Tuesday, November 22, 2016
Inside Outlander’s Hunt for Claire Fraser
An exclusive adaptation from the book The Making of Outlander: The Series.
For full VF article
http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2016/10/inside-outlanders-hunt-for-claire-fraser
by
TARA BENNETT
In this adaption from The Making of Outlander: The Series, author Tara Bennett goes behind the scenes of the show’s early production, including the long search to find the right actress to play Claire and the major effort required for the show to be filmed in Scotland.
CASTING
For two decades, Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander novels existed exclusively on the page and in readers’ heads. Fans had free license to imagine their own Claires, Jamies, Murtaghs, et al., mentally casting and re-casting based on Diana’s descriptions, celebrity crushes, or doppelgänger acquaintances until the cows came home. As with any beloved book or series, everyone has their own mental picture of what those characters look like. And suddenly the show’s producers and the series’s casting team had to find real-life actors to be the public, official face of those characters, shouldering a Mount Everest–size burden of fan expectation.
As one of those longtime readers and fans, executive producer Maril Davis felt the responsibility keenly as they embarked on the casting process with Emmy-winning casting director Suzanne Smith (Band of Brothers). “I love casting, but, normally, when we go into a project I pretty quickly have a prototype in my head of who some of these characters are,” Davis details. “This is the first time I think I have approached a series where I literally had no idea in my head, because Jamie and Claire had been in my head for so long. That was a little daunting when we started the process.”
From her London-based casting office, Smith admits she had not been familiar with the books before she began work on the show, which enabled her to approach the process with a clean mental slate. She was, however, very aware of how invested the fandom was in who these characters were and who should play them. “I know the fans have an idea that it has to be a certain set of eyes,” she says, explaining that fans often focus on the physical descriptions provided in the books. “But it is the acting that comes into it and what each of those actors brings to the table.”
Smith adds that often means that a high-profile actor who might seem like a dream casting might not be right for the role, or available, or even interested in a television series. “Sometimes ‘names’ are mentioned,” she says of early casting talks. “Other times I mention names and then bring them in, or sometimes we get show reels for more-prominent actors. The lovely thing about Starz and Sony was I was given the opportunity to cast unknowns, which is wonderful, because casting is a bit like a jigsaw puzzle. Sometimes names take away from a character.”
As it turns out, primary casting did lean toward unknowns and character actors, in part because Smith made it a priority to bring a sense of authenticity to the casting. “We have utilized a lot of Scottish actors,” she says. “There are some actors who are not Scottish pretending to be Scottish, but a Scottish friend of mine said their accents are great. I have a casting associate who is with a casting director up in Scotland, so we work together in tandem to create everything, and we discuss it with our writer-producers.”
When it came to casting the core three characters—Jamie, Claire, and Black Jack/Frank—Davis and Smith said they were prepared to cast wide nets and potentially commit to a long search. Jamie, in particular, was assumed by all to be the casting unicorn of the bunch. “I said to [show-runner] Ron [Moore] that there’s no way we’re going to find Jamie,” Davis laughs. “We call Jamie ‘the King of Men’ in the writers’ room. So it’s strange that we found him so quickly.”
When they released the casting call for Jamie, a process that Davis explains involves her and the writers collaborating on a character description and sending it out into the world, piles of taped auditions came back from actors around the globe, including from Scottish actor Sam Heughan.
“We saw Sam and we really liked him,” Davis enthuses. The writers discussed his audition, which then prompted Davis and co-executive producer Ira Behr to book a Skype interview with Heughan. “We thought he was really good and we wanted to give him a little feedback about doing a scene. As soon as we got on the Skype call with him and I talked with him, I was like, ‘Oh my God, he is so charming,’” Davis laughs. “Sam is naturally very charming and in some ways has a lot of Jamie there.” Not long after, Heughan earned the title of first actor cast onOutlander.
Next came the alt-Randalls. Smith says she knew British theater and television actor Tobias Menzies very well from previous casting and asked him to audition. “He read a scene for Black Jack and he read a scene for Frank so [producers] could see the two sides to the characters,” Smith details. “The Black Jack scene was quite long, as it was the interrogation scene with Claire. He did it seamlessly.” Menzies was given some notes and a new scene to read for show-runner Ron Moore. “Ron met him, and we did a studio test with just him and some of the scenes. From that, he was chosen. It was very quick. Sometimes it’s like that.”
And, no, the violence and incredible darkness of Black Jack Randall’s character was never a concern for either Smith or Menzies, Smith offers. “Starz asked me to ask Tobias and his agent whether he would be uncomfortable playing a sadist.” She smiles. “He laughed and said, ‘Of course not.’ British actors don’t think of it that way, because they want to be stretched. They know when it comes down to it that it will be handled in the right way.”
