Sam Heughan interview with ELLE Canada
From ELLE Canada
For all you Heughlians out there wondering: Yes, your Scottish mega-crush really is as nice in real life as you all hope he would be. If you ever get the chance to sit down for a chat with the 35 year-old actor like I did (in a fancy Toronto hotel room while he was in town to talk aboutOutlander, and no, I have no spoilers), there’s a good chance he’ll compliment you at least twice before you sit down, and let his herbal tea get ice cold while he indulges your need to tell everyone you’ve met that you’re currently half-way through a 100 day no sugar challenge (more on that later).
And since we’re deep in the midst of #droughtlander, I can think of no better way to count down the months until the hit Starz series (about a time travelling Englishwoman and the handsome, chivalrous Scot she falls in love with when she falls into the 18th century), than to share this conversation with you, dedicated Heughlians.
Slainte mhath!
Read the interview after the jump
SL: Are you into healthy eating?
SH: Yes, it offsets the alcohol. [Laughs] No, I do like to eat healthily. I think it’s just the way I was brought up. I just don’t ever crave bad food as such…
SL: Bad food being…?
SH: Burgers and fries and such. I love a burger and fries but it’s not what I crave. I love to eat healthily.
SL: I’m actually in the middle of doing a ridiculous 100 day no sugar challenge.
SH: So that involves what?
SL: No refined sugars.
SH: See, I don’t think I eat any of those.
SL: So you don’t like chocolate?
SH: Not really. But I suppose there is sugar in other stuff. I eat paleo for much of the shoot. And I really enjoyed it. I’ve gotten a bit lax recently because I’ve been on a bit of break.
SL: What is your natural hair colour?
SH: It’s kind of this, dark blonde.
SL: So you’re not a redhead like Jamie? [The character Heughan plays in Outlander]
SH: No, although my beard seems to be a little ginger. A lot of my family are redheads, but I’m a dark blonde. So for the show it gets dyed on a monthly basis.
SL: What was it like seeing yourself as a redhead for the first time?
SH: It was kind of crazy. We went through a long, long process of getting it done. It got dyed seven times in the first two weeks trying to find the right colour red. It had a lot to do with the lenses we’re using and then the exposure and the grading of the film and it’s all very confusing but basically it means that they had to counteract the grading of the film to make it a certain colour but it was quite a long process. It was quite a special moment. And that is part of finding the character when you see yourself and you go ‘Oh, yes that’s what he looks like!’
SL: Did you behave differently as a redhead?
SH: I actually do think…. I didn’t behave differently but I think people react differently to you. Especially being a blonde…I recently had a beard or a lot of facial hair more than I normally have, and again people are very different to how you are.
SL: We were chatting about this in the office earlier, and one of the women said that when she dyed her hair red, the kind of guys who would approach her were very different than when she was a brunette. Did you experience that?
SH: Wow. No, no men really hit on me.
SL: I find that hard to believe.
SH: Well, maybe one or two. No…I can’t say. I don’t know. Certainly I like a redhead as much as I like a blonde or a brunette, in fact.
SL: I know a lot of red headed people in general complain about being stigmatized unfairly for their hair colour.
SH: But Jamie’s not really what we call in Scotland a “ginger mullet”. He’s not that very pale skinned, afraid of the sun – he’s quite swarthy and he’s described by Diana [Gabaldon, author of the novel the TV show is based on] as more like “a deer’s pelt” which if you look at is a lot of colours. It’s interesting—red hair changes all the time.
SL: I’ve read that you had a fairly interesting childhood.
SH: I did grow up in a very small town and I only had a couple of people in my year at school. There were a lot of kids to play with, maybe not the same age but there was always someone around. But I did spend a lot of time outside pretending to be various characters from history with swords running through the fields and attacking people. I think I was very fortunate having that kind of upbringing and maybe that’s where this passion to act came from.
You can read the rest of the interview here
Reblogged this on Ana Fraser Lallybroch Blog.
That was a great interview….good to hear some different questions 😃
I admire Sam’s passion for his craft. Passion is what makes Jamie authentic and totally believable.
Pinned onto Outlander the Series.