Here is a NEW Interview with Maril Davis from PopSugar
From PopSugar:
In the latest Outlander episode, the show introduces a divisive character in Mr. Willoughby (real name Yi Tien Cho), a Chinese man who stows away on a boat and ends up in Scotland. When he arrives, he is nearly dead from starvation and doesn’t speak the language, but Jamie, being the caring man that he is, helps Mr. Willoughby by feeding and clothing him and helping him be slightly more palatable to the locals by changing his name. It seems Yi Tien Cho sounds very much like a coarse Gaelic word, so Jamie suggests he go by Mr. Willoughby instead.
More after the jump!
As Voyager, the book on which season three is based, moves forward, Mr. Willoughby is shown to have a great knowledge of many Chinese practices and customs: calligraphy, pelican training, acupuncture, and acrobatics. He also is a bit of a drunk and has a foot fetish.
Over the years, book readers have had numerous discussions online about how Mr. Willoughby seems to be an amalgamation of various Chinese stereotypes and basically serves two purposes: to cause trouble for Jamie and to cure Jamie’s seasickness with his acupuncture. Suffice it to say that Mr. Willoughby is not one of the more fleshed-out or three-dimensional characters in the books, though his antics (and acupuncture) do play a key role in the plot of Voyager from here on out.
He is obviously a tricky situation for the show’s writers. Executive producer Maril Davis told me at the 2017 Summer TCA press tour that they did consider omitting Mr. Willoughby altogether.
“There was a ton of discussion about Mr. Willoughby, because I love Mr. Willoughby, but I totally recognize that there is some very offensive stuff in the books,” Davis said. “We talked so often about how are we going to deal with this and still be able to include him? Because it felt like a loss not to.”
Mr. Willoughby was a very complicated man. Living in a strange country as he did, among people that he didn’t understand and who didn’t understand him, takes a lot of courage, street smarts and resourcefulness. He was also a friend to Claire – came to her rescue a little later.