With Jamie and Black Jack cast, all that was left of the core three characters was arguably the linchpin of the entire series, Claire Beauchamp Randall, and for some time she was nowhere to be found. “Weirdly, I thought she would be easier to cast, and I was so wrong,” Davis reveals. “There are so few great parts like this for women, but so many amazing female actresses, I just assumed that we would find our person. We saw some amazing people, so that was not even a question, but it just wasn’t Claire. I remember Ron and I were sitting in our office in Scotland and we were literally three weeks away from shooting and we didn’t have Claire yet. We had a couple of female actresses on hold and said, ‘If we don’t get Jamie and Claire right, we might as well not do the series. We will be dead before we start.’”
Producer Toni Graphia had seen pictures and video clips of Irish actressCaitriona Balfe online and, intrigued by her potential, flagged her audition tape for a second look. She was asked to do another self-tape, which Smith says made them decide to bring her in for a chemistry read with Heughan. When they first put the two actors together in a room, it was clear that the show had found its Jamie and Claire. Moore says Balfe was committed to her role from the start. “You could see she was in it,” he says, recalling the first day of filming. “Then in the scenes with Frank, there was a charm and fun to it. Then her running to the woods in the white shift. Then her scene with Jack Randall. With Cait, it was very apparent, very quickly, that this was going to work. She’s it,” he enthuses.
A MAP OF OUTLANDER’S SCOTLAND.
LOCATIONS
While Diana Gabaldon’s original novel is set in Scotland, it wasn’t clear from the start that filming there would ever be possible. The location, as with any show, would ultimately be decided by many factors, including budget, available crew, stage facilities, and a myriad of other issues. At various times, Eastern Europe and New Zealand were both in the running to simulate the Highlands, until Moore was able to persuade the network and studio to commit to filming in the wilds of Scotland.
“The show is a love letter to Scotland in a lot of ways,” Moore says. “It’s a specific country with a specific look to it. We talk a lot with the director of photography,Neville Kidd, about the quality of light.”
As a native of the country, Kidd was eager to present his home as one of the main characters of the show. “The good thing about Outlander is that there’s very little of Scotland that has been filmed for U.S. television,” he says. “So I think you generally feel like this is a new world that nobody has filmed or seen before.”
In addition to showcasing his beloved country, Kidd says, he also wanted to keep the series feeling true to its 18th-century setting. “In 1743, it’s an environment with no pollution,” he explains. “Everything was very clean, though incredibly gritty. Yet it still has a wonderful quality of light, which we wanted to pass across in our filming. So when we’re filming 1743, we used a lot of reflected lights in the studios to re-create outside scenes and different colors of woods to give a unique feel and quality. We’re also trying to maintain the real color palettes they would have had at that time.”
With that goal in mind, Kidd says, they don’t use contemporary lighting such as L.E.D. or fluorescents on the show. “We have avoided that for 1945 and 1743,” he says. “When in 1743, we use a lot of candlelight flames. We use flame sources or tungsten lighting to replicate candle lighting. All of these techniques give a nice, warm, and inviting feel.”
Kidd also explains that, whenever possible, the camera is used as an extension of Claire’s point of view. “We make it feel like you’re not on a set. If everybody thinks you’re in a castle, then my job is done.”
Making sure the series showcases as much of Scotland as possible was a task that fell on the shoulders of series producer David Brown and locations managerHugh Gourlay. Both are longtime professionals in the U.K. production world, so they established Outlander’s studio base and the database of location partners the series features in any given episode.
“Being able to build an infrastructure for the show was really important,” Brown says. Production began in an older warehouse complex near Glasgow that now features 200,000 square feet of soundstages, as well as workrooms for the costume, construction, and prop departments. “For Season 2, we built another two stages. So in the same time that we invented the show, we built the only studio in Scotland. And in terms of infrastructure, we’ve also employed over 800 different people. In a relatively small environment like Scotland, the show has an enormous impact.”
Meanwhile, Gourlay was out exploring, cataloging, and brokering the use of towns, parks, museums, historical locations, and private properties that could be dressed to fit the needs of the show. Outlander is not a small production, so even when an ideal location is found, a lot of work goes into making it feasible. “We have so much equipment for the crew of a 125 people,” he says. “We need to be able to get them into these locations.”
Adding to the logistical complications is the fact that many of the locations are protected historical sites, including Doune Castle and Blackness Castle. “Because these properties are ancient monuments, there are a lot of restrictions on what you can, and can’t, do in them. It’s very important that they are left as we found them and there is no damage. Actually, it is a criminal offense to damage any of these monuments, so if we had damage, I could in theory end up in jail as the person looking after them,” Gourlay explains.
As to the specifics of turning a 21st-century location into an 18th-century one, production designer Jon Gary Steele says it encompasses a variety of physical alterations. “We have greensmen work two to three weeks per location covering up all the things that are not period,” he says. “We put our own windows in front of existing windows in every location, because they need to have leaded glass, which looks a little bit pebbly. We add shutters. We add thatched or tile roofs on some things. We add cobbles on some streets. There are truckloads of dressing sometimes that come for locations that will play a day or two. I am blown away how much happens per location,” he says.
