Here is a NEW Interview with Sophie Skelton from Backstage
More from Backstage:
From appearances in Foyle’s War and Waterloo Road to capturing the world’s attention as Brianna in hit show Outlander, Sophie Skelton has always brought poise and understatement. This year she’s fought off zombies in Day of the Dead: Bloodline, starred alongside Nicolas Cage in 211 and survived a Scottish winter for the buzzy Starz series. Ahead of Series 4 dropping next month, we caught up with Sophie to find out about starring in the time-travelling drama and why patience is a virtue.
More after the jump!
What has your latest role added to your acting skills?
With Outlander it’s full-on: filming is day in, day out for months on end. It’s fast-paced, too – we might get edits and rewrites very late, sometimes the night before even the morning of a shoot. Or I might only have a couple of days between filming blocks of episodes and be learning the next two episodes without a filming schedule in place. So, there’ve been so many logistical challenges to overcome and learn about – all the stuff that goes around the job of acting.
Day of the Dead was my first leading role in a feature film and I learnt to deal with the pressure of carrying that on your shoulders. It was also an American set, where things run differently. Firstly, your director isn’t the first port of call for questions because the producer is always on set. They’re a lot more hands-on than on British TV.
How do you stop from burning out?
Lots of coffee! And the adrenaline of work. I feel just how tired I really am when the project is done. During filming, you just have to get up and be at work at whatever time. There isn’t any other option.
Filming Season 4 of Outlander, we had such ups and downs with the weather. This year was the coldest winter in Scotland for a long time and one of the hottest summers – so we were really tested in terms of filming conditions. Where Day of the Dead was in a studio, Outlander shoots outside – right in the landscape. So, you need to learn how not to let the weather affect you.
I really enjoyed the interview with Sophie – looking forward to her “Brianna” – in Season 4 – and that is this Sunday!