No one ever needs to wonder what a Scotsman wears under his kilt anymore.
On Saturday night’s “Outlander” “Wedding” episode, Claire Beauchamp (Caitriona Balfe) and James Alexander Malcolm MacKenzie Fraser (Sam Heughan) said “I do,” and went up to the bridal chamber to make things legally official.
The “Outlander” “Wedding” episode on Starz was absolutely event television. Viewers watched Claire and Jamie pledge themselves to each other in front of God, Dougal MacKenzie, a lawyer, a prostitute and a gaggle of rowdy Highlanders, before they went upstairs at an inn to consummate the marriage. Initially, there were awkward moments between the hastily arranged-marriage newlyweds, but by the end, Claire and Jamie had some seriously steamy encounters.
PHOTOS: ‘Outlander’ — The Dress, The Ring & More Pics From The ”Wedding’ Episode
Access Hollywood spoke with Sam Heughan about shooting the episode where he had to bare a lot of skin on screen, and he revealed an embarrassing accident that happened with his intimate-scenes wardrobe. We also addressed some of Episode 7’s big moments, like how his character Jamie felt about Claire’s initial crestfallen expression in the bridal chamber, Dougal putting the moves on Claire Fraser, the touching Jamie/Murtagh scene and the Easter egg planted in last week’s episode – the appearance of one Brian Fraser.
AccessHollywood.com: I had a hard time not starting this interview by playing you the J.Lo ‘Booty’ song.
Sam Heughan: Oh wow. Ok. That would’ve been cool.
WATCH: ‘Outlander’ Cast: What Is It About A Man In A Kilt?
Access: I can still do it if you want me to.
Sam: Oh, go on.
Access: (Jennifer Lopez chorus of ‘Throw up your hands if you love a big booty’ plays.)
Sam: (Laughs) Are you saying I’ve got a big booty?
Access: No, I’m saying ‘bootys’ are in and you had to do this. When did you know there was going to be so much skin in this role? Did you know from the beginning?
Sam: Yeah. … They mentioned it and I said, ‘Yes, I’ll do anything. Give me the job.’ So I never really thought about it too much until you read the scripts and then you go, ‘Oh my God, I’ve actually gotta do this.’ … I think we were slightly nervous about it, but ultimately, it wasn’t supposed to be gratuitous and I don’t think it is. And I think it’s a really nice, developing relationship and it was good fun. It was good fun to work with Cait. We were both in the same situation and I think we sort of got through it together, so to speak.
Access: Let me just ask you – just to make this more fun – about the technicalities of it. I used to interview a lot of people from ‘True Blood,’ (RIP ‘True Blood’!)… and the guys would talk to me about things like not drinking beer for a week beforehand to flatten the stomach, and the things that you do in order to – well, film lasts forever.
Sam: I probably should’ve spoken to those guys first. … I think Cait and I did agree we were gonna have some whiskey before it, but then, when it actually happened, we just didn’t have time, or maybe we did towards the end of shooting, I think. When we’d finished it, we were like, ‘We deserve a whiskey,’ and I think we went and had one afterward. … You sort of read all these articles about actors that do lots of training and just before they do a scene they… do [push] ups and stuff, and it’s like, when do they get the time to do that? We’ve got prosthetics on — like my prosthetic back — so I’m in makeup and then you’re rehearsing and you’re straight on [set and] you shoot it. Like there’s no time for all that. So yeah, we don’t really hide much.
WATCH: The ‘Outlander’ Cast: Jamie Or Frank?
Access: But do you do things like go in for a Dead Sea salt scrub, or exfoliation or anything like that to make yourself look better?
Sam: No, Jamie’s a hairy, or not very hairy, grimy, sweaty Scottish man so I think (laughs) the more realistic we are, the better. No, I mean honestly, in all seriousness, I didn’t really think about all that stuff and maybe I should’ve, but it’s just, yeah, I think it’s about being honest, isn’t it? And that’s who he is and that’s who she is…
Access: So, one last question [on this subject] — Who is in charge of keeping’s Cait’s girls under wraps, because when you think of a heaving bosom… somebody had to make sure they didn’t pop out right? Was somebody in charge of that?
Sam: Yeah, I think there’s somebody definitely in charge of that. They’re very good at their job, I think. We’ve all got a dresser, and her dresser does a good job. My dresser has to look after my modesty pouch, which is good. It’s a handy little pouch that you can put in your pocket. I managed to drop it in the urinal one day, which was a bit embarrassing.
Access: What?
Sam: Yeah, and I had to tell someone and they had to put it over the radio, apparently, so everyone knew that I managed to drop it in the urinal…
Access: Wow! So… in the episode, Jamie watches Claire drinking at the start of their time in the bridal chamber, and [there is a moment where it looks like] it kind of hurts his feelings. Why?
