Starz’s Outlander star Caitriona Balfe and executive producer Maril Davis took part in the “Women of Outlander” panel at the 2023 ATX TV Festival in support of show’s upcoming seventh season. The panel took place on World Outlander Day and began with a discussion of their 10 years of shared history working on Outlander.
Maril Davis credits Caitriona Balfe with having the best laugh in the industry. “She’s so smart and collaborative and just so much fun and so talented. We were just talking last night, and I was just saying this is such a tour de force this season for her…and they all are, but I mean, it’s just she really goes on a journey,” said Davis.
Balfe and Davis have become really good friends over the seasons, and Balfe views Davis as her go-to sounding board. “I was so green and I was so inexperienced, and she was such an ally and such a support in the very beginning. We used to go running together. We thought we were running about 5K until someone told us it was about two,” recalled Balfe, laughing.
Balfe added: “I think over the years, Maril’s been very encouraging about me progressing. As she said, we’re both really passionate and it’s so lovely to be able to have somebody where you can go toe-to-toe – we don’t always agree – but at the end of the day, we know that we’ve got the show’s best interest at heart, and we also are friends.”
Balfe’s praise continued, with the Screen Actors Guild Awards nominee describing Davis as super smart, amazing at what she does, and a really great person to have on the show. And they’ve reached the point where they’re able to compromise on differences when they arise.
“I think in a creative process, it’s all subjective. My feeling about why Claire might do something or what her feelings about something is, feel very personal to me. But somebody else might have another understanding of why that might be,” said Balfe. “And Maril, by the way, is like the oracle of everything that’s going on in the series. She’s lived with the series a lot longer than the rest of us. She knows the books in and out; she knows what’s happening forward, whereas we kind of all keep in pace with what we’re doing on the show.”
Outlander‘s expanding the number of women directors involved in the series, with women at the helm of the first six episodes.
“We’ve always had a male showrunner, but we’ve always been very female dominated in a lot of ways,” said Davis. “We had a lot of women in the writers room always. So, we’re not lacking with women. I still would like to see more women on the crew.“
“But I think this season is probably the season we’ve had the most women in the crew. We have three women – they’re young, they’re starting out – but in the camera department, which is a first,” added Balfe. “It’s changing, but this doesn’t happen overnight.”
Caitriona Balfe officially announced she’ll be directing a full episode in season eight.
“Very excited…very terrified! In prep, I’ve been doing a little bit of second unit stuff already. I’ve done some stuff in the last few months which has been so fun,” revealed Balfe. “I’ve directed our lovely Sophie [Skelton] which was amazing. Actually, that was just incredible. It’s so lovely because when you have a really strong relationship with somebody and then you get to work with them in this other way…and everybody has been so supportive. All of our crew, Maril, Matt – and everybody. It’s just been such a lovely place to kind of get to do this, and that’s why I wanted to do it here because I know that this is like safe space.”
Balfe’s also directed Charles [Vandervaart] and Izzy [Meikle-Small], as well as herself, but hasn’t directed Sam Heughan yet.
And speaking of Sam Heughan, Davis recalled talking to Ronald D. Moore and telling him they needed to hit the pairing of Jamie and Claire exactly right or else they shouldn’t make the show. Heughan was cast first and then, finally, they found their Claire after watching Balfe’s tape.
“I think when we saw them together in Los Angeles…I remember this like it was yesterday…that that chemistry was there,” said Davis. “That friendship and that chemistry has always been so evident. They just work so well together. You see it on the screen and in real life, and that relationship…we’ve always hoped that they would stay that way and they would continue that friendship. And it has, and it’s grown.”
Davis continued: “I have so much respect for the two of them that they have been able to have this friendship.”
Balfe confirmed that they’ve never had a falling out.
“We’ve definitely irked each other but I think it was a very conscious decision in the beginning. I think I’ve spoken about this before – getting our hair ruined for about the fifth time down in London before we started filming. He and I went for a walk in Hyde Park. We were just talking and we were like, ‘Look, don’t know what this is going to be but we’re going to be the only two who know what it’s going to be like in this. So, we have to have each other’s backs.’
And we did. We made that decision and it’s always been that way. As the years have gone on, our lives have become very different. Your lives become much more complicated. In the beginning, Sam and I were very similar in our personalities anyway. We like to be very prepared and focused but then we like to have a lot of fun. We like to not take ourselves too seriously even though we take the work seriously.
But as our lives have gotten more complicated and busy, we may not see each other as much as we used to, but that core and that friendship and that base that we have has never changed.”
As for season seven, Balfe says we’ll pick up the story with Jamie and Claire as a couple in a very good place.
“I think what we saw last season was sort of Claire coming apart, right? And part of that was that she wasn’t very good at sharing things and asking for help. She kept her emotional problems from Jamie. She wasn’t good at sharing. And I think that once we’ve seen the follow on from that, they’re in a really good place. They talk to each other a lot more. I think the partnership is really strong in this season.
I think that there’s a lot of things that happen – there’s a lot of bad things that happen, there’s some great things that happen – but through it all, they are really strong. You know, they will always have a row here or there, but I think it’s really nice.
I think Jamie as a character is incredibly wizened this season too. He has a lot on his shoulders, but there’s just a maturity to both of them, I think, which is really quite beautiful. And to see how they support each other… But that passion never goes away,” said Balfe.
Other Interesting Tidbits from the ATX TV Festival “Women of Outlander” Panel:
- Caitriona Balfe and Maril Davis are both Team Adso rather than Team Rollo, with Davis hedging a bit and adding that she loves them both. There are hundreds of outtakes of Rollo going the wrong direction while Adso just hangs out. “He’s a cat. He doesn’t give a sh*t either. But he gives a sh*t in a very sedentary way,” said Balfe.
- Caitriona Balfe and Sam Heughan attend the production meetings as executive producers and are really invested in the process. Balfe said she loves being able to see how the cake gets made.
- Season seven marks Caitriona Balfe’s first season as a mom in real life, and she was able to get the production to agree to a four-day workweek. Plus, they do continuous days of shooting and eat on the go, instead of taking lunch, which allows everyone to get home to their families a little earlier.
- After giving a huge shoutout to the writers since everything starts with the written word, Maril Davis confirmed the strike will impact season eight if it continues for a while. “We will have to push, probably,” said Davis.
- Caitriona Balfe admitted she’s the first to break character during scenes. “Sam Heughan knows how to set me off and yet he can keep the straightest face,” revealed Balfe.
- Maril Davis’ favorite moments from the series are the times when Jamie and Claire are having quiet moments and just talking and laughing.
- Asked what relationship advice she’d give Jamie and Claire, Balfe replied, “Maybe they just need to take a couple of breaths before they get angry.”
- Maril Davis confirmed Jamie and Claire will be present when Brianna gives birth.
- Diana Gabaldon told Sam Heughan and Maril Davis the ending of the story, but not Caitriona Balfe. Balfe claims not to want to know, and Davis says that even after reading the last two or three pages, she’s still confused.
- Caitriona Balfe confessed this is the first season she hasn’t read the book. She simply doesn’t have the time.
Outlander season seven premieres on Starz on Friday, June 16, 2023.
