Sam Heughan felt 'betrayed' by Outlander team over rape scene
Outlander actor Sam Heughan has admitted he felt 'betrayed' by the creative team working on the show, over a specific scene in season one.
Heughan, 42, plays Jamie Fraser in the drama series, which began in 2014 and has so far been running for six seasons.
The drama focuses on Claire Randall (Caitríona Balfe), a combat nurse living in England in 1945, who ends up mysteriously travelling back in time to the year 1743.
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There she meets Scottish highlander, Jamie, with the series focusing on their relationship, and the many ups and downs they encounter while trying to navigate their particularly unusual circumstances.
In the first season of the show, Jamie is captured by his nemesis Black Jack Randall (Tobias Menzies). During his kidnap, he is sexually assaulted by Randall in an English prison.
Speaking about the rape scene in new memoir Waypoints: My Scottish Journey, Heughan explains how he felt 'betrayed' after a shot of his penis was initially included in the cut.
“A clause in my contract required me to film nude scenes,” he wrote.
“Even so, this wasn’t a moment where I felt that being naked would add to the horror of what Jamie undergoes in that castle dungeon as a form of punishment, subjugation and humiliation.
“I pushed back, reasoning that nudity sexualised a horrific experience for my character, and it sparked quite a debate.
“Creative conversations are a feature of all productions, good art is made by questioning the truth and we all want to get it right.”
The actor explained that together with the team, they decided that Jamie would only be shown naked 'sprawled on the dungeon stones' in the aftermath of the rape.
However, eventually the nude shots were removed altogether.
Heughan went on to explain that the scenes were 'harrowing', adding: “Those closing scenes were incredibility challenging to film, even though, thankfully the nude shots ended on the cutting room floor. It was a harrowing, exhausting experience."
He also believes it would have been 'handled differently' had the filming taken place today and not eight years ago.
“Times have changed. The c**k shot was unnecessary and did betray my trust in the creative team a bit.
"We don’t need to see the horror to imagine what the characters go through. Imagination is way more powerful.”
Waypoints: My Scottish Journey is out now. LADbible has reached out to Starz for comment.
Topics: TV and Film
Lucy Devine