OUTLANDER’S casting director has revealed how Scottish star Sam Heughan landed a leading role in the hit show.
Heughan has portrayed Jamie Fraser for almost a decade although bosses initially thought his character would be the hardest role to cast.
Casting director Suzanne Smith has shared insight into how the Scottish actor (below) landed the role and the process behind the scenes.
Speaking to the Express, she said: “Well, with actors, you follow their careers, so I knew Sam from drama school and I brought him in for quite a few roles before, so I’d followed his career so I knew him.”
She added: “So there’s not many very tall Scots that are right for Jamie Fraser, so Sam came to mind straight away.”
Smith explained they did audition other actors and continued: “He (Heughan) just embodied the role and also being a wonderful human being, which is so important.
“So, we did one audition and then we did a recall and then we did a final recall with our producers.”
Asked what showrunners were looking for in the role, Smith said sometimes “a role you think is the most difficult proves not to be and the role you think is going to be the easiest is the hardest”.
“That’s the enjoyable thing – sometimes frustrating thing – you never know.”
Smith added: “So I know that my producers thought that Jamie Fraser was going to be the difficult role and it proved not to be.”
