Here is NEW Interview with Jessica Reynolds from Variety
From Variety:
Characters on “Outlander” have died in all manner of ways, with some being utterly heartbreaking and some eagerly anticipated. Starz’s historical drama just offed a new but effective cast member with Jessica Reynolds’ Malva Christie being found dead by Claire (Caitríona Balfe) just outside her home on Fraser’s Ridge.
More after the jump!
The circumstances around Malva’s death are mysterious and sure to cast a dark cloud over the Ridge. In Sunday’s episode, Malva revealed she was pregnant, claiming Jamie (Sam Heughan) was the father. Despite Jamie and Claire’s attempts to dispel the scandalous allegation, a rebellion based on rumors begins to build around them at the Ridge.
In an attempt to clear her mind over Malva’s allegations and the Ridge turning against her family, Claire puts herself into a deep sleep with ether. Just before doing so, she takes a look outside and spots Malva walking toward the house. Claire locks the door to her surgery room before taking the ether, and is soon haunted by images of Malva saying she and Jamie are meant to be together. When Claire awakens, she finds Malva dead, her throat having been slit in the garden just outside her house.
Reynolds spoke with Variety to talk about her character’s shocking death and what she enjoyed about playing the enthusiastic and enigmatic Malva.
What was your reaction upon learning how Malva would die this season? Did you know based on the script, or were you aware of her death from the books?
When I first auditioned for Malva, I had these sides. I think when I first auditioned, it didn’t even say Sam and Claire, it had different names. I think they were trying to hide that it was “Outlander,” which was so funny. It was actually lovely, the pretext that they wrote about what Malva was trying to do in the scene. So I already knew this is a juicy character. One of the scenes was the accusation scene that we’ve just seen in Episode 6. So I knew that there was some dark stuff going to go down. It wasn’t until I got the part and I started reading the book that I realized, like, oh my God, these are the worst circumstances of a character of any person I’ve ever come across. I was just thinking I couldn’t imagine anything worse happening to me. It’s a Greek tragedy.
Malva’s time was short-lived on “Outlander” but she made an impact nonetheless. How do you feel about her overall story arc for this season?
Like you say, it was so short but so impactful. It gave me that perfect amount of time to have that arc. Within each episode, we’re peeling back a layer. When it starts, she’s inquisitive and she’s a big people pleaser. I think she’s trying to be as genuine as possible. You know, there’s a lot of debate whether everything that she does is calculative and manipulative. Personally, I don’t think so at all. I think she’s so young and she’s just doing what she thinks is best at the time. There’s actually like a specific point with Malva that she starts to really act out and starts to play out these horrible actions. It’s because of her circumstances. The way they wrote it, it was brilliant. It gave me such a clear structure of, okay, this is what she’s going through and hence she’s acting this way.
Leave a Reply