Sam Heughan isn’t the only one who gets to perform all the cool stunts.
At the end of Sunday’s episode of Outlander, “Heaven and Earth,” the script called for Claire (Caitriona Balfe) to quite literally take a leap of faith off of the Porpoise to help Jamie out of another jam. That meant a night of airborne action — and plenty of fun — on the show’s South Africa set last March.
“I did some rehearsals when we got there,” Balfe recalls to EW. “I was jumping off the side [of the ship] onto a cherry picker with a crash mat about 15 to 20 feet down. I was doing my jumps and climbing back up. It was really fun. It’s not an insignificant jump and you’re landing on a cherry picker, which is up in the air. They always want to make sure that everything’s done safely so I won’t break a leg and shut down production.”
Before making the jump, Balfe uttered Claire’s signature line of dialogue, “Jesus H. Roosevelt Christ.” It’s an expletive that comes in handy during moments of anxiety or frustration, but it’s not always so easy to deliver.
“It’s a funny one because when you read it in the book, you go through it fast in your head, but it’s a quite a mouthful to get out in moments of frustration when we would normally say ‘s—’ or ‘Christ,’” Balfe says. “In season 1 we had a lot more of them. The writers realized its not as succinct or doesn’t fit in as well as maybe when you read it in your mind. But it’s such a classic line from the books that we do try to find places for it. It would be a shame to lose it completely. We definitely don’t have a quota, but we try to retain fan favorite things as much as we can.”
Though Claire and Jamie make landfall in episode 11, they won’t stay safe or, ahem, dry for long.
“This is not a Caribbean vacation for Jamie and Claire,” teases executive producer Matthew B. Roberts. “There are no umbrella drinks going on here. There is an umbrella, but it has nothing to do with a drink. It is rough going for both of them.” [Source]
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