Outlander actor Sam Heughan has played Jamie Fraser for a decade but he has admitted he still doesn’t know what his character’s accent is despite his strong Scottish twang
Outlander’s Sam Heughan has made a surprising confession about his character Jamie Fraser after a decade of playing the hunky Highlander.
The Scottish actor, who has been portraying Jamie Fraser for ten years, has revealed he’s uncertain about a particular aspect of his character.
When Claire Randall (played by Caitriona Balfe) first encountered the robust Jacobite warrior in season one, he had a pronounced Highlander accent.
Fans have expressed their astonishment upon hearing Heughan’s actual voice, as the actor hails from New Galloway and later moved to Edinburgh when he was 12.
In the debut season of the popular Starz show, Heughan had to master several lines in Gaelic, but over time, his accent has noticeably evolved.
During a conversation with Josh Horowitz celebrating Outlander’s 10th anniversary, Sam reminisced: “I had to speak pages of Gaelic in there. I guess there was a change of accent.”
He then confessed: “I don’t really know what Jamie’s accent is anymore… It’s Jamie accent!”
While Jamie’s current accent remains more pronounced than Sam’s real one, it has significantly altered throughout seven seasons as the Frasers relocated from Scotland to North Carolina.
Caitriona, an Irish actress, also underwent a dramatic change in her speaking voice for the series, adopting a Southern English accent for her character Claire.
Acknowledging their shared experience, Sam said to Caitriona: “But you were doing an accent as well,” adding, “We definitely put in a lot of work in the beginning.
“And it’s cool now, after years of playing these characters, I’m not saying you don’t have to put any effort but it’s already there.
“You’ve done the work so it’s lovely just to be able to drop into the characters again.”
Despite extensive training to perfect their characters’ accents, Caitriona wasn’t entirely satisfied when she revisited a clip from an early episode.
“In listening to that I’m like, ‘Oh, there’s still a little hint sometimes of Irish there as Claire’…” she remarked.
However, Sam reassured her: “That’s not true! Maybe she’d been to Ireland on her holidays.”
Claire and Jamie have weathered many storms together but will confront fresh obstacles in the upcoming episodes after finally returning to Scotland.
The second half of season seven is set to resume their adventures after more than a year’s hiatus, with the cast currently filming the eighth and final series.
Outlander season 7, part 2 premieres Sunday, November 22 on Starz.