Adapted from The Making of Outlander: The Series, by Tara Bennett, to be published October 18, 2016 by Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House Publishing Group; © 2016 by the author.
Saturday, November 19, 2016
Town and Country interviews Sam Heughan
Sam Heughan Talks Barbour, Becoming a Fashion Designer, and Outlander Season 3
Plus, what it feels like to have women camping out to meet him.
BARBOUR
by CAROLINE HALLEMANN
From Town & Country
For full article
http://www.townandcountrymag.com
There are few things in this world that grown women are willing to camp out for: the arrival of a royal baby, Beyoncé, probably, Hamilton tickets, in its Lin Manuel-Miranda heyday. After last week, add Outlander actor Sam Heughan to the list.
In New York on a quick break from shooting season three of the Starz show that some have called a feminist alternative to Game of Thrones, Heughan announced he was doing an appearance at the uptown Barbour store, and the first 20 in line would have the opportunity to take photos with the actor.
People started lining up the night before the event.
There are few things in this world that grown women are willing to camp out for: the arrival of a royal baby, Beyoncé, probably, Hamilton tickets, in its Lin Manuel-Miranda heyday. After last week, add Outlander actor Sam Heughan to the list.
In New York on a quick break from shooting season three of the Starz show that some have called a feminist alternative to Game of Thrones, Heughan announced he was doing an appearance at the uptown Barbour store, and the first 20 in line would have the opportunity to take photos with the actor.
People started lining up the night before the event.
"Can you believe it? They've been there since midnight," Heughan said, clearly bewildered by his own stardom, as we sat down to breakfast. "I was terrified that no one would turn up, and that I would have to fly my family out to pretend that they want to come and see me. It's magnificent."
In person Heughan's Scottish accent is much softer than that of his character, Jaime Fraser, and, of course, he's sporting a Barbour plaid button-down instead of the show's 18th-century period garb.
Heughan was recently named Barbour's global brand ambassador, and we were there to talk shop about the partnership he calls "a perfect fit." After all, he grew up in the same part of Scotland as the company's founder John Barbour, an area called Dumfries and Galloway in the southwestern part of the country.
"Barbour is a brand that I have grown up with and been associated with since I was living near the borders of Scotland," he said. "I was brought up in a very rural area on grounds of a castle. It was a working farm, and I even remember the local shepherd wearing his Barbour jacket."
BARBOUR
So what does being a global brand ambassador entail, exactly? Doing promotional events like the one at the store and appearing advertisements—like these ones for Barbour's shirt department which debuted earlier this summer—are a given. But what's most intriguing to Heughan about the role role is the opportunity to design a collection for the brand.
"I've been working with their whole design team and Gary Janes, who is just this fascinating designer. And we've had many discussions and meetings about the line, and what we want it to represent, and how we can marry some of my ideas with their great heritage. We talked about everything that I love and then they made the prototypes."
And while he's never done anything related to fashion design before, Heughan wants to make sure he gets this right, visiting the brand workshops and the company's archives to look at old catalogs, and jackets from the early 1900s, which helped to inspire the line.
"It's completely new. Growing up as an actor, [fashion] isn't something you ever think is going to be part of your job description, but it's been great fun. This family at Barbour they've made me feel very welcome. And it's been great to go down and see their workshops and see the people that work, and the community that they've got," he said.
BARBOUR
The collection is slated to launch with a collection of pieces for men and women for Fall 2017, but for now the vintage-inspired prototypes are being kept tightly under wraps.
No stranger to spoilers, Heughan was also tight-lipped when asked about Outlanderseason three, which will follow Diana Gabaldon's Voyager novel. In fact, a siren roared the second I asked my question—even the city wanted the show's secrets kept safe.
"I'm extremely excited about it. I feel already it's a very strong season, and I think people are really going to enjoy it," he said.
As for what's next? Something tells me there could be a Barbour kilt in Heughan's future.
"Actually, we'll see. It might be in the pipeline," he said of the prospect. "I love wearing them, and I think it would be really interesting to see a Barbour kilt, with all the different elements of what Barbour could bring with its wax or herringbone, and all these different materials and all these different fabrics. We may have talked about it. Who knows?"
Outlander fans can only hope.
Thursday, November 17, 2016
Sam Heughan becomes Scotland President for Bloodwise
Read full article at Bloodwise
Scottish actor Sam Heughan becomes Scotland President for Bloodwise
The Outlander star was announced as Scotland President of Bloodwise at a reception held at the iconic Lighthouse in Glasgow on Wednesday 16 November.
Yvonne Dickson, Head of Regional Fundraising at Bloodwise, presents Sam with an engraved Scottish Quaich.
