know your personal life is is you know is put to one side so to speak but are your friends and family sort of like stop talking about Islander baby I don't think they remember who I am or what I look like yeah yeah but no it's really nice to be on set to be supported by your fellow actors and dear your cast mates go with you typically on your press tours yes we're all row on this press tour and it's really nice to to share that and actually have some down times yeah which is great and talk about the show in a different way exactly yeah yeah and I mean it's funny though isn't it when you work on something for so long and then when you have to go back and talk about it you're like it's something you did maybe 10 or 11 months ago it's pretty tough but uh you know it's a great journey to be on yeah and yourself it's very similar to see here you mention that my life is is is probably very similar to yours it's like Jessica Jones shooting and then Jessica Jones like crazy press how long do you shoot for we shot for about 8 months um and then it were on Jessica Jones on Netflix so it's a global platform so we promote the show kind of everywhere which I've never done before I've never yeah I've never really done a press tour like this I've never promoted something I'm in so many countries um so it has it's it's totally is my life now I'm physically quite demanding as well yeah I'm I'm on hiatus from like this serious working out because um it's hard it's really hard for me to to keep like a certain amount of muscle tone on I'm just not naturally buff means you got to eat a lot yes I feel so much and that's has such a jerky thing to say yeah but I do when I'm so sick of it did you enjoy having us of different body you know yeah that was really important to me in finding the character because I am unlike Jessica Jones and I was so much pressure when I got this part um self-inflicted pressure but also because I hadn't had a huge opportunity like this I just wanted to be great the audition process was really long because Jessica Jones also will be in the defender so it's just a big commitment and we're so for Marvel to cast me they like really kind of put me through the wringer yeah um so there's a lot of pressure and I wanted to be great and they wanted me to look a certain way so doing with physical training um and sort of bulking up really helped me yeah we find her like wait I mean like weight of the world like the way I carried my body was different the downside is I know my clothes fit nothing fits to the substantive in the jeans and leather exactly I haven't been able to go back I used to be like wear girly like dresses all the time and like look pretty and now I just can't I can't I can't do it you did a great job I mean it you know it is a complete different physicality and I think you know the physicality is a great way into also another character you know their work the way they walk the way they hold themselves yeah um and is your it makes it I will say it makes it a little and I'm just thinking of this now it makes it a little harder to turn it off when you go home yeah so because you go home and you still feel like this other mm-hmm person even though to everyone else it's probably a subtle thing but for you um so in terms of like switching it on and off and not having to like live in a really dark place and you have stay like in a really dark place so you do take it home in it well you know I'm in almost every scene yeah uh Jessica Jones and the days are really long and so yeah there all day and then I go home I may be home for you know nine hours so I did kind of like a stay in it which I felt helped um and allowed me to sort of do the work that I wanted to do by the end I'm like oh my god isn't skating really dark I'm getting depressed again it starts it does start to come with you I try not to but because I was shooting away from home I'd and my girlfriend's yeah um my boyfriend was touring so I was like really isolated shooting Jessica Jones she's isolated so that works so it does work but after a while I was like oh man I gotta I gotta be able to UM try to balance yeah yeah I imagine for you same thing like the end of your show that last episode yeah do you take that like how do you just switch out of that it's it's there is some pretty heavy stuff towards the end of the season and like yourself I think I was sort of living in it in a in a bubble so to speak I was not really seeing many people outside of the job and sort of giving myself to myself and their long hours as well we had a lot of prosthetic work yeah yeah oh so my prosthetic work because your shirts off all the time it is and it's all fake so it's all he just put prosthetic prosthetic ABS on and and such like but no it's a yeah we there's about four hours in the morning for the oh my god like prosthetics yeah I'm sure that's not something you've experienced before cuz you're a dude usually don't have to spend that much time no no no indeed and so um it is it's a new experience but I think that all all kind of adds to the character you know um just even the process of going through that you know those hours of sort of you have to be very focused and very patient and I think that kind of just gets you in the right sort of mind space to then go and do those sort of scenes yeah doing television is is kind of like a it's a really about endurance mm-hmm you have to really take care of yourself you have to pace yourself you have to show up like so healthy you don't really keep yourself healthy because of the long hours and it goes on and on and on I'm just really hard to catch up do you get a lot of rewrites I mean you know you get things I've sent through every day because yeah the shooting and then you've got to go and you've got to go and learn some new lines or you know relook at the scene yeah totally we would get we would get rewrites I would you know they were pretty good about getting me the scripts with some notice before we started I had the first three scripts so I was able to like do like two months of work with my acting teacher every day and because jessica is so informed by her past I felt like if I knew where she was coming from all the time I would know how to say Oh and then I would kind of just look at them the night before um and for me it was really about prep work and then on the day I would just trust that the magic would happen and I would know the lines but I'm not one of those people who's like I got to run lines I gotta run lines I'll look at them once it focused more about the backstory and listening and kind of just like be there present see what happened yeah absolutely and sort of surprise yourself I think that's a something I learned this year definitely it was about actually just relaxing into the role I am you know once you've done your prep work and you've done your research and then just obviously see like the character surprise you yeah