‘Outlander’: Author Diana Gabaldon Reveals Which Line Sam Heughan Didn’t Want to Say and More
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Your droughtlander thirst is about to quenched until Season 4 premieres—hopefully this fall.
At a recent Outlander panel hosted by Sony Home Entertainment and Entertainment Weekly, exclusive content was played for a small audience from the upcoming Collector’s Edition Season 3 Blu-ray release.
Then, EW sat down with Outlander book series author Diana Gabaldon and co-showrunner/executive producer Toni Graphia.
Here are 4 juicy details we learned from the event:
4. Gabaldon Reviews Scripts
Gabaldon is credited as a consultant on the Starz series. She is sent episode scripts as they go through the reviewing process, and they often are changed numerous times before and during filming.
“I approach the scripts and the effort they put into them with great respect because I am a writer,” she added. “I know how much work this takes.”
She also watches the first cuts of an episode and will only interfere with production for two reasons: 1) If the plot will somehow conflict with a story line/character’s direction down the road or 2) If there are historical or technical inaccuracies.
3. Sick on Set
While filming in South Africa, Gabaldon found Sam Heughan (Jamie Fraser) looking sick on set. He told her all the fake vomit was making him gag. During the sea journey to Jamaica, Jamie suffers from extreme seasickness, and to make the vomit look real, production used egg whites with food coloring. Gross!
2. TV Magic Tricks
Sadly, Jamie and Claire (Caitriona Balfe)’s long voyage at sea actually took place in a parking lot with a lot of green screen.
Graphia expressed her disappointment: “I’ve been doing this a long time and I know there’s movie magic, but I guess a part of me was like, ‘They’re going to be on the ocean.’ I saw them and was like, ‘Oh yeah, that’s right they don’t actually go on the water.’ But it had to be in a parking lot? I thought they’d at least be on sand. They had cars parked all around them.”
Obviously, after the CGI and special effects experts did their thing even the most acute TV watcher could never tell the difference!
1. Conflict of Interest
Sam Heughan wasn’t keen on saying a particular line from the book. During the storm/shipwreck episode, the line “Sassenach, if you die on me now, I’ll kill you,” was written for Jamie, but Gabaldon revealed Heughan didn’t want to say it.
Executive producer/writer/director of the episode, Matthew Roberts, supposedly told the actor, “You have to say it.”
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