Outlander: Blood of My Blood cast discuss memorable fan encounters and love at first sight in exclusive Radio Times Q&A

It's love at first sight – or letter, in the case of Julia and Henry, which the cast spoke at length about during a special Radio Times fan event in London to celebrate the arrival of the series.

Following the screening of episode 1, the audience was treated to an exclusive Q&A with Harriet Slater (Ellen), Jamie Roy (Brian), Hermione Corfield (Julia) and Jeremy Irvine (Henry), with executive producer Matthew B Roberts also in attendance to talk about the genesis of the show.

And you can now enjoy that conversation below.

Coming into this project, which has such a committed and engaged fanbase, what is the percentage split between pure excitement on a personal level, and living up to the weight and expectation of what the fans have been looking forward to?

Jamie: I think all of us felt the pressure coming in, first of all, because we have something to live up to. But that quickly turned into something else, and I think it was mostly excitement, 100 per cent excitement, because we were only received with so much love and support from not only the fans, but from the previous cast, from our execs, from the crew, everybody. It was such a fostering environment that it really allowed us to feel at home straight away and just start to do some really good work.

Jeremy: I will say I was so aware that fans of Outlander, they're not our fans. And then the first two episodes came out and I cannot tell you the relief that I felt when they were so accepting and so warm, letting us into their world.

Jamie and Harriet, did you have any questions for Sam Heughan [who plays Jamie] about the world of Outlander? Family trees, time travel, anything that you perhaps felt would enrich your performance?

Harriet: The family tree is quite complicated. It's actually up on the wall in the studio as a reminder, in case any of us forget. But I didn't actually meet Sam properly until really recently. [Jamie] had a much closer relationship with him than I did.

Jamie: From the get-go, we had a phone call, which was great, like 20 minutes before we started shooting. And we just talked about some stuff and he was so excited about it. And then we met for a coffee about halfway through shooting. And up until that point, so many people had said to me, 'You and Sam are so alike.' And I'm like, 'Yeah, yeah, whatever.' Like, heard it. Then I met him and we sat across from each other, and there was a point in the conversation when we both kind of stopped talking and we looked at each other kind of like, 'What the f**k, like, we're exactly the same!'

And then we talked about work for about five minutes and then just started talking about, I don't know, Scottish things, like mountains and whisky... and mountains. But his support throughout this whole thing has been amazing. He came out to the premiere, which was so lovely, to see him there. And he'd never seen any of the episodes before, so him seeing that for the first time with the fans, he said that he wanted to watch it with the fans, as a fan, I thought was just a class act. So we are very happy to have him in our corner.

And Hermione and Jeremy, did you have any questions?

Jeremy: We did, but it's a very actor-y thing. The first time I met Caitríona [Balfe], I think the first thing I said was, 'How's the catering?' Find out about what life's really like on set.

Hermione: Do you know what? We didn't, really. That's bad, actually. We didn't ask that many questions.

Matthew: Because you play her parents...

Hermione: We play her parents, so we came first, so technically... But she's lovely and she just said basically enjoy it and talked us through the process and what happened for her, and just said enjoy every single stage of it.

Jeremy: But the main thing they talked about was the fans, really. Because we film in a bubble in Scotland, you can easily forget that anyone's going to watch the show. And it's only when you come to do press that you meet the fans and what an amazing engagement it has. And I think they were just trying to tell us how amazing and how committed and passionate the fans were. And it's only really now that we're sort of fully realising that, which is lovely.

And now that you're all part of the world of Outlander, does it feel like your lives have changed somewhat, a 'before Outlander, after Outlander' kind of moment?

Hermione: Exactly the same, and I mean that in the best way possible. I mean that entirely positively. I just think when you're filming, you're in such a lovely bubble. We're all up in Glasgow and we're all living our individual lives, but we all get on so well and it's still all about the work, which I think is really lovely. Like all of the press and all the stuff was so exciting and amazing, as Jeremy said, to learn how passionate the fanbase was, but we just want to make sure it's as good as possible for the fans and for people to enjoy it, and just concentrate on the work as much as possible.

Have any of you had any particularly sweet or memorable fan exchanges since the show has come out?