Sam, 36, who plays Jamie Fraser in the hit TV series Outlander, has been a staunch supporter of the charity since 2011, most recently spearheading fundraising and fitness campaign ‘My Peak Challenge’. The initiative galvanised Sam’s supporters to raise £225,000 to help fund a clinical trial that is testing treatment for one of the most aggressive forms of leukaemia.
It is hoped that Sam’s role at the charity will continue to raise awareness of blood cancers such as leukaemia, lymphoma and myeloma.
Sam, who was joined during the evening by Scottish blood cancer patients, researchers and fundraisers said: “It is a great honour to be given this title and to have met the extended Bloodwise family and individuals who have contributed to research and helped to fundraise. They are making a remarkable difference.
"I hope to honour all those affected by blood cancer and continue the fight against this disease."
Sam meets Joe Mulholland (founder of the Bloodwise Glasgow fundraising group) and David Vetrie, (Researcher at Glasgow University whose work is funded by Bloodwise).
Yvonne Dickson, Head of Regional Fundraising, presented a hand engraved Scottish Quaich to Sam to celebrate the occasion. She said: “Sam has been an incredibly loyal supporter of Bloodwise for a number of years. He has not only rallied his fans and supporters to help raise money for the charity, but his global profile has increased awareness of blood cancer and the work we do to improve the lives of patients.
“We are absolutely delighted that he has become our Scottish President and are excited to see what the future holds.”
The charity has a strong presence in Scotland, with over £6million currently invested in blood cancer research projects at Glasgow and Edinburgh Universities.
Monday, November 7, 2016
BAFTA SCOTLAND 2016
Congratulations Caitriona Balfe and the entire Outlander team!
Fan pictures of The BAFTA'S
Sunday, November 6, 2016
HARPER'S BAZAAR talks Outlander with Terry Dresbach and Jon Gary Steele
HOW THE TIME-TRAVELING WORLD OF 'OUTLANDER' IS CREATED
The show's costume designer and production designer—who just so happen to be real-life best friends—open up about bringing the book series to life.
By Julie Kosin
For full article
http://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/film-tv/news/a17388/outlander-costume-designer-production-designer-interview/?src=socialflowTW
In Season 2 of Outlander, time-traveling heroine Claire Fraser (Caitriona Balfe) journeys through the 18th century, from the French court of King Louis XV to the Scottish Highlands, to 1940s (and later, '60s) Scotland. Sounds like a daunting task for any design department, right? Not when your production designer and costume designer have been best friends and collaborators for nearly 30 years. Instead, you get a veritable smorgasbord of lavish costumes and intricate sets that tell their own stories—as well as Emmy nominations aplenty. Here,HarpersBAZAAR.com chats with Jon Gary Steele, Outlander's production designer, and Terry Dresbach, the show's costume designer (and wife of its showrunner, Ronald D. Moore) to discuss their collaboration, designing accurately through different time periods and dealing with fan reactions to one of the most popular shows on television:
Harper's BAZAAR: How do your teams collaborate to create the feel of the show?
Terry Dresbach: Gary and I have been best friends for, I hate to say, almost 30 years. I know him better than maybe I know my own husband in some ways. Creatively he's like my twin. We confer a bit—"What color is that wall" or "What color is that dress?"—but we're always linked creatively.
In Season 2 of Outlander, time-traveling heroine Claire Fraser (Caitriona Balfe) journeys through the 18th century, from the French court of King Louis XV to the Scottish Highlands, to 1940s (and later, '60s) Scotland. Sounds like a daunting task for any design department, right? Not when your production designer and costume designer have been best friends and collaborators for nearly 30 years. Instead, you get a veritable smorgasbord of lavish costumes and intricate sets that tell their own stories—as well as Emmy nominations aplenty. Here,HarpersBAZAAR.com chats with Jon Gary Steele, Outlander's production designer, and Terry Dresbach, the show's costume designer (and wife of its showrunner, Ronald D. Moore) to discuss their collaboration, designing accurately through different time periods and dealing with fan reactions to one of the most popular shows on television:
Harper's BAZAAR: How do your teams collaborate to create the feel of the show?
Terry Dresbach: Gary and I have been best friends for, I hate to say, almost 30 years. I know him better than maybe I know my own husband in some ways. Creatively he's like my twin. We confer a bit—"What color is that wall" or "What color is that dress?"—but we're always linked creatively.
Jon Gary Steele: We actually think alike. If we're walking the streets we'll both notice the same thing. We always show each other as many colors of what we're doing in advance. In Paris especially, everything was discussed. We were going for deep, dark rich colors for the walls and things like that, so her costumes would pop off. The first year we couldn't use red because Ron [Moore, Outlander showrunner] wanted the Redcoats to be only red. It's all thought-out and talked about.
HB: Are pieces of the sets echoed in the costumes?
