Outlander notes: Sam Heughan’s birthday; Laura Donnelly’s nomination
Let’s start with the big news from Sam Heughan — today’s his birthday! The actor behind the iconic Jamie Fraser is now 39, and he’s getting to celebrate with well … presumably more work on season 5. Such is the brakes sometimes where surprisingly, Sam Heughan’s birthday has yet to become a national holiday where everyone gets the day off to raise a glass of whiskey in his honor. Production is in high gear now on season 5, as we’re fairly early on within the fourth week of production. Last week, the cast had to do a lot of extensive work on night shoots, which of course means long hours and probably extensive amounts of caffeine for those who need it in order to stay awake – something we can relate to very well over here since it’s part of the CarterMatt life blood.
Sam has already received a birthday message from Caitriona Balfe over on her Instagram, and of course, we have the birthday greeting like no other courtesy of one Steven Cree, alongside a message from show executive producer Maril Davis. Hopefully, everyone on set will have a chance to give Sam a proper birthday — the man deserves a cake! If he’s not filming today, we of course, imagine that something will be coming his way in due time.
Tremendous news for Laura Donnelly
We’ve known that her work in The Ferryman has been spectacular for some time, but now she’s getting even more recognition for it! This week, Donnelly (who you otherwise know as Jenny) was nominated for a Tony Award in the category of Best Actress in a Leading Role in a Play, and some of the other nominees are quite impressive as well — think along the lines of Annette Bening, Elaine May, Laurie Metcalf, and others. It’s a real who’s who of talent and a list Laura certainly has to feel proud to be part of.
In general, can we say that April is one of the biggest months of her career? In addition to getting this nomination, Donnelly also recently was announced as a lead for HBO’s upcoming series The Nevers, a show that’s probably still some ways out from airing, but that isn’t stopping us from being excited over it. There’s still a chance that we could see more of her as Jenny down the line, but we don’t think that there’s any real hurry to worry about that for a while. The character has a larger role if the show continues forward into some of the later books within the Diana Gabaldon series, but we aren’t there right now.
Photo: Starz