Jamie: It was quite sweet. It was actually at the weekend, I was heading to the Edinburgh Fringe, and my mate said to me, 'I'll bet you a drink that someone will recognise you within the first hour.' And I was like, 'I bet you a drink that somebody won't.' So we're sitting on the train – and this was the weekend of the Oasis concerts, so trains were full. We're sitting in our seats and this lady and her son walk next to us and I'm minding my own business and we kind of make eyes. And then she does one of those where she's kind of like [does a double take impression] and then swiftly goes onto her phone, and then she whispers to her son. Meanwhile, I'm staying cool, she's probably just thinking I'm Donny Osmond or something.

Jeremy: Now that you mention it...

Jamie: So anyway, nothing happened. It was all good. She went away with her son to the concert. Hope they had a good time. But in my message requests later on that night – I'm quite guilty of going through these and just perusing, for compliments – and there was one from her and it said, 'Great job on the show. Saw you on the train today but was too shy to say hello. PS, you're hot.' [audience laughs]

Jeremy: That's what happens when you go on a train in full costume...

So Matthew, I want to come to you now. Why did you want to tell this particular story of Jamie and Claire's parents. What was the appeal there?

Matthew: I felt like I wanted to know what happened to them, and it felt like a story that needed to be told. I knew we were eventually going to come to an end of Outlander, and I selfishly love Scotland, I like being there, I like the crew. I've grown attached to these people, too. So it's just a fun place to film. It's a family that we've grown and there's so much story there, there are so many characters there.

And we haven't really spent a lot of time in Scotland, oddly enough. So Outlander, if you guys think about it, we were there in season 1 and half of season 2, and then we kind of went away. We went to France, we went to the Caribbean, we went to North America, and we have maybe gone back a couple times for an episode, but that's it. So about 80 per cent of Outlander is not in Scotland, but people travel to Scotland to see the sights and go to the locations and visit all the places we filmed. And knowing that, it was like we have to get back to Scotland. So it just felt like a story that needed to be told. And with the response that we've gotten so far, it seems like I was right.

You're always right! Were there any particular challenges when it came to getting this green lit, or any obstacles that happened along the way afterwards?

Matthew: Well, there was a pandemic, so there was that. There were a few strikes involved, so there was that. So yes, there were challenges that affected us getting to production. But once everybody was on board, we went full steam ahead. Everybody backed it. We have Sony Pictures Television behind us 100 per cent, we have Starz in the United States, we have MGM+ here. We have so many people that wanted this show around the world that instead of it being a challenge, the challenge just becomes what we have to deal with when shooting and the weather and availabilities and things like that. But no, the support, and also the fan support. We wouldn't be here without the fans. And I say it all the time, it really is important that we have this kind of give and take and this cause and effect. We do the cause and you [gestures to the fans] do the effect.

Now, I want to talk about casting. There was a lot of praise when the four of you were first revealed, but of course Jamie and Hermione, it was recently revealed that you actually auditioned for Outlander. That didn't work out, but now that you're here, in Blood of My Blood, does it feel like a full circle moment, and that you were meant to be in this show?

Jamie: Yeah, going from auditioning for militia man number one.

Matthew: He was s**t as militia man number one. He was terrible [audience laughs].

Jamie: He was terrible... My God, that guy looks like Sam Heughan [teasing]! Yeah, it does feel very, very poetic, because I auditioned once, for militia man number one, dear place in my heart, which was literally one line.

Matthew: Can you remember the line?

Jamie: [pauses] It's something like, 'He's not fae here.' [silence, followed by applause]

Jeremy: Well, that was terrible!

Matthew: Thank God he said it like that because he wouldn't be sitting here right now.

Jamie: And they were like, [American accent] 'My God, he's good. He's got something.' Then after that, I auditioned for a slightly bigger role in season 7, didn't hear back from that, but then got the audition for Brian and yeah, all worked out. Considerably more lines than militia man number one, so I'm very, very thankful.

Hermione: Yeah, it does feel like a full circle moment. My audition was six years, seven, maybe even eight years ago.

Matthew: You read for Brianna.

Hermione: Brianna, yeah, I was going to screen test for it and then I had a clash with something else. So yeah, it's kind of wild. But I also read for Ellen originally on this, which is also crazy. Jamie and I did a screen test. So I screen tested Jamie and Jeremy, which is good, because we have actually probably more scenes together than Jeremy and I do now. It's all worked out quite well.

So let's talk about your characters. Coming into this, because people know Jamie and Claire so well, they might think that they already have a handle on who your characters are, but they are very much their own people, aren't they, with their own motivations, desires. Can you talk through your characters?

