“Let’s come up with something to call you. What about…Fidelia Finnerty?” Outlander star Caitríona Balfe joked to me on the set of the 18th-century time-travel series. It was April 2024, and we were shooting the premiere of the final season at a busy marketplace in front of H. Crombie’s Emporium, a new trading post at the Fraser’s Ridge settlement. The name felt right for a loyal citizen of the Ridge — sunburned, squeezed into a corset, and shopping for turnip stew ingredients to feed her bairns.

After reporting on the series since 2013, I had, at the invitation of executive producer Matthew B. Roberts, stepped into the story as a featured extra. That meant I would be more than a fuzzy background blur. As Balfe’s character, Claire Fraser, and her husband, Jamie, played by Sam Heughan, arrived on horseback in a long-awaited return to the Ridge, my job was to notice them while in conversation with widowed mother Amy McCallum (sweet and encouraging Joanne Thomson). The camera would catch my happy expression at the laird’s return.

The prep began the day before, at a fitting with costume designer Nadine Powell’s team. They dressed me in a shift, corset, bum-roll, petticoat, skirt, fichu (neckerchief), apron, gloves, belt, tie-on pockets (where everyone stashes their cellphones), and a bag. I was photographed in the outfit and went to makeup, where I was instructed in no uncertain terms to remove my gel manicure, something unavailable in the colonial North Carolina backcountry. On the day of the shoot, I left the hotel at 5:45 am. It was still dark when I arrived at the location, where large white tents were set up down a gravel road from the main set. I was one of about 75 scenic actors — the U.K.’s more elegant name for “extras” — grabbing our neatly labeled costumes from the clothing racks.

In the bustling changing tent for women, costumer Kari-Ann Trachmann helped me to dress in between sips of tea. Then it was over to the tent where hair and makeup artist Sammi Maslauskaite gave me a sunburn with pink powder, dirtied my hands and nails with a burnt sienna pigment, and roughed up my hair with texturizing spray. And the finishing touch: a bonnet.

We lined up for final checks from the hair and makeup team, then walked to the set in our historically accurate shoes that made me appreciate modern sneakers. The director, Jan Matthys, walked around to every scenic actor and gave each a backstory.

Before my big moment, I was acting as chaperone to a young woman (Jess, a Glasgow business student) who fancied the cobbler. Heughan stopped by to entertain us and share that he’d been told the black horse he was riding that day was named Jack. Black Jack, as in the villain played by Tobias Menzies, who traumatized Jamie in the early seasons.

“I think they’re having some fun with me,” he said. Humor is a necessity on set, where there is always a lot of downtime for the cast while lights and cameras are set up for shots. Hours later, it was time for my moment. Even though I didn’t have a line, I was suddenly nervous. The director kindly advised, “Better to just feel your feelings. The camera sees it.” Copy that. Don’t ham it up.

The leads came riding in on their horses, and the camera swooped toward me for the reaction shot that would speak for Fraser’s Ridge. After two takes, we had it. Still, I stayed for the rest of the day. What responsible 18th-century chaperone wouldn’t?

I wrapped my time as the sun began to set, and it was a relief to get back into my sneakers. I had always appreciated Outlander’s remarkable historical accuracy, but being inside the production made clear how many details viewers never see — each costume is different, each background person is given a character to play, and every shoe pinches in a different place. Bye, Fidelia! It takes joy and pain to tell the greatest love story on television.

Scroll through the gallery below to see photos from the experience.

Outlander, Season 8 Premiere, Friday, March 6, Starz

Source: https://www.tvinsider.com/