Outlander star Caitriona Balfe (left) plays Claire, who is the lover of Jamie, played by Sam Heughan. Photo / Prime Video
Warning: This contains spoilers for season eight.
Outlander stars Sam Heughan and Caitriona Balfe reveal what fans can expect from the hit show’s final season – and the series’ surprising Kiwi connection.
“When we had our first read-through, we got very emotional,” Caitriona Balfe says, remembering the beginning of the end.
“You get hit with these waves of realisation, of the momentousness of it all.”
The actor, who plays the much-loved character Claire in the historical romance series Outlander, sits at the head of a solid, long wooden table.
Her co-star Sam Heughan, who plays her on-screen lover Jamie, sits beside her in their on-screen home, complete with dingy lighting and time-accurate possessions.
Heughan is wearing an 18th-century, historically accurate Scottish quilt. His golden hair is tied into a low ponytail, his tanned knees peeking out from the tops of his leather black boots.
Balfe meanwhile, sits with streaks of grey running through her dark hair (thanks to the hair and makeup team); her blue shirt resting comfortably over a corseted dress.
The pair have 10 minutes before they return to set to shoot a scene for the final season of the Golden Globe-nominated show.
Outlander is part historical fiction, part action/adventure, part romance and has a little time-travel sprinkled in for good measure.
The series, based on Diana Gabaldon’s book series of the same name, has earned a large following during more than a decade on screen. The show has a 90% Rotten Tomatoes rating and is considered an international cultural phenomenon.
Now, much to fans’ upset, it is drawing to an end. And it has left the two lead actors feeling nostalgic.
“We’ve always been grateful and we’ve always realised what an amazing, special thing this has been, but it sort of really hits you, that this does not happen very often,” Balfe says.
“To have a show that goes this long and how amazing it’s been and to realise that we’ve got people in our crew and everything that’ve been with us from day one; it’s really been such a crazy quarter of our lives.”
Unlike past seasons in which the storyline loosely followed that of the books, this season is based on a combination of storylines from the eighth, ninth and as-yet-unpublished 10th books in Gabaldon’s series.
Fans have questions about what to expect, but before we journalists can ask what challenges the couple will navigate in the final season, the duo quickly take the conversation somewhere else, somewhere closer to home for Kiwi fans.
“At the beginning, there were conversations about shooting this in New Zealand,” Heughan reveals.
Before filming the first season in 2014, the show scouted multiple locations, including New Zealand. However, the decision was ultimately made to set up production in Scotland.
“I think they rightly made the choice to shoot here,” Heughan says. “I think Scotland has been a huge character of the show and I think the craftsmen and the crew have been exceptional.
“We’ve trained so many new people. We’ve built a studio... there were no studios in Scotland and now there are multiple. We have amazing workshops here. It’s been incredible for Scotland.”
Watch the trailer for Outlander’s final season here:
When viewers last saw Jamie and Claire, it was under tense conditions. Claire had been shot and was fighting for her life, resulting in a concerned Jamie.
With a publicist close by, the pair are careful not to reveal any spoilers so instead, they tiptoe around the truth. “Jamie nurses Claire back to health,” Heughan says slightly hesitantly, before his co-star steps in.
“Well,” Balfe chuckles. “He calls in some other people who know what they’re doing.”
Heughan and Balfe have a rapport that can only come from years of friendship or, in their case, playing onscreen lovers. They say it has been interesting to watch their characters’ love story evolve over the years.
“We met this couple who got married before they even knew each other and it was the first throes of passion. It was all very fiery,” Balfe says.
“But it was a real power struggle within the relationship because they didn’t know each other and they were trying to find their footing in where they could balance with each other.”
Balfe is direct when she says fans will notice neither Jamie nor Claire are any less stubborn or feisty in the latest episodes than they were in the first. However, they are softer.
“It just wouldn’t be honest if we didn’t find a new way of portraying them.”
Watch the final season of Outlander on Neon from May 7.