TD: Always. Gary and I take vacations together and road trips. I make him chocolate cookies and he brings over a giant stack of design magazines. It doesn't matter whether its fashion design or interiors, we're both going, "Oh my God, look at that color." I'll open my email and be like, "You've got to see this image from Elle Décor " or "I just saw this dress or this piece of jewelry," so we're always in sync. Those little pieces get echoed. I'll walk on a set and go, "That looks like that jewelry piece you showed me last month." Or he'll go, "There's that fabric color you were talking about." It's always threading through everything we do together.
JGS: I noticed there was a scene in Jamie and Claire's bedroom and Claire was wearing some kind of metallic thing that was like a chain. It was a very old, ancient thing and it went from one part of her chest down to a little pocket, and Jamie has these buttons on the coat he was wearing. They're sitting by the fireplace in this chair that had studs all up and down the sides. The fire was hitting the studs and his buttons and this piece of chain that she had on. We discussed it later; it was like it was all planned. We're all trying to achieve the same magical thing and it does happen a lot.
HB: Gary, is there ever a time you have to make sacrifices in authenticity for the sake of filming?
JGS: Most of the time Ron wants it to feel as real and authentic as possible. Especially Season 1. When we did the first year, we did tons of research on the stones. It was so much easier to build our own stones. I hear stories all the time from people who live in the area trying to find those standing stones. I'm like, "Well, keep looking." I wanted to put the stones up in a grove on a hill. Everyone was getting annoyed with me, and the director, John Dahl, said, "Gary, we could put it down there in the middle of that field and make everyone's life 1,000 times easier. You're making this really difficult!" So we get back to the office and he says, "Why are you insistent that this be in a grove on a hill when it would be so much easier to film in a field?" And I said, "Because this is the magic of this show. When you read the book, this is the one place. You shouldn't see it from miles away. You have to work your way up and see little glimpses of it. You should get chills on your arms when you see pieces of it coming through. It's the only thing that's really mystical and magical. And he said, "You got your way, get out of my office." Everybody gets it when you need it to be magical. He came up to me after we filmed it, with the women dancing around with the torches, and he said, "You were right. It worked."
HB: What were the highlights of Season 2 for you both?
JGS: I'm a huge Francophile. It's a dream to get to design 18th-century Paris sets because it's one of the most decadent periods of time. It's amazing for art, architecture, fashion, landscape architecture—everything. The best set to me was King Louis's Star Chamber. Ron let me go a little over the top with it. The scripts just say it's a mystical, magical space where the king leads Claire for this judgement thing. It was during a time of enlightenment, so people were interested in science and astrology and astronomy and witchcraft. We know from researchthe king dabbled in some of this. So we covered all the walls with 16th-century alchemy symbols and etchings that we found. I kept finding these amazing images of domes from ancient times throughout the world and a lot of them were pierced with little circles or stars that light would come through and land on the floor. When Claire walked through it, I wanted to have these little shafts of light cross her face and torso. I think the most response I got from anything was from that set. Even the actors were jumping up and down when they walked in, going, "Oh my God! This is fun!" And of course those crazy poisonous snakes. Usually I'm the one that asks for crazy stuff so when I heard there were going to be poisonous snakes I'm like, "Really? They're gonna think I asked for this."
Then we had the brothel, which was a hoot. I wanted to make the wall panels pierced so you could see the prostitutes taking men to the doors through the screens. It was supposed to be a very decadent place where Bonnie Prince Charlie would hang out. He's royalty, he wouldn't go to some sleazebag place. In our research, we found these underground clubs—I think one of them was in London, called the Hellcat Club—where men would do alchemy and magic and hire prostitutes. It sounds like this period was even more risqué than what we thought it was. The rich were really, really rich and they flaunted it. Sometimes it's hard to show that kind of wealth but that's what we were going for. We were trying to show the complete opposite of Scotland, which was much more utilitarian—just enough to get by.
TD: The French court was one of the real reasons I wanted to do the show. My whole career—my whole life—I wanted to do 18th-century France and now I'm like, "Done that! We're good." I've never been so glad to get out. I kind of poo-pooed Scotland. The kilt wasn't a big thing for me. But I just fell in love with the Scottish stuff. There's a subtlety and a richness and a depth to the textures. The way we tried to interpret nature in our Scottish costumes, they became something so unexpected. When you're recreating Paris you can go as big as you want and you can be spectacular and beautiful, but you're still creating something we all know. There's millions of paintings. There's clothes that still exist. But there's a freedom to Scotland, a creative freedom that's just magnificent. We've gotten really experimental. We're painting all sorts of things and playing with textures and fabric treatments and it's really exciting work. There's no blueprint to follow but you have to remain true. When the show moves forward there's a truth that we have to interpret but we get to interpret it and it's exciting.
HB: Terry, tell me about that Swan Dress.
