Here is a NEW Interview with Matt Roberts, Sam Heughan and Caitriona Balfe from British Heritage
From British Heritage:
In Scotland, the landscape has changed,” says Sam Heughan. He’s referring to April of 1746: The Jacobite Rising has been ground to a bloody battlefield, and things are about to get even more difficult for the Highlanders and their culture. It’s from that point that the new season of the historical-fiction phenomenon unfolds—against a very harsh period of Scottish history.
The show’s time-traveling lovers, Claire and Jamie, are separated across centuries at the start of the third season. When they’re finally reunited, they’re different people, in a very different era: Scotland after Culloden. As always with Outlander, it’s a time and place that’s been thoroughly researched, “because history is one of the best tools for a fiction writer,” says writer, director and executive producer Matthew B. Roberts.
More after the jump!
British Heritage Travel: This new season opens with the Battle of Culloden. How did you re-create this bloody, chaotic melee?
Sam Heughan: It was the first thing we shot for Season Three. It’s a part of our history, Scottish history, and we were all excited to shoot those scenes since we’ve been talking about it for two seasons—not only the actors, but the extras and the crew. It’s actually not described in the book; Jamie just wakes up on the battlefield. We had a couple of weeks of rehearsals because it had quite a few different elements to it—different fights.
Matthew B. Roberts: We took about 200 extras, supporting artists, and we put them through a boot camp. We trained them with muskets and swords and axes, and all the weapons they would be using. We took them through charges and got them proficient prior to shooting. The lovely thing about period battles is everybody gets filthy dirty and they all have beards. Recognizing people is very difficult.
BHT: Claire even appears in the aftermath— as a vision to a wounded Jamie as he lies among the dead.
Caitriona Balfe: That was a strange day. It was one of my first weeks going back, and the boys had all been filming these battle scenes. It was nighttime and freezing and those poor extras were just on these really thin mats.
One take—it was quite funny—I was walking through and someone had obviously fallen asleep and all I could hear was the loudest snoring coming from one of them. You’re trying to be all ethereal and make this moment as magical as possible, and then all you can hear is snoring. But it was really quite eerie to see all those bodies just strewn across a moor.
BHT: The aftermath of the battle, the way the Jacobites were treated by Cumberland’s army, is just brutal in the show.
Roberts: Initially after the battle, Cumberland, who is the King’s son, was called the Butcher because there was no quarter given immediately after. They went in and they killed. After, they imprisoned Jacobites—many in what they would call open prisons. In our portrayal, it’s more of a closed prison. We played it slightly in a different context, where it’s more closed; Jamie has to escape
Read the rest of the interview here
After that interview – Season 3 definitely should get every award out there. I love the different perspectives the actors have of the show.