CAITRIONA BALFE
The Outlander star talks loss and longing in season three
We keep an appointment with the star of Outlander. It was hell to arrange a mutually convenient century but we finally managed to synch our time zones and make it work.
if Outlander’s proved anything to the masses, it’s that time-travel stories don’t just have to be about paradoxical dilemmas. In fact they can be sexy as hell. Based on the bestselling novel series by Diana Gabaldon, Ronald D Moore’s adaptation of the books has faithfully brought to life the timecrossed love story of 20th century nurse Claire Randall – played by Caitriona Balfe – and 18th century Highlander Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan). With the third season debuting globally in September, the always chic Balfe is in Los Angeles making the press rounds, teasing the time-hopping to come that’ll eventually reunite the Frasers, who have been separated across time for two decades. The new season begins by filling in audiences on what both of their lives have looked like apart and, Balfe tells SFX, that angst has translated into a thrilling deep dive into the complex emotional life of her character... When we last saw Claire, it was in the ’60s and she had just discovered that Jamie didn’t die in the Battle of Culloden. A big twist for book readers and viewers of the TV adaptation!
I think that’s the great thing about this series of books, and the great thing about our show is that you’re constantly being kept on your toes. You never know what to expect. And the great thing about it being a time-travelling fantasy is really the story can go anywhere, and very frequently does. It just keeps it really interesting for all of us. At the end of season two, and in season three, you play Claire 20 years older. How did you get into the skin of a more mature version of your character?
At the end of season two, I had to start doing a lot of that work. Some of it was that I watched certain actresses. I would watch an early film and then watch a later film [of theirs] and see how people don’t change that much. Just certain things change about them, or how they carry themselves. And a lot of it is that people, the older they get, there’s just a certain gravitas, or a certain authority that they gain through the fact that they’re more comfortable with themselves or they know themselves better. Claire also agreed to embrace a life where she left Jamie in the past and exists in a marriage with Frank (Tobias Menzies) that never really heals. How did that impact your performance emotionally?
For Claire, especially when you shut off a side of yourself, how does that change how you carry yourself and how you interact with other people? When you see Claire at first, she’s more repressed and a little more brittle than we’ve seen her before. The costumes added to that and the very coiffed hair. There’s a maturity to her because of her position and career. But I always think Claire’s true nature is when her hair’s blowing and she’s on a horse galloping across a field with Jamie by her side. This is a very different woman that we see in the beginning. The first episodes of season three reveal what Claire’s been up to for those two decades. Did her choices seem in keeping with her character?
Well, the audience knows that Jamie didn’t die but Claire doesn’t. So if you have her never trying to move forward in her life, that’s a very tragic character. I think part of Claire’s DNA is that she’s a survivor and she gets on with it. She may have put a part of herself to one side, but she does create a positive and productive life for herself. She’s a doctor and I loved those scenes, especially the operation scene. We had real OR nurses as our extras and we had a surgeon consulting. We had this great Irish nurse who said, “Nope! That’s not how this would be. Your scalpels are here.” She was adamant that I had to receive it in a certain way. And we had this prosthetic with fake blood so it was really interesting. What does Jamie coming back into her life open up in Claire?
When she gets reunited with her love, it’s how you unravel all of that, and how do you break down the walls that somebody’s built around their heart. That was a pretty unique thing to be able to play. Have you kept up reading Diana Gabaldon’s novels since being in the show?
Yes, I’ve read every book that we’ve filmed. I read Outlander before we filmed season one. The same with season two and the same with season three. I’m halfway through book four [Drums Of Autumn] because we are about to start shooting season four. It gives you an overview of where your character is going, but then, obviously, once we get into production, the scripts are your guidance.
Outlander season three is available to watch now on Amazon Prime Video.