TD: The dress is an incredibly dramatic piece. What I tried to do with that dress was almost upstage the exposed nipples with the gloriousness of that dress. I've never done an adaptation before, but what I've learned is that people build so much anticipation into certain pieces. The Swan dress, the red dress, the wedding dress. They become pored over in detail so that when they come out, you can never match that expectation. Whereas the brown dress with the flowers on it, the Dior dress, Jamie's coat with the deer stag. The fans didn't have any way of anticipating them, so when they came out they were like, "Whoa!" When there is no expectation I can blow you out of the water because you weren't anticipating something fantastic and it came at you anyway. People were freaking out about Louise's costumes but you don't really think about what she's wearing in the book. [Before the show] nobody gave St. Germain's costumes a second thought. Then they were floored by them. [The fans said], "What a minute, what? A man wore that? Oh my God, imagine walking into a room wearing that!" The other thing [about designing costumes for an adaptation] is that you are making a show for readers and non-readers. With the red dress or the nipple dress, people who didn't read the book are like, "Huh? Why is that there?" It's a finely-cut thing.
HB: Terry, can you walk me through the Season 2 finale? What were the challenges of going into the '60s? What were you trying to convey with this older Claire?
TD: You should recognize the Claire we saw in Season 1, the Claire we saw in Season 2 and the Claire we see in Season 3. She should be recognizable. She cannot be this new person. It was really rewarding when viewers were going, "It's still Claire!" They also had really powerful, emotional reactions to her costumes. People were telling me, "I cried when Claire came out with the blue robe because my mom had that robe." Claire's pajamas are my mother's pajamas—literally. They're made by Vanity Fair. They're that nylon blue color we all know. You're able to see Claire but you're also kind of able to see yourself or someone you know. A lot of our audience is either Claire's daughter or Claire. They are of that age. There's a familiarity and there should always be. The beauty of the books for me were, "What would I do if I were in that circumstance?" So it's about identifying with that character and trying to imagine myself in her situation. There has to be a sense of, "She's familiar to me." I love doing her clothes. I loved her clothes for the '60s. I was going for Anne Bancroft.
HB: Terry, tell me about that Swan Dress.
TD: The dress is an incredibly dramatic piece. What I tried to do with that dress was almost upstage the exposed nipples with the gloriousness of that dress. I've never done an adaptation before, but what I've learned is that people build so much anticipation into certain pieces. The Swan dress, the red dress, the wedding dress. They become pored over in detail so that when they come out, you can never match that expectation. Whereas the brown dress with the flowers on it, the Dior dress, Jamie's coat with the deer stag. The fans didn't have any way of anticipating them, so when they came out they were like, "Whoa!" When there is no expectation I can blow you out of the water because you weren't anticipating something fantastic and it came at you anyway. People were freaking out about Louise's costumes but you don't really think about what she's wearing in the book. [Before the show] nobody gave St. Germain's costumes a second thought. Then they were floored by them. [The fans said], "What a minute, what? A man wore that? Oh my God, imagine walking into a room wearing that!" The other thing [about designing costumes for an adaptation] is that you are making a show for readers and non-readers. With the red dress or the nipple dress, people who didn't read the book are like, "Huh? Why is that there?" It's a finely-cut thing.
HB: Terry, can you walk me through the Season 2 finale? What were the challenges of going into the '60s? What were you trying to convey with this older Claire?
TD: You should recognize the Claire we saw in Season 1, the Claire we saw in Season 2 and the Claire we see in Season 3. She should be recognizable. She cannot be this new person. It was really rewarding when viewers were going, "It's still Claire!" They also had really powerful, emotional reactions to her costumes. People were telling me, "I cried when Claire came out with the blue robe because my mom had that robe." Claire's pajamas are my mother's pajamas—literally. They're made by Vanity Fair. They're that nylon blue color we all know. You're able to see Claire but you're also kind of able to see yourself or someone you know. A lot of our audience is either Claire's daughter or Claire. They are of that age. There's a familiarity and there should always be. The beauty of the books for me were, "What would I do if I were in that circumstance?" So it's about identifying with that character and trying to imagine myself in her situation. There has to be a sense of, "She's familiar to me." I love doing her clothes. I loved her clothes for the '60s. I was going for Anne Bancroft.
HB: Were there particular challenges that come with aging her 20 years?
TD: Ron and I had a big argument about this. He said, "People need to believe that she's older." And I go, "Clothes don't do tricks. They're not angry, they're not taller, they're not shorter." It's really about what the person is doing. I kept saying, "You're going to see such a leap. It's going to be such a shift to see this woman out of 18th century clothing and into the '60s. Then you depend on a phenomenal actress like Caitriona Balfe to sell it.
HB: We're meeting Brianna for the first time. What did you want to say with her clothes?
TD: That was everything I ever wore when I was nine. My mother was a clothes horse. When I was nine I had a leather suit, a leather beret, a leather vest and jumper and knee-high leather boots. I remember all those outfits with tremendous love. So I translated that into Brianna. I had those corduroy pants and that pea coat and that cap. She's listening to The Beatles and she's looking at Carnaby Street. The British invasion is happening for her. We're not doing Mad Men. Those million, brilliant costumes are New York on Fifth Avenue. Outlander is a different world. People are like, "You're going to have fringe vests and paisley pants!" The majority of people didn't wear that.
