Here is a NEW Interview with Sophie Skelton from Vanity Fair
From Vanity Fair:
A tremendous amount happened in this week’s episode of Outlander. Roger and Brianna were “handfasted” (a.k.a. married-ish) and consummated their relationship, Jamie and Claire performed a tense and daring bit of subterfuge in order to save Murtagh, all while George and Martha Washington made a cameo appearance. But these plot points feel especially “apart from that, Mrs Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?” in light of the latest sexual assault perpetrated on a member of the unlucky Fraser family. Many book readers will have been bracing themselves for the moment when Sophie Skelton’s Brianna met Ed Speleers’ Stephen Bonnet with devastating results. Skelton spoke with Vanity Fair not only about how the show’s version of events diverged from the novels but, with some regret, about the more explicit footage she filmed that wound up on the cutting room floor.
More after the jump!
Though sexual assault is a rather common occurrence in Diana Gabaldon’s novels, members of the media have been asking Outlander producers and writers for some time now how they planned to handle the attack on Brianna in light of recent heightened sensitivities around both sexual assault/misconduct in the real world and the way such acts are portrayed in the media. Would Brianna’s rape be cut altogether in the glare of the Time’s Up movement? Nope! There are future plot-based reasons why the Outlander writers felt this particular assault was impossible to avoid, but executive producer Maril Davis also told The Hollywood Reporter way back in March that her team was “sensitive to what’s going on in this time right now [and] also filming something that’s a historical piece. So we’re trying to do that with both hats on.”
In order to wear both hats, Davis and her writers took another major departure from the books—one that resulted in a thoughtful and shockingly relevant commentary on the current climate of sexual assault given that the episode itself is set in the 18th century. Unlike in the book, where every gruesome aspect of Brianna’s assault is described in vivid detail, the Starz adaptation chose to place the bulk of the confrontation behind closed doors allowing the camera to linger on the impassive, uncomfortable, and smirking faces of the men and women who turned a blind eye to Brianna’s distress.
It wasn’t an easy decision. Skelton said she filmed multiple versions including one where the camera sticks with Brianna throughout her ordeal. After much “debate,” the footage of Brianna’s full attack was cut. For her part, Skelton says she understands that the writers were “trying to be sensitive to the time period that we are in now” but that from an actor’s point of view she thinks it’s a “shame not to see the whole thing” because it’s important for audiences “to witness what Brianna went through.”
I’m glad they didn’t show Brianna’s ordeal with Bonnet in detail – I know I couldn’t have watched it – so horrifying