TOBIAS MENZIES ENJOYS TWICE THE WORKLOAD
The UK actor doubles up roles in ‘Outlander’
Last weekend Outlander launched its third season as one of the most popular television series in the world. When it debuted on Starz in 2014, however, it was nothing more than yet another freshman show and yet another book adaptation — albeit a lush, sexy and romantic one with a trio of gorgeous, charismatic leads in Caitriona Balfe, Sam Heughan and Tobias Menzies. “I don’t think any of us saw it coming,” Menzies said. “We hoped it would do well, but how much people have taken to it has been really fun to see.
“Everyone asks why it’s so popular, and that’s a hard question to answer. I think it’s quite classic in its structure. It’s a love story, but there’s a lot of thwarted love in our story. The story plays with the idea of that special person, the idea that there is ‘the one’ that’s out there for us. I think the show gives people something to aspire to and a lot of hope.
“And then you’ve got the adventure, you’ve got time travel and you’ve got all the history that’s involved. So there are many elements that make for a pretty varied and interesting story mix.”
Based on a series of novels by Diana Gabaldon, Outlander centres on Claire Randall (Balfe), a woman caught between two men, two worlds and two times.
Claire is a World War II nurse, married to Frank Randall (Menzies), who mysteriously finds herself in 18th-century Scotland, where she makes the acquaintance of both the heroic Highland warrior Jamie Fraser (Heughan) and Capt Jonathan “Black Jack” Randall (Menzies), a cruel redcoat who is a distant relative of her 20th-century husband.
Season 3 opens with Claire and Jamie far apart from one another after Jamie’s participation in the Battle of Culloden, which he’s barely survived. Meanwhile, in 1940s Boston, Frank and Claire must deal with their marital issues and prepare for the arrival of her baby … which isn’t his.
“I think this season, like the previous two seasons, is very different because we go to so many different places,” Menzies said. “You can certainly expect surprises, and the story continues to really move through time and space.
“You’ll see the birth of Brianna and the bringing up of Brianna, Jamie’s daughter. We also see that whole bit of the story unfolded out, at length, and we see how it affects Claire and Frank’s marriage.
“And you’ll see Jack too. Frank is the obedient husband, Jack is more a conventional villain, and I think all good stories need a good villain. He’s a proper villain. So I think both Frank and Jack contribute in interesting ways to the overall love story.”
Menzies’ challenge from day one has been to create two characters who are completely separate but yet connected. The opportunity to do that, he said, was what initially attracted him to the project.
“I was interested in playing with these two archetypes but also with finding their similarities,” Menzies said. “That sounded like an interesting route to take, and an interesting game to play with the story and with the audience.
“And it also speaks to the question of, ‘What is our relationship with people who have come before us? What do we inherit from them? What carries forward? So that’s been an interesting conversation to have, and it’s been fun for me to play both roles.”
If the show goes by the Gabaldon books, neither Jack nor Frank will be around all that much longer. When the time comes, Menzies said, he’s prepared to say goodbye.
“I’ll miss it a great deal,” he said. “It’s been a great three or four years making the show, and I’ve made some very good friends. I’ll miss the cast and exploring my two great characters.
“Everyone has to move on eventually. But this show, this experience, will always have a very dear place in my heart. It’s been a great job.”
Outlander has been one of many jobs for the 43-year-old Brit in the course of his career. He’s performed steadily since graduating from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in 1998, amassing dozens of stage, film and television credits and working all over the world.
Among his film and television projects are Casualty (19982000), Rome (2005-07), Casino Royale (2006), Hysteria (2011), Doctor Who (2013) and Underworld: Blood Wars (2016). His stage work includes The Way of the World (2000), The History Boys (2005) and Uncle Vanya (2016) as well as several Shakespeare productions.
“I think my first passion was for theatre,” Menzies said. “That’s what I was interested in watching and doing, and my ambitions were primarily to do with the theatre, less to do with screen, I think, at the beginning. Screen acting is something that I’ve learned more about as I’ve worked, and I’ve got more and more interested in it as I’ve gone along.
“And I do try and do theatre as often as I can. I did a play last year, Uncle Vanya. I keep coming back to it. Now, in a way, the fun is in the variety, in switching between the stage and the screen, and I’ve been lucky that I’ve been able to go back and forth between them as much as I have.
“I’ve had a great 20 years since I left college. I left RADA and I’ve done some great stuff along the way.”
Audiences will next see Menzies in The Terror, an upcoming series for AMC that also features Jared Harris and Ciaran Hinds. He has also signed on for Carmilla, a vampire tale set in the late 18th century and inspired by Sheridan Le Fanu’s 1872 novel of the same name.
“The Terror is a project that I finished shooting in around May, June this year, and it’s about a trip to the Arctic in the 1840s where everything goes wrong,” Menzies said. “It’s a period piece, it’s based on a real story, a remarkable story, and I really hope it will be a very powerful piece.
“Carmilla feels very different to Underworld in that it’s a lowbudget feature and it’s sort of an early iteration of the vampire legend. At the heart of it is two young girls who are still coming of age, so it’s a little more sexual.
“I like the director, Emily Harris, and I enjoyed meeting her and I really liked her script. So I’m going to dive into that for a few weeks in September.”