Sam: I think he sees that she’s nervous and he wants to put her at ease, and I think he can see if he wasn’t to step in there, she would probably finish the bottle and he wouldn’t have much of a wedding night. He’s a gentleman and he wants to put her at ease, so yeah, that’s why they sort of start to get to know each other, I think, and he tells her a lot of stories.
Access: Do you think a little bit of it is also that it’s his wedding night too and he wants somebody who wants him?
Sam: Absolutely, yeah, well, he doesn’t want to be with a drunken wife. But yeah, he desperately wants – he really likes her and obviously this is new and he doesn’t really know her, but he’s kind of fallen for her, and so he wants to get know her as much as he’s sort of telling her about himself. But yeah, he wants to get to know her and ultimately wants her to want him.
Access: There are some great extra scenes they added like Jamie’s conversation with Dougal near the stables and Dougal’s basically revealing this new respect he has for Claire. What do you think Jamie thinks of that, because it follows ‘The Garrison Commander’ episode where Dougal saw Claire stand up for him and Scottish people?
Sam: Yeah, Jamie’s aware that Dougal’s constantly playing politics and this is yet another way of Dougal also [trying] to control Jamie, and also to control Claire, and so it kind of plays into the right hands for Jamie, obviously. This is a great result for Jamie, but also, he kind of doesn’t know what he’s getting himself in for. He obviously likes Claire and this is a good thing to happen, but he’s also doing it out of necessity and out of saving her. He knows that if he marries her then she’s protected. Unfortunately, she may be protected from Black Jack for a short while, but she’s certainly not protected from Dougal and he’s always playing games and sort of trying to win out of each situation.
Access: What do you think Jamie would think if he found out that Dougal kind of tried it on with his wife at the end of the episode?
Sam: In Episode 4, actually, she mentions that — she doesn’t give Jamie the whole sort of story, but she certainly tells him that Dougal was a bit forward and that she knocked him out with a barstool, so I think – Jamie thinks, yeah, she can handle herself and that’s what sort of makes him even more attracted to her. She’s certainly got a great character and a feisty temperament and knows that she can give as good as she gets.
Access: But now, she’s his wife.
Sam: Well, yeah. I mean if Dougal touched her, I mean, I think Jamie would certainly deal out some justice there, yeah.
READ: ‘Outlander’: Getting To Know Sam Heughan
Access: You got to have some extra scenes too in the ‘Wedding’ episode with Duncan Lacroix. There is some really sweet stuff where he talks about Jamie’s mom. How much do you love to do those Jamie/Murtagh scenes? It seems like you and Duncan have a really great chemistry.
Sam: He’s [an] absolutely wonderful actor and he’s such a character and I love that relationship. He’s kind of the one person that Jamie can trust. He’s the only other Fraser that is around — Fraser family — for the moment, and yeah, it’s sort of like this unwritten relationship. There’s a lot that goes on between them. They only need to give each other a look. Throughout all the episodes [we’ve] always tried to make sure that myself and Duncan were always close or we can always see each other and we speak Gaelic to each other. It’s sort of like politics, really. Much like Dougal and Colum, there’s this sort of bond between the two and yeah, it certainly plays out and later on in the episodes, we see more of his relationship and why he is protective of Jamie.
Access: We got to see Jamie’s dad in last week’s episode.
Sam: Yeah.
Access: Will we get to see more of that? They’ve been doing so many flashbacks and adding extra things… Will we get to see those two together at some point?
Sam: I think so. … You sort of blink and you’ll miss him, but I think that’s what I love about the show is that there’s so many little details that we will then come back to later on. And, because we’re not always linear in the storytelling, we can do that. We can jump backwards and forwards. So, sometimes the fans think we’ve missed a detail or we didn’t expand on it, but it’s just, you know, Ron and writers just sort of playing with that…
Access: I was gonna ask you… wait, I’ve forgotten what I was going to ask.
Sam: I’m thinking about the music you played. I thought that was – that’s amazing.
Access: (Laughs) So saying Jamie’s name for the first time — did you practice it much?
Sam: No, no I didn’t. Why didn’t I practice it much? It’s a very long name. I actually – I had to say it a lot at the wedding, the actual ceremony, and then we had to reshoot the ceremony because the lighting wasn’t quite right. … Every time I said it, Cait would get the giggles because it’s a very long name and then, some of the Highlanders would start adding names, so it became really difficult to say my name because yeah, there were a lot of people muttering under their breath, you know, other, slightly less appropriate names.
Access: Like what?
Sam: I mean, I’m sure you can imagine. A lot of Highlanders stuck in a room for a long time? Slightly salacious. … But yeah, so it was pretty difficult to actually say my name.
“Outlander” continues Saturday nights at 9 PM on Starz.
— Jolie Lash
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