TD: Ron and I had a big argument about this. He said, "People need to believe that she's older." And I go, "Clothes don't do tricks. They're not angry, they're not taller, they're not shorter." It's really about what the person is doing. I kept saying, "You're going to see such a leap. It's going to be such a shift to see this woman out of 18th century clothing and into the '60s. Then you depend on a phenomenal actress like Caitriona Balfe to sell it.
HB: We're meeting Brianna for the first time. What did you want to say with her clothes?
TD: That was everything I ever wore when I was nine. My mother was a clothes horse. When I was nine I had a leather suit, a leather beret, a leather vest and jumper and knee-high leather boots. I remember all those outfits with tremendous love. So I translated that into Brianna. I had those corduroy pants and that pea coat and that cap. She's listening to The Beatles and she's looking at Carnaby Street. The British invasion is happening for her. We're not doing Mad Men. Those million, brilliant costumes are New York on Fifth Avenue. Outlander is a different world. People are like, "You're going to have fringe vests and paisley pants!" The majority of people didn't wear that.
HB: What can you tell me about Season 3?
JGS: Well we're in America, we're in some Caribbean islands and we are also in Scotland—that's the only set that plays more than one period. It'll be there all three seasons. That set is still up, that's the only set that's been up that long. I don't know if I should tell, but we're building a huge Boston apartment. I'm excited about the look of Boston. And the print show is gonna be awesome. We had two real print presses made by a guy who makes replicas for museums. I'm trying to make it feel like one of the first factories, with a pre-industrial look to it. It's gonna be awesome. I walked around through it last week. It's a big set. There will be all kinds of fun stuff to keep everybody going. It's a completely different look.
TD: It is a completely different show. This is a really good season for us because it's almost like a transition, story-wise and it's not hard on us. The beauty of a show about time travel is that it's a show about time travel. We are bouncing back and forth right now between the '60s and the 18th century. Right now I'm knee-deep in the '60s. That's so much fun. Just when you think you can't see one more 18th century gown, you're suddenly doing mini skirts. There's a few surprises out there that are gonna excite a lot of people and piss a lot of people off. I can tell everybody that right now. And beyond those, it's kind of a low-key season for us and then Season 4 is huge! Because we've been picked up for two seasons, we've put a lot of our focus on what's going to be happening in 4. It took us a year to prep for Season 2 and it's going to take a year to prep for Season 4. Season 4 will be another biggie.
HB: There are particular challenges for Season 3 for you, Terry. You have to deal with changing body types. Jamie's been living in a cave for years!
TD: He's living in a cave for several years and I don't think anybody's bringing in a new rack of clothing every week. We have different issues. We have issues of breakdown in aging—you gotta believe that everybody looks the way they're supposed to, so we have a different set of challenges. It's not going to be about building huge spectacular costumes like we did in Paris and it's not like Scotland. It's a new world and a new reality that we have to create and it's already fantastic. We've barely started. We were out on set, we saw the first day of shooting and we were like, "OK, here we go again!" It's a fascinating show that way.
Friday, November 4, 2016
Thursday, November 3, 2016
Daily Record picks up our event
"Outlander in the City" as cast head to New York for fan event
KEY members of the Outlander cast will be attending a fan event in New York in Spring 2017.
Read the article on us from:
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/scotland-now/outlander-city-cast-head-new-9181329
Outlander cast appearing in New York:
Outlander fans in America will be delighted to learn that the cast of the hit series will be attending a debut event in New York.
Outlander in the City, in Manhattan, is expected to attract the attention of die-hard fans who love the time travelling romance, written by Diana Gabaldon.
This is the latest fan event, following on from Scot Con which took place in Scotland earlier this year
The opportunity to meet the actors of the Outlander series will take place at St. Andrews, a well-known Scottish bar and restaurant near Times Square, on 3 June.
Outlander in the City will have a casual dinner-style atmosphere, where guests can mingle with the stars while enjoying a Scottish buffet dinner and Balvenie Scotch whisky tasting.
Cast who will be in attendance include Gary Lewis, who played Colum Mackenzie, and Nell Hudson, who plays the often-agitating Laoghaire Mackenzie.
Activities and special gifts will include Outlander-themed raffle baskets, signed 8 x 10 photos from the cast, swag bags for guests, selfies with the stars, and a special performance by Stephen Walters.
Thank you from Outlander Homepage to the press!
Regards, Dorianne Panich, Graphic designs/Administrator
Outlander fans in America will be delighted to learn that the cast of the hit series will be attending a debut event in New York.
Outlander in the City, in Manhattan, is expected to attract the attention of die-hard fans who love the time travelling romance, written by Diana Gabaldon.
This is the latest fan event, following on from Scot Con which took place in Scotland earlier this year
The opportunity to meet the actors of the Outlander series will take place at St. Andrews, a well-known Scottish bar and restaurant near Times Square, on 3 June.
