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Outlander casting director shares how Sam Heughan got casted as Jamie Fraser
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Outlander casting director shares how Sam Heughan got casted as Jamie Fraser
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NewsTranscript
00:00 Outlander casting director shares how Sam Heughan got casted as Jamie Fraser.
00:04 Sam Heughan has made his career as Jamie Fraser after being cast in the role 10 years ago.
00:09 Sam Heughan has embodied Outlander's leading man Jamie Fraser for almost a decade,
00:13 but prior to securing the role, bosses feared the role would be hard to cast.
00:17 The Bal MacLellan-born actor, 43, has become synonymous with the dashing Highland Warrior from Diana Gevaldin's novel.
00:23 While bosses originally thought that Jamie would be the hardest role to cast,
00:27 Sam secured the role before Catriona Balfi was cast.
00:30 Outlander's casting director, Suzanne Smith, shared insight into how Sam was cast in the role
00:35 and the process behind the scenes. Speaking to The Express, he said,
00:39 "Well, with actors, you follow their careers. So I knew Sam from drama school and I brought him in
00:43 for quite a few roles before, so I'd followed his career so I knew him."
00:47 She continued, "So there's not many very tall Scots that are right for Jamie Fraser,
00:51 so Sam came to mind straight away. We did audition other actors and the casting process
00:56 is not just one audition, you a couple, so it's a process of each role that we do on the show."
01:00 She went on to say, "He just embodied the role and also being a wonderful human being,
01:05 which is so important. So we did one audition and then we did a recall and then we did a final
01:09 recall with our producers." Speaking about what bosses were looking for in the role, she said,
01:14 "The thing is when you're casting, you never know. Sometimes a role you think is the most
01:18 difficult proves not to be and the role that you think is going to be the easiest is the hardest
01:22 and that's the enjoyable thing. Sometimes frustrating thing, you never know."
01:26 So I know that my producers thought that Jamie Fraser was going to be the difficult role and
01:30 it proved not to be. Outlander bosses considered Sam as a needle in haystack, according to executive
01:36 producer Merrill Davis, who was instrumental in casting the role of Jamie Fraser.
01:40 Inside the life of Outlander's Graham McTavish, Scottish Wedding, Sam Hewvin Romance,
01:45 and Whiskey Venture, we take a look at the life and career of Outlander star Graham McTavish.
01:49 Graham McTavish has had a successful career spanning over multiple decades but is now best
01:54 known for his role as Dougal Mackenzie in Outlander. The Scottish star, 62, is an acclaimed
01:59 actor who was born in Glasgow before moving to Canada with his family but later relocated to New
02:04 Zealand as an adult. Graham has formed a niche for himself as a fantasy star with starring roles in
02:09 Outlander, The Hobbit trilogy, House of the Dragon, and The Witcher. He has also loaned his
02:14 voice to various video games and animated series over the years. The actor has formed a close
02:19 friendship with his co-star Sam Hewvin, even moving in together for a while when working on
02:23 one of their many books. Here we take a look at Graham's life, from his start in acting to his
02:27 lavish Scottish nuptials. Graham admittedly had no interest in acting but was a keen writer in
02:32 his early years. However, that all changed after he accepted a role in a play at school.
02:37 Speaking to Mr. Feelgood, Graham recalled, "The drama teacher at my school would often ask me to
02:41 be in a play, and I always said no. I had no interest at all in acting none. Then, on this
02:47 one occasion, he asked me to be in a production of The Rivals by Richard Brinkley Sheridan. It was
02:52 three days before the show, and one of the main actors had to drop out, so they needed somebody
02:56 at the last minute, and to this day, I honestly cannot remember why I said yes. I suspect it was
03:01 because there was a girl in the cast that I wanted to impress or something like that. So, I learned
03:06 the lines in three days, went on, and because it was a comedy people laughed. Then they applauded,
03:11 and I was like, 'This is great. I really rather enjoy this.'" Despite having a place at university,
03:16 Graham got in touch with the principal at RADA to see if he was good enough to get into the school.
03:21 He continued, "They wrote back, and they said, 'Yes, the principal has agreed to give you this
03:26 special audition.' I still got the letter, actually. Then I went in and I did it, and at the end of it,
03:31 he said, 'Well, if you were applying to RADA, you would definitely get through to the next round.
03:36 Beyond that, it's difficult to say at the moment, but you've got a place at university,
03:40 so my advice is, go to university, do the three years, and if you're still interested, come back.'"
