Outlander notes: Sam Heughan, more Rollo, & another filming reminder
Let’s kick things off here with a discussion about filming since it seems as though work was done for the series almost all around the clock over the past several days. We’ve heard from Caitriona Balfe and Sophie Skelton both that there were night shoots done during the week, but then you’ve also got the new Instagram video featuring Sam Heughan and Balfe cheering on the Glasgow Warriors — one that we clearly shot in the day. Ironically, Sam’s video (despite it being completely unrelated to Outlander in terms of its messaging) actually gives you a larger sense of what was happening in filming on that day than many other teases we’ve seen. After all, we don’t think everyone behind Sam and Caitriona was there solely for the purpose of cheering on the Warriors!
We’re not even going to sit here and pretend that we know all that much about rugby (though we have admittedly attended a couple of games in Texas years ago) — we’re just assuming that Sam’s excitement is somewhat equal to our enthusiasm for our beloved Toronto Raptors being in the NBA Finals. If you’re the Warriors, isn’t it pretty great to have Sam and the Outlander team as some of your biggest cheerleaders? We definitely know that they are great ambassadors in terms of bringing attention to all things Scotland.
A new featurette … all about Rollo!
As you may very well know by now, the season 4 DVD/Blu-Ray is coming out in just a couple of days, and the latest clip below (via PopSugar) gives you a good sense of the process that the producers of the show used in order to cast and train Rollo. In it, executive producer Matthew B. Roberts and Maril Davis detail the work that they did in order to train the right dog for the part from an early age. There’s also the discussion of changing the character of Rollo somewhat to meet their dog’s personality; for example, it’s hard to make a canine overly ferocious on-screen when they are a total sweetheart in real life.
John Bell also discusses here his own personal relationship with Rollo — the two have bonded over time, which is hugely important given how much they’ve worked in tandem … and probably how much they will continue to do so. Given that Young Ian does still have a role to play in Outlander moving forward, we don’t interpret his sacrifice in “Man of Worth” as Ian vanishing from the series forever.
Photo: Starz