Outlander in the City will have a casual dinner-style atmosphere, where guests can mingle with the stars while enjoying a Scottish buffet dinner and Balvenie Scotch whisky tasting.
Cast who will be in attendance include Gary Lewis, who played Colum Mackenzie, and Nell Hudson, who plays the often-agitating Laoghaire Mackenzie.
Flier for Outlander in the City
Also appearing will be Stephen Walters, who brought the role of Angus Mhor to life, and Steven Cree, who plays Jenny’s husband Ian.
Grant O’Rourke, who plays Rupert Mackenzie, and Duncan Lacroix, who captured viewer’s heart with his portrayal of Murtagh Fraser, will also grace Outlander in the City with their presence.
This inaugural Outlander in the City event will be hosted by Outlander Homepage, (Dorianne Panich) Liz Mercado Associates, Bonnie Terbush, and Outlander Forever.
The cost of tickets is $375 (£304) each and proceeds from the event will be going to each actors chosen charity.
Also appearing will be Stephen Walters, who brought the role of Angus Mhor to life, and Steven Cree, who plays Jenny’s husband Ian.
Grant O’Rourke, who plays Rupert Mackenzie, and Duncan Lacroix, who captured viewer’s heart with his portrayal of Murtagh Fraser, will also grace Outlander in the City with their presence.
This inaugural Outlander in the City event will be hosted by Outlander Homepage, (Dorianne Panich) Liz Mercado Associates, Bonnie Terbush, and Outlander Forever.
The cost of tickets is $375 (£304) each and proceeds from the event will be going to each actors chosen charity.
Activities and special gifts will include Outlander-themed raffle baskets, signed 8 x 10 photos from the cast, swag bags for guests, selfies with the stars, and a special performance by Stephen Walters.
Thank you from Outlander Homepage to the press!
Regards, Dorianne Panich, Graphic designs/Administrator
Tuesday, November 1, 2016
Fans can meet the cast of Outlander in NYC
By Bernadette Giacomazzo of the Inquisitor
Full article
This is about our event...
First, fans will be delighted to meet Nell Hudson. According to the latest Outlander Season 3 news from the Daily Mail, she will be earning a lot of ire from the fans, as her character Laoghaire will be returning and — spoiler alert! — will be married to James “Jamie” Fraser! Nell says that she’s aware of her character’s innocent, but sinister, nature, and that she’ll be having a lot of fun this season playing a seductress of sorts.
Said Nell:
“It was really fun playing with it because obviously it was fun sliding the scale between sinister and earnest, you know what I mean? It was something that me and Mike Barker, the director, sort of figured out in the moment, was how much that should be kind of quite ominous and how much that should just be a kind of… tender thing of her still feeling head over heels crazy in love with him.”
Another actor that fans will be delighted to meet is Scottish actor Steven Cree, who plays Jamie’s brother-in-law Ian Murray on the show. Fans know Cree for making the rounds of Outlander Season 3 news because he and Sam Heughan, who of course plays Jamie, go back and forth with roasting each other on Twitter. But this theater actor, according to Scotland Now, hasn’t made Heughan the sole victim of his roasts. In fact, he most famously roasted David “The Hoff” Hasselhoff!
Said Steven:
“That was probably the most fun I’ve had on a job. For the most part it was unscripted and I had carte blanche to do what I wanted. The brief was basically to take the piss out of David as much as possible. He was a brilliant sport and was really up for laughing at himself. But it was surreal too, of course, when you grow up in Kilmarnock watching Baywatch as a teenager then find yourself taking the mickey out of David Hasselhoff being in Baywatch.”
Finally, fans of the show will be enthralled when they get to not only meet, but see a rare live performance from, Stephen Walters, who won’t be a part of Outlander Season 3 news reports because his beloved character, Angus, died in the Battle of Prestonpans.
Walters’ character is perhaps best known for trying – and failing — to Claire passionately during Season 2, much to Stephen’s delight, as he told Vulture.
Said Stephen:
“Oh, man, he was hung up on Claire, wasn’t he? But who wouldn’t be? He knew he had no chance, but he kept trying. That should be on his gravestone: “He kept trying.” He came close, I’ve got to say. And Caitriona [Balfe], we’d laugh every time we’d do those scenes. We had one scene where I burst in on her, and she’s urinating in a bucket, and I drag her by the arm, and I remember we were just howling with laughter.”
These days, Stephen is recording an album, the proceeds of which will go to help the Bathgate Regal Theatre, which is run by fellow Outlander actor Scott Kyle (who played Ross on the show).
Stephen Walters
For more information about the event, check out the invitation below.
And be sure to stay tuned here for all the latest Outlander Season 3 news. We’ll definitely keep you apprised of all of the Outlander Season 3 news as it becomes known to us!
[Featured Image by Vivien Killilea/Getty Images]
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