The Season 1 finale of Outlander is proving hard to forget for many fans. Even fans of the books by Diana Gabaldon, who knew that Black Jack Randall (Tobais Menzies) was going to brutally rape Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan), were even shocked by the scene.
But for Sam, the 35-year-old Scottish actor who has become a household name for many Outlander fans, the rape scene was something very unexpected.
“It’s a gift for an actor to play. It’s something I relished, and I know Tobias did as well,” Heughan told Zap2it . “Honestly it’s some of the most challenging, rewarding yet intense work I’ve ever done. I’m so proud of what we’ve done.”
Outlander producer Ron Moore echoed Sam’s sentiments and called shooting the scenes “intense.” In the books, Jamie tells his wife, Claire ( Caitriona Balfe ), details about being raped after it has already happened. Leaving, Moore to decide how exactly they were going to portray the events to the audience. Making it even more complicated is that many fans of the show have not read the books, so they had no idea what was going to happen.
“I felt that what was important was to make it as truthful as possible… OK, this is the story. Let’s not blink and let’s not look away, but you didn’t want to be gratuitous either. You wanted to play what it was and be truthful to it, but you didn’t want to revel in the pornography of it or something or the vulgarity of it. Just because you are on Starz doesn’t mean that you have to show everything or that you want to. You’re not trying to sort of shove it in the audience’s face but at the same time, you don’t want to shy away from it because it’s such an important moment in the life of the show and in the life of particularly Jamie’s character.”
The final product left Moore and Sam Heughan very pleased. “All the way through the process I kept trying to think if I’d seen anything like this on TV or even really in film, and I don’t think we’ve seen anything portrayed the way we portrayed this,” Moore continued.
Outlander fans are pretty intense, and they have launched a major campaign to try and get their favorite stars — Sam included — an Emmy nomination by tweeting #EmmysforOutlander .
Moore, for his part, applauds his male lead for the work he did all season, but especially in the season finale. He even went so far as to call the episode “Sam’s show” to Zap2it .
“It takes a certain fearlessness to be that vulnerable, and to be a lead male character, and to go through this story, and to convey to the audience how completely broken this can make you… The thing that he’s feeling the most guilty about is that there’s a moment of ‘Jack made love to him’ and he allowed himself to enjoy it for that split second, and he can’t get over it. That’s a powerful thing [to] deal with as a man, especially in this culture, and to be willing to play it as real as Sam did I thought was remarkable.”
Outlander Season 2 is currently filming, but a premiere date has yet to be set.