you're on to discourage Prince Charles from mounting your rebellion Scotland and our people cannot bear another failed rebellion we must not invade until we're certain we have the resources and finances to win originally I was looking to do like a dark gritty show I really enjoy what Netflix was doing so I kind of this like put it out there in my own universe I'm gonna do like a dark gritty Netflix show so I my manager finally calls and he's like Netflix is doing this this Marvel show they want to see you I'm like that sounds great I'm never gonna get it yeah I'm never gonna be a superhero yeah um and then it wasn't until like you know they locked me in a room and I saw the scripts and I realized like what a psychological character study this was and I was like okay what do I have to do I had to do a lot yeah I had to I auditioned and then I had a meeting um with JEP Loeb and Melissa Rosenberg the creator this is you've seen the scripts at this point I've seen at this point two scripts it's good what first audition I saw nothing didn't even like nothing just blindsides and then I had a meeting and then they locked me in a room I came out I said how do i how do I do this let's let's make it happen yeah and then I did multiple screen tests um which you know you're sitting there with other people that are up for the role for hours and hours and hours and bringing you in they're pairing you with other people and I finally thought that was over I like put it aside I went on vacation they're like they want you to come back in and do it again so I did I'm one of the part I would do anything yeah but it was the most it was a lot of pressure it was super stressful I've never gone through something like that before but I guess like the good stuff the stuff you want you got to fight for yeah so what was your experience how did you get your part it sounds it sounds very similar really yeah I know and I've sort of you know I've tested on shows before so kind of understood the process but it it seemed to happen quite quickly there was you know the initial initial tape that I did with a casting director and then they brought me back in but then there was you know this whole series of screen tests and and you're doing it with you know with another actor which is fantastic and I was very lucky actually one of my one of my good friends was was reading opposite me so okay good that's that's so safe yeah comfortable yeah absolutely um and then yeah I tried to sort of not think about it but you can't you know you sort of it you know it could change or I can you like yeah absolutely thank you did you meet any other actors that are in the show now actually yes well testing yes I am first did a screen test with my Coulter the guy who plays Luke Cage great um and we both had to come back together Wow so it's a really unique experience that Mike and I have we're on the same journey you know I I would to Jessica Jones and he's in Jessica Jones know he's doing his own show Luke Cage we're all gonna do the defenders together so it's usually you know acting is such a isolated profession so I have this guy who we like sat in the waiting room together and we're on this journey together so him and I have a great bond I think because of that we hit it off right away and I guess yeah do you think that that definitely adds to the to the show as well you've got this bond and yeah I think so cuz and it just got better and better like it's it's really interesting when a casting director will like choose somebody for you you know like put you together with somebody like even um Rachel Taylor who plays my best friend Trish Walker and in the show I mean I've never met her before loved her loved her from day one like sisters like real best friends we just hung out last night you know yeah so cool how a casting director like facilitates potential like long-term relationships for you yeah it's so cool it's great and that sort of bond I mean every job I've done now I sort of find that you you make these these relationships and you know that that travels with you wherever you go you know you have these great relationships and do you had you hang out much outside of I mean you said you were your last night you're out with Rachel yeah I saw Rachel and I yeah I try to um I'm really good about putting like little hangs together I'm probably gonna be a great soccer mom someday uh I'm like oh we should get together okay well let's pick a day and we'll make it happen I'm like that with my friends I've sort of I'm good about bringing people together so if anybody from the show is hanging out it's she of me cuz I make it happen Nina here I'll just put a target on your back yeah been there done that the hero gig I gave it a shot once tell me there was a costume when you still got it auditioning can be really great I think if it can be great if like if the parts really right for you and it's sort of positioned in a nice way that you walk into like a warm room when you can feel comfortable but for the most part it's pretty terrifying you're walking to your room and it's like yoohoo versus like all these people you can't really see their faces and come in and kind of do your thing so you can look at that as your five minutes like do your thing it'd be great um but then it's also sometimes like there's this human element that's not there so it's Airy yeah it's hard - auditioning is nothing like what what the jobs gonna be so some well it's a totally different totally different muscle I enjoy the ones that you you know you learn something and you you know you maybe don't get the part but you come out having at least flex that that I think muscle you know whatever it is you've learned something about the character and at least you know you've got a chance to to play them for you know a short period of time yeah yeah it's such a tough process but I think things have changed certainly since I started acting they're a lot more self tapes now yeah um a lot more sort of sessions that you get to work with the casting director where's I don't know when I first started it was very much walking into a room and then just yeah doing your thing and leaving yeah like yeah scene but that's kind of what happens if you start working more you have fewer auditions so there's a time in a career where you're doing like four or five a day you get into it you get when you're good and then you start working and you do way fewer so you get rusty like I I've had like one audition this year and I've heard being like oh my god I don't want to go ahead um it's a definite skill isn't it yeah I also find that uh American actors or certainly American casting directors when they ask you to read you guys actually you tend to just read site like site read this may not be true I might be talking rubbish but uh you know I definitely in the UK it's you come in like no you has to know everything yeah you have to know it and if you don't know