20 Fascinating Facts From Behind The Scenes Of 'Outlander'

Heughan is a sci-fi nerd and was anxious to work with Ron Moore because he was such a big fan of his work on Battlestar Galactica and Star Trek. After the show got going, he would try to pick Moore's brain and discuss his worldview from a sci-fi perspective.   

If you want to learn about the 1700s Highlands, you’ve come to the right place. Prepare to learn all kinds of facts from Outlander but you also get to see action and plenty of steamy moments. You’re welcome. 

Source: E! Online

There’s definitely intimacy in the books and on screen, and Ron Moore has not been shy about bringing those scenes to the screen. For Claire and Jamie Fraser’s wedding night - he’s a virgin - Caitriona Balfe and Sam Heughan had to bare it all in front of a crew of around 16.

Heughan said that his modesty patch didn’t really help much and it was really tricky trying to capture the mood. But you'd never be able to tell it from watching the episode.  

Source: Professional Fangirls

As his last project, Battlestar Galactica ended, Outlander Executive Producer Ronald D. Moore’s wife, Terry Dresbach, and his producing partner, Maril Davis, convinced him to read the Outlander books by Diana Gabaldon. Moore read the first book and realized that he had his next project.   

As the show is almost entirely filmed on location, Scotland is seeing a huge boom in tourist bookings. Various Scottish tour companies have experienced a 500% increase in bookings for Outlander-themed tours.

Source: Tourism Intelligence Scotland 

During an Outlander Q&A panel, when asked which actor could drink the others under the table, everyone pointed at Caitriona Balfe. She and her castmates also take a nip or two of whiskey while on set to ease into those more difficult scenes. Balfe says, "We don't drink our way through our jobs but occasionally you just have to be careful when you to go those emotional places."  

Despite their frequent focus on relationships, the Outlander books are not romance novels and have been very hard to categorize. Outlander can best be described as sci-fi and historical fiction and are filled with facts about botany, medicine, agriculture, witchcraft, and a nation's struggle for independence… all told in a real world. Outlander fans will fling some Gaelic at you if you simply call the series romance. Besides, the showrunner is a sci-fi guy!   

Source: NPR

Two minor book characters become stars on Starz. Angus and Rupert have emerged as the comic relief on a show where things get hot and heavy and often just heavy.

Angus, Stephen Walters, and Rupert, Grant O’Rourke, have been given the spotlight and fans love it. Outlander author Diana Gabaldon approves. She loves Angus and Rupert too. We especially love the way Angus bid Claire farewell in the season 1 finale.   

Source: E! Online

Outlander author Diana Gabaldon had a cameo in the episode called “The Gathering." She played Iona MacTavish and exchanged some barbs with Mrs. Fitzgibbons about last year's fashions being worn today.  

Outlander Executive Producer Ronald D. Moore had a cameo in “The Gathering" as well, but had no lines.

The executive producer's wife, Terry Dresbach, is the lead costume designer on Outlander. The costumes are accurate in cut, color, region, the character’s station, and are the result of painstaking skill and labor by the costume team. To achieve the worn look, clothing is aged with cheese graters, burned with blow torches, and baked.

Dresbach has also worked on Carnivàle, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and The Shield.   

Sources: E! Online and New York Times

Outlander fans super loved Claire and Jamie’s costumes from “The Wedding” episode. The costumes even went on tour.

Source: Nerdist 

Heughan dropped his modesty patch in a urinal on a break during the filming of the famous wedding night scene. He said that the call for a replacement went out over the radio to the entire crew.

Source: 92Y

When Gabaldon first saw pictures of Sam Heughan, she thought he looked “grotesque.” She didn't think it was possible to find actors who look exactly like her book characters. She’s grown close with the actors, though, and appreciates their talents, saying what they do is “magic.”  

Also, after seeing “The Wedding,” she complimented Heughan by saying, “You’ve got a fine a**, man.”

Sources: Mashable and 92Y 

Like the Game of Thrones book series by George R.R. Martin, author Diana Gabaldon wrote the first Outlander book over 20 years ago. Gabaldon and Martin are friends. Gabaldon likes to talk friendly trash about how fast she writes compared to Martin.

Source: Zap2It

The intense scarring on his back - thanks, Black Jack - requires nearly three hours and three people.  

The removal takes 45 minutes but Heughan enjoys the process because it requires oils and lavender flannels.

Source: E! Online

Author Diana Gabaldon was watching an episode of Doctor Who when she got the idea for Outlander decades ago. Frazer Hines played Highlander Jamie McCrimmon on Doctor Who and made a cameo as the religious warden of Wentworth on Outlander. Gabaldon suggested that he play the part, knowing that fans would get a kick out of it. 

Source: Vulture

In the Outlander Season 1 finale, Tobias Menzies, Black Jack Randall, has a very tough scene with Sam Heughan who plays Jamie Fraser. Randall sexually assaults Fraser in a very excruciating-to-watch way. The scene is pivotal in the overall storyline and required a lot of energy and concentration from both actors.  

Between takes, Menzies and Heughan completely ignored each other.  

Source: Zap2It

The Scottish independence vote took place as Outlander filmed in Scotland. The vote was defeated by 55% but that number showed where popular opinion landed.  

Each Outlander actor who plays a Highlander has their own way of wearing a kilt. Sam Heughan wears his with a bit of skirt dangling down behind. Graham McTavish who plays Dougall wears his like a Highlander boss, pulled up over the shoulder.  

Steven Walters who plays Angus has a pauper’s knot clasped with a special rock from Scotland, where Outlander is filmed. Walters was told to never let the rock leave Scotland, so when he lost the rock… he lost it. Fortunately, it was recovered.

All of the actors wear the kilt in the traditional way, though: absolutely nothing underneath. 

Source: E! Online 

Tobias Menzies has said that he wouldn’t be caught dead wearing a kilt and that it is “a singularly ridiculous piece of clothing.” Sam Heughan has said that Menzies is the "absolute definition of a Sassenach" and it might be sacrilegious to wear a kilt. Heughan has now made it his life’s ambition to get Menzies in a kilt.