Here is a NEW Interview with Matt Roberts from The Hollywood Reporter
From THR:
Following a prolongued wait, Outlander finally delivered its big print shop reunion between Jamie (Sam Heughan) and Claire (Caitriona Balfe), delivering the most iconic moment from Diana Gabaldon’s series in grand fashion Sunday.
The Starz time-travel romance drama slowed from its usual breakneck pace to relish the moment its star-crossed lovers — separated after 20 years apart — finally reunited as the supersized episode brought the key scene from Voyager to life. From Jamie’s fainting at the sight of his long-lost wife, to meeting Mr. Willoughby (Gary Young) and Young Ian (John Bell) and the first time he slept with Claire after their long-awaited reunion “A. Malcolm” played out almost exactly as it does in the book.
More after the jump!
That isn’t to say that there weren’t some changes from the source material. Among them: when Jamie told Claire about his son Willie after she showed him photos of Brianna (Sophie Skelton). (That scene doesn’t play out until much later in the book.)
To hear Outlander executive producer “A. Malcolm” writer Matthew B. Roberts tell it, that deviation was the biggest challenge when it came to bringing the important moment to life.
“I wanted to stay as close to that median point of the source material as possible and not stray too far to either side of that,” Roberts tells The Hollywood Reporter. “I wanted to keep [things] as faithful to the source material as I could, from beginning to end, because of what has already come before this. We had debates in the writers’ room about what to keep and what to add and what adding something might do to the scene.”
Although he was reluctant to add in the Willie change, Roberts ultimately came around in the end. “It took me a while to figure out how to make that work in the scheme of the scene,” he says. “That was a tough add.”
But as excited as viewers were for the heavily promoted episode, Roberts says he was “torn” about it actually airing. “I’m both very excited that fans see it and I’m dreading that they see it,” Roberts says, lamenting the fact that the episode was “built up” too much for his liking. “The wedding episode wasn’t built up like this, it just kind of happened and even ‘Faith’ in season two wasn’t anticipated like this. For this one, there is quite a big build up and I don’t want people to be disappointed because of that.”
He’s quick to remind viewers who may feel disappointed in any changes that while they are making the best adaptation of the Outlander books as possible, they’re not doing a word-for-word re-creation of Gabaldon’s series. “I always like to say that the book is the parent and the television show is the child,” he says. “We’re doing an adaptation with the same DNA but it’s a different, living, breathing creature.”
Below, Roberts talks with THR about what went into the making the most iconic episode of the series, why he waited three years to write “A. Malcolm” and more.
Finn Den Hertog played Willie in S1, not Jamie’s son Willie!
The error was made by THR. It’s their article.
Loved the interview. I read the book “Voyager” as well – loved it. Watched Episode 6 and loved it as well and thoroughly understand some of the changes done. I loved the scene were young Ian came upon Claire – had a chuckle with that one. I think that the hype about Episode 6 is that we all were thrilled to have Jamie and Claire together again. I loved the way they put Episode 6 together – Thank you for all your hard work. I’ll be rewatching Episode 6 over and over – Feel proud of a job well done.