it yeah it's kind of frowned upon yeah I mean for me I've always approached auditions like I don't it doesn't matter what the result is as long as I can go to sleep at night knowing that I like crushed it did my best coached put the hours in say if you don't get it like well I was awesome yeah um so in that I would not really look at my pages but I always have them in my hand just in case hits the fan yeah yeah absolutely no it never look at it but it's there in case like something it drills you off and what happens you don't have your sights and you're like I have no idea what to say that corpse um and tell me you so you see you've got an acting coach yeah yeah that seems to be definitely something in in America that that actors do you constantly working on your craft yeah I love my acting it's great I think it's fantastic you know I think you know British actors I don't know why we don't it's not a thing really yeah not so much I mean in the UK yeah definitely I guess we have this whole process of drama schools I went to a you know a classical drama school and it seems to be after that point people don't really employ you know acting coaches I work with them with my acting coach I've been working with her for over 10 years name's Marjorie Valentine so if you're ever here March right uh you know what what's great about it is having this that time spent working on it talking about it intellectualizing it picking out like choices and backstory and all of that stuff just the time spent on it I'll take her something maybe I've worked on have a pretty good handle on maybe doesn't isn't brain surgery she will always find more colors always find things that I missed oh yeah so so for me it's it's about I'm all about prep work because if you're prepared then you could be confident and you can free so that helps me I mean maybe some people are so disciplined they can like just go home and like turn off their stupid phones and just work on it yeah for me it's like about having that three hour window we're just working on on on a roll yeah do you what you work with anyone else like you know your boyfriend or or other actors or is it you just keep it primarily I mostly I work with her but there have been times I have a girlfriend who is a director as well so she's she'll come over put me on tape for things I'm always like rereading with me and watching me at the same time like oh I think you should do it more like this so I'm open um I don't necessarily if I have my boyfriend read with me like go full sometimes that's not a great idea it can treat a lot of tension yes it's just awkward don't weed it like that or like I know I wasn't doing it yeah I mean actually I was just reading until I got in the room yeah right I'm not not I know I'm already trying yeah yeah yeah so but with my acting teacher I'm I'm I feel safe and fine well then you sort is this satisfy as ones later that I'm your steer still prefer a Scottish blades ah cut into wide leaving yourself open in your show um you guys have to do a lot of a lot of sex scenes yes and you do - yes I would never have to get naked because I'm still Disney I mean I won't admit that I was watching in the car this morning and yeah I don't know how this is this is really really racy and but your stuff I mean you don't get naked but it's still really hot it's really yeah it's also it is it starts a little hot I guess I don't know I don't really think of it that way because I'm I'm usually really prude about that stuff I don't like doing sex scenes um it makes me really uncomfortable but those because often times I feel like they're gratuitous or rely so heavily on like the woman's like be sexy which I don't think your show it does either but with Jessica I always felt like the sex teens came from such a place of character and and strength always made sense to me for me I never thought of them as being like anything that's spectacular obviously the shows come out and people have talked about about the sex scenes a lot has with your show as well so that's strange to me but um but but yeah my dad won't watch the show because of it yeah it's always hard to get your family to watch those same scenes it's fine um I think we're exactly the same in our show you know I think we were very aware that we didn't want it to be gratuitous or explicit yeah when there is a you know an intimate scene all right in fact violent you know seeing that you know you have you know quite a lot you know bit of violence in yours as well and I think it's we always talk to the producers and the writers and work out how it moves the relationship forward or what it reveals about the character but you know our our show is definitely a central relationship and so we learn a lot about the characters through through their you know their their sex life and it can be tough though it it's so not sexy so sexy and people don't but I don't understand yeah yeah very choreographed ours is anyway which is fine and and strategic hopefully you have a director that like knows has a chance of shot list knows how they want to shoot it yeah I guess they don't really want to be doing that for ten hours yeah we saw always approached it almost like it sometimes can be 10 hours as well if you're shooting that one scene all day but we always approach it you know like like a play or something you know you you go through it and work out exactly what you know what you want the audience to feel or see and then you just have to literally block it out and it becomes so almost mechanical yeah it's such a vulnerable place two weeks you know even just being on a television show or being an actor when you have eyeballs on you or you you are the center of the show and everybody you know you're like the entry point for it having everybody's eyes on you sometimes is like it's difficult there are days when that's like oh man I wish I could just like disappear for a day yeah so then have to be naked also I imagine and out and so you know how do you find that the other side of you know when you're not hiding behind a character when you're being yourself you're doing no public appearance or I mean is that something that you're a confident we're comfortable with her I mean I'm still figuring it out you know um not really I don't really like to leave the house if I don't have to yeah cuz it's just like you don't know what can happen anything could happen to dangerous world out there yeah yeah yeah

Channel: Variety

Views: 637,961

Keywords: Variety, Variety Studio, sam heughan outlander, sam heughan wife, sam heughan interview, sam heughan outlander audition, sam heughan outlander season 3, outlander season 3 trailer, jessica jones, jessica jones season 2, jessica jones season 2 trailer, krysten ritter, krysten ritter jessica jones, krysten ritter interview, outlander season 3

Id: EDi7M3YZBOs

Length: 26min 27sec (1587 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 09 2016