03:45 He continued, "I applied for a postgraduate year at several drama schools, and I got into about six
03:51 of them. In those days, of course, you got a grant to go to university. I got a grant, but I used it,
03:56 and so they said, 'If you want to do a postgraduate, you're going to have to pay.' At that time,
04:01 it was just inconceivable, like, 'What? You expect me to pay?' So, I just said, 'No, I'm not going to
04:07 do it.' Instead, I did a play by Samuel Beckett called Crap's Last Tape, which is a one-man show.
04:12 I performed that, and that's how I got my Equity card. I was around 23."
04:16 Sam Heughan and Graham are well-known for their on-screen characters in Outlander,
04:20 but now are equally known for their bromance with one another and their witty banter.
04:24 The two Scots actors became fast friends during their time on the hit Starz historical fantasy
04:29 show, where Sam, 43, plays Highland warrior Janie Fraser, and Graham, 62, played Dugal
04:34 Mackenzie before he met his demise. Since then, the two have co-written three books together,
04:39 The Clanlands Almanac, Seasonal Stories from Scotland, Clanlands, Whiskey, Warfare,
04:44 and A Scottish Adventure Like No Other, Clanlands in New Zealand, QA's, Kilts,
04:49 and An Adventure Down Under, as well as filmed two seasons of their travel show Men in Kilts.
04:54 During a joint interview in 2021, Graham told stylist about his first impression of Sam.
04:59 "Sam was really warm, charming, and supportive. Sam couldn't help making fun of their first
05:03 encounter. Much like he did with this interview, Graham turned up late, out of breath, saying,
05:08 'Oh God, I'm so sorry he joked. That's why I shook his hand. I've been waiting so long for him.'"
05:13 Last year, Sam was interviewed for Square Mile by Lucifer's Tom Ellis,
05:16 and the men took great pleasure in discussing their mutual friend McTavish and the first
05:21 series of Men in Kilts. "It is a slightly dysfunctional relationship," said Heughan.
05:25 "We bicker quite a lot, but I think that's the joy. Graham plays these characters who are quite
05:29 masculine, quite aggressive. He's a character. He's well-built. But in real life, Graham is a
05:34 total teddy bear and extremely nervous around dangerous things. The joy of Men in Kilts was
05:39 getting him to do things that he didn't want to do." Graham tied the knot in stunning nuptials
05:43 at Borthwick Castle in Edinburgh with his kids watching on. Graham, 62, met author and business
05:48 woman Garence Dorey Faux 18 months before their wedding, and the pair got engaged in August 2022.
05:54 Graham met his bride, author and founder of the skincare line Dorey,
05:58 Garence on the celebrity dating app Brea. Speaking of the engagement to British Faux,
06:02 Graham said, "I couldn't wait to get engaged. I'm amazed I waited as long as I did before asking her."
06:07 Sharing photos from his glamorous wedding, he wrote on Instagram,
06:11 "Earlier this year I was lucky enough to marry this wonderful woman @garencedoreyes.
06:15 We celebrated in Scotland. Yes, in a castle. Yes, with my wonderful children and yes,
06:20 with a giant sporan. My youngest daughter Hope made the place cards. My dear friend @paulcavanaff64
06:26 and @dudreo made sure everything ran smoothly and as you can see @duncanlecroix took dancing
06:31 to new levels. It was a wonderful, joy-filled day surrounded by family and friends."
06:35 The couple chose the stunning venue just outside Edinburgh after Graham eyed it up for another
06:40 celebration. He told British Vogue, "I had already discovered Borthwick before I met
06:44 Garence as a venue for my 60th birthday. Covid put a delay on that for two years,
06:49 so it felt right that we devote a whole week to not only our wedding but my long-delayed 60th."
06:54 Graham announced in 2023 that he was launching his own 7-year-old bourbon named The War Chief.
06:59 The drink is reportedly the first celebrity-backed bottled in bond bourbon. A US certification
07:05 introduced in the late 19th century that guarantees that the spirit was produced by a
07:09 single distillery, was aged for a minimum of 4 years in a bonded warehouse and was bottled at
07:14 100 proof, 50% ABV. Announcing the news, he said, "I've been working on this for a while. It's
07:20 something I am really, really passionate about. It's 7-year bottled in bond bourbon whiskey,
07:25 which very modestly has my name on it. It's a dream of mine from when I was very young in Scotland,
07:30 when I thought about the journey that I wanted to take in life, going to America,
07:33 and the opportunities that gave me. This is the distillation of that experience. I hope you enjoy
07:38 it, and I hope you enjoy what I've put into it, which is real passion and it's bloody delicious."
07:43 Slainte, he concluded.