Here’s a new interview of Sam Heughan with E! Online

From E! Online:

I chatted with Sam Heughan this morning about his stunning portrayal of Jamie Fraser in season one, and the much-talked-about sexual assault and recovery scenes in last Saturday’s season one finale.

Heughan’s brave and soulful work has earned him Emmy Award buzz, and rightfully so. The dark, emotional depths he had to go to are unparalleled by any other leading man this TV season. His performance elicited overwhelmingly intense emotion among viewers—who, one week later, probably still have no tears left to give.

Here, Sam talks about the response to Outlander‘s greatest risk yet, what has surprised him, and what’s ahead for Jamie and Claire in season two. (More to come next week.)

Read the interview after the jump!

–

Hi, Sam. Good…morning?
We’re in the afternoon here. What time is it there?

It’s 7:30 a.m. I figure we’re talking so early so that we can’t get into any trouble drinking whisky.
Unless you are still going from last night. Do you never sleep then?

Well, my friend, first of all, I have to say, congratulations. I’m sure you had some anxiety going into those episodes and how it was going to be received and everyone has been so positive. You must be so floored.
Honestly, I just have to say thank you, to the fans, and to you. The reaction has been pretty positive and yeah, I was nervous about what people would think about it. We knew even the fans who read the story, just in seeing it, that’s different than reading it. I knew the fans would be shocked. There’s a sense of relief, too, in people knowing what we’re talking about when we’re talking about the end of the season, and where they are in their relationship and where they’re going. So it feels like we’re all on the same playing field again, which is nice.

Going into Outlander‘s finale with the sexual assault, there was a lot of talk about the Game of Thrones rape and people were upset about that. But the responses could not have been more different. But how did you expect it to be received and are you surprised?
Yeah, I saw that episode last week. I had obviously heard that it had happened, but I mean, they did it really well. You know, just playing off someone’s face, it’s all about what do you show and what do you not show, and what’s more powerful: The imagination or actually seeing it. But it’s certainly, on our show, it’s crucial to the characters and the relationships and that you know exactly what we’ve gone through. And yeah, I was really shocked by the response. I knew we’d done some really intense work and I was really proud of it, but I didn’t know what people  would make of it. I know that a lot of it comes down to the director Anna and Ron editing as well. We did go farther in some places and there was pullback in some places, but I think we really found that fine line. It’s challenging viewing, but I think that’s sort of what viewers want these days.

Read the entire interview here at the source