The very first scene Outlander’s Caitriona Balfe filmed was intense and a ‘relief’ when finished, but she proved her worth very quickly.
Outlander’s Caitriona Balfe did not have the best time filming her first-ever scene for the hit Starz series.
The actress was 33 at the time of her casting and as a former runway model, she was a fresh face in the industry with virtually no prior experience.
Showrunner Ronald D. Moore told Town & Country that they wanted to find Claire Fraser first and then Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan) from the outset, but the opposite happened.
Once, they found Jamie, Balfe was cast quickly and the actress felt insecure.
Modeling had put her self-esteem and confidence in the tiolet but, like her character, she soldiered on and proved to everyone that she was more than capable of playing the leading lady.
Caitriona Balfe said Outlander producers cast her fast
The Irish actress first entered showbiz through modeling for some of the biggest fashion designers, including Calvin Klein, Gucci, Chanel, Givenchy, Dolce & Gabbana, Moschino, Alberta Ferretti and Louis Vuitton.
However, she soon learned that it wasn’t the career for her.
Balfe told the Guardian that she was 27 when she realized she wanted to give it up and pursue an acting career.
She said modeling “does two things. It gives you a really, really tough exterior and then a really broken interior. Everyone’s experience is different, but I know my confidence and my self-esteem when I finished was in the toilet. Being in that for so long can leave you pretty messed up for a little bit.”
Balfe decided to audition for Claire and said showrunners cast her extremely fast. They’d already found Jamie.
Speaking on The Hollywood Reporter’s podcast Awards Chatter, she explained: “I did the chemistry read and then it was like, ‘Can you move to Scotland in three days?’”
In his Town and Country interview, Moore said: “She had to be smart, she had to have a strength of character, and really, she had to be someone that you could watch think on camera.
“But then suddenly Caitriona’s tape came in and we had that light-bulb moment.”
When she signed the contract, Moore said to her: “Are you ready for your life to change?”
The Irish actress said: “I guess?”
Balfe and Heughan also did a chemistry test before filming began and it proved they’d work extremely well together.
Caitriona Balfe’s first-ever scene was intense and a ‘relief’ to finish
Fans of the fantasy series will, of course, remember one of the first scenes in which Claire is in the thick of tending to soldier’s gory war injuries at the height of the World War II.
For her and the rest of the tired nurses, doctors, and servicemen, it was blessedly V-E Day.
That intense scene was Balfe’s very first day on set, and there was a lot of pressure since this was also her first lead role.
According to Balfe it was both a good and bad first experience.
“There was sort of an excitement in the air,” Balfe says in the book The Making of Outlander. “I think there was also relief because I was so untested.”
Balfe definitely proved herself in that hectic scene. From there, fans knew that Claire was a tough woman.
The actress soon showed her castmates that she was equally tough.
