Exclusive: Sophie Skelton on Season 5 of ‘Outlander’ and What You Didn’t See in the Finale
Spoiler Warning: This article contains spoilers for Outlander’s Season 5 Finale, Episode 12: “Never My Love.”
Outlander’s Sophie Skelton sat down with SheKnows to discuss the show’s fifth season in an exclusive two-part interview. Skelton has played Brianna Fraser McKenzie, the daughter of Claire (Caitriona Balfe) and Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan) on the hit Starz show for four years. The fifth season finale aired Sunday night.
Skelton talked to us about all things Outlander — from the very beginning, her favorite scenes in the series, why there aren’t more scenes with Brianna, Claire, and Jamie (yes, like fans, Skelton wants more too!), and how she’s spending quarantine and preparing for “Droughtlander,” a term fans coined to refer to the time when the show isn’t on air. (Due to Coronavirus, Outlander may not return for Season 6 for more than a year.) Read on for the highlights below — and of course, watch the video!
Marry, Quarantine, Socially Distance
In a round of “Marry, Quarantine, Socially Distance,” Sophie tells us who of her co-stars — including John Bell, Caitriona Balfe, Sam Heughan, Lauren Lyle, Cesar Domboy, and Richard Rankin — she would like to quarantine with and who she’d protect by socially distancing from them. Spoiler alert: She wasn’t very good at this game and pretty much wants to marry all her co-stars. Big Love,Outlander style?
Season 1
Skelton told us she’s watched Season 1 of Outlander so many times that she probably can’t ever watch it again. She wanted to get Claire and Jamie’s mannerisms down for Brianna. And as far as her favorite episode: It wasn’t the iconic wedding episode, because well, her future co-stars spent most of that episode with limited clothing. Her favorite episode centered around scenes between Balfe and Tobias Menzie’s “Blackjack Randall.”
When she first started Outlander, who was she most intimidated to meet? Not Balfe, who she met at her screen test. That trip was filled with mishaps, like her Uber crashing, so meeting Balfe was the one good thing from the trip. She was most intimidated by Heughan, who she didn’t have a scene with for two years!
The producers…
Balfe and Heughan became producers on the show this year, and Skelton says, “They are the two that held up the show from the beginning.” Skelton says Balfe is an excellent producer, because she fights for things in scripts that improves the whole story, not just her own character. Having Balfe advocating behind the scenes has been an “absolute godsend.” Even though they’re producers, she says they’re still just as goofy on set as they’ve ever been.
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Outlander, the musical
After singing for the first time on the show, Skelton jokes about who in the cast might participate in an Outlander musical, but then says it would be Heughan’s worst nightmare. She lets us in on who breaks the most in scenes. Spoiler: It’s her parent-producers, Balfe and Heughan. In fact, a take where Balfe was laughing, actually made it in a recent episode.
Roger
As for who she’d want Brianna to hook up with besides Roger, she admits fans seem to love Brianna and Lord John Grey (David Berry). And the rumor that he wrapped his stint on Outlander? She reminds us that Menzies wrapped four times before he left the series.
When asked if she can do a Scottish accent like her co-stars Rankin (Roger) and Heughan, she says she believes she can, but Rankin does not. She attempts to impersonate her on-screen dad, but says they would mock her. And what does Skelton think about Roger? “Most of the time, I just think Roger’s an absolute moron,” she jokes. She laughs that she and Rankin disagree about whose character is right. (Note: Brianna is right, all the time).
What we didn’t see in the finale
News alert: Skelton revealed that there was a big announcement Bree makes in the finale episode that was cut from the script.
As for the finale, Skelton says the table read was very intense, because of how brutal the material was. Though she loves how close Brianna and Claire have become this season, she admits that she and Rankin questioned Roger and Brianna going back to the future, and jokes that Jemmy doesn’t even have a birth certificate and they could be going back to World War III.
And how does Skelton think Covid-19 is going to affect the Outlander set when they return? She heard that kissing scenes on other shows might be faked, and laughed that that wouldn’t fly on Outlander. “Claire and Jamie from six feet apart… it’s just not going to happen.”
Stay tuned for part two where Skelton breaks down the Season 5 Outlander finale, “Never My Love.”
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