Heughan plays softie killer/agent in ‘Spy Who Dumped Me’
NEW YORK — It’s a mark of Sam Heughan’s rising profile that the “Outlander” star who pursues Mila Kunis in this week’s big-screen film “The Spy Who Dumped Me” has recently sparked speculation that he should be “the next James Bond.”
A native Scot, Heughan (pronounced Hew-en), 38 and 6-foot-3, has won a global following as dashing Highlander Jamie Fraser in Starz’s hit time-travel series — now set for six seasons.
In “Spy,” Heughan tracks naive best friends Kunis and Kate McKinnon as they run from murderous bad guys in L.A. for Atlanta, Vienna, Paris, Amsterdam and Berlin. Heughan might or might not be an undercover MI6 agent. He might be a threat or an ally in this violent action comedy whose mantra is: “Trust no one.”
“It’s a great part in a surprising movie,” Heughan said as he stretched out on an upholstered chair at the Langham Hotel.
“Obviously it’s an ambiguous part — you don’t know if he’s a good guy or a bad guy. There’s a lot of double-crossing in this very dangerous world.”
“Spy” is a break from those colorful “Outlander” kilts and even more colorful red wig.
“Outlander,” he said, “has been a great show for me. Prior to ‘Spy’ I’d been offered things but it came down to time. ‘Outlander’ shoots 10 months of the year. It’s a tiny window and we have a lot of press engagements, we have a lot of postproduction. And the dates do change quite a lot.
“So it’s hard to fit something in. This worked because ‘Outlander’ was late with getting season five into production for going to America. We had a bit of a break after a few more months to finish season four. It’s lucky.”
As to how to play a character like Sebastian Henshaw, who is ambiguous, comedic and hopefully heroic, Heughan said, “When I went into it I wondered if I should be slightly scary, show a hard side to him. So we’re guessing what he is.
“But to be honest, the cold-hearted killer/agent is kind of easy to play. Then Susanna (Fogel, the director) wanted me to be softer and break down these barriers and see him as kind of shy. He begins to loosen up a bit.
“That was fun, to find these moments where he can relax a bit.”