Harriet: We watched the whole of Outlander whilst shooting season 1 because we are massive nerds, and it was nice.

Jeremy: That's our audience you're talking about, so just be careful [teasing].

Harriet: I'm not ashamed! Any nugget of information about the character, I really clung onto, and that was really nice to find. But there wasn't a huge amount about Ellen and that was really lovely because I think actually, there was a lot of freedom to make the character my own. And a lot of it came from the fantastic writing that we have on our show and the discussions that we had beforehand. And I think it was helpful watching Outlander because I definitely looked at Sam Heughan's performance and without mimicking anything, wanted to just absorb the energy of him and his feistiness and his determination. But there was definitely a lot of space to make the characters our own.

Hermione: I think similar to us, really. I think we kind of started from, with Claire as a starting point, Caitríona's performance, and then from there, discussed what attributes maybe she got from both of us. And again, didn't want to mimic Caitríona at all, but wanted to bring an essence of her through because obviously we are her parents. Nature versus nurture, but she was separated from us at five. So she's got a little bit of us in her.

We don't see a lot about Julia and Henry's relationship in that first episode, so can you talk about the genesis of that and what we can expect?

Hermione: Promise we're in it, I swear!

Jeremy: So we meet Henry in the First World War. Julia's working in the redaction office. I think Henry's sort of given up on life, really. I think he's lost all hope. And his last sort of throwing out a lifeline, really, is this open letter, which, through the magic that happens in the Outlander universe, happens to land on his soul mate's desk. And they fall in love through words, which is difficult to imagine these days, but I think the poetics of the letter writing of that time allows that. And they fall in love before they even meet, and I think there's something really beautiful in that.

It's funny, there's a scene where we meet and we just sort of know, I sort of just know that it's her. And I remember calling Matt up going, 'No one's going to believe this. No one's going to believe it.' And Matt went, 'No, I want there to be this magic about this world.' There's a magic in the way that they just see each other and just know. And it was only when I saw it, I went, 'Oh my God, yeah, you're completely right.' It is heightened, but it's so lovely in a very cynical world that we live in now, to have this complete lack of cynicism and just lose yourself in that.

And there's a magic between Ellen and Brian as well. It's love at first sight. What is it that draws them to one another instantly, even though there's a bit of reticence at first? What is it that brings them together? What do they see in one another?

Jamie: She's hot.

Harriet: Obviously that. Obviously. You have to lean into the fact that there is an element of magic about it. It is love at first sight and not everyone might believe in that, but it was written in the script as a thunderclap moment, when two souls that are destined to be together finally meet. And so there is an element of fantasy about it.

Jamie: We were talking about this today, and in a world like today, where you make so many judgments and preconceptions about people, like on your phone, and you have an idea of someone before you've even met them, back in that day, all you had was these first interactions with people. So you'd have first interaction after first interaction, and these two characters just know, after seeing each other for a split second, that there's something there. There's this magnetism that draws them together that they've never felt before. With all these first meetings with all these other people, there's just something really, really special there. And yeah, hopefully we did that.

So a lot happens in that first episode. What can we look forward to in the rest of the series? Give us a teaser.

Hermione: We all interact. I'll start with that. [looks at Matthew]

Matthew: You can say that.

Jamie: Got to look at dad.

Matthew: They do interact.

Hermione: No, I mean, because we've all got different storylines, but actually, they all interact in some...

Jeremy: They all interact [teasing].

Hermione: Shut up [playful].

Jeremy: That'll really get the crowd going, Hermione. We all talk, so you've got that to look forward to.

Hermione: Enjoy!

Henry: It's a lot of high drama, isn't it?

Matthew: I think the key is that, in bringing Henry and Julia into the story, what was really important is how integral they are to the Brian and Ellen story. And they do, as Hermione said, they interact, but they actually interact in a way that is so important that it helps keep Brian and Ellen's story alive, and Brian and Ellen help keep Henry and Julia's story alive. So it's this kind of intertwining of stories that is important to our story going forward. And that's the, 'How does this impact? How does this create Jamie and Claire?' And ultimately, that's where we want to go. So that's the fun of the story, too.

Outlander: Blood of My Blood premiered on Saturday 9th August on MGM+ in the UK, with episodes being released weekly. You can buy Diana Gabaldon's Outlander books on Amazon.

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