The Outlander actor Tobias Menzies has said he was “sad” to hear co-star Sam Heughan felt betrayed after filming what Heughan called an “unnecessary” full-frontal nude scene.
The actors co-starred in several series of the hit historical drama, which first aired in 2014, and in one scene in season one, Menzies’ character Jonathan ‘Black Jack’ Randall raped Heughan’s character, Jamie Fraser, in prison.
Heughan wrote about the experience in his memoir Waypoints: My Scottish Journey in 2022, several years after shooting the scene, and suggested that appearing fully nude had not been necessary.
He explained that it “wasn’t a moment where I felt that being naked would add to the horror of what Jamie undergoes in that castle dungeon,” adding that it “sexualized” what was “a horrific experience” for his character.
“The c*** shot was unnecessary and did betray my trust in the creative team a bit,” he admitted. After discussions, the more explicit scenes were left on the cutting room floor in post-production. The star was shown nude only in the aftermath of the assault.
Heughan’s comments came up as Menzies was interviewed by U.K. newspaper The Independent and he replied: “That’s the first time I’ve heard that, that’s sad to hear.”
Menzies said: “My feeling about what we shot was that it didn’t feel decorative – it felt earned by what was going on in the drama. I felt that we showed something very, very unpleasant, and honest. It is shocking and certainly we went quite dark with it, but that felt like a way of avoiding the accusations of it being sexualised and titillating.”
“We just made it very, very brutal, which is what that is,” he added.
Menzies said many of the storylines featured in the programme sprang from that rape scene, but added that the notion of whether it could have been done by “allusion or by reference” was a decision that was “beyond my paygrade at the time.”
Newsweek has contacted Left Bank Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment and representatives for Heughan and Menzies for comment.
Last year, executive producer Matthew B Roberts reportedly addressed the scene on the official Outlander podcast.
U.K newspaper The Expressquoted him as saying: “Some people were like, ‘You didn’t have to show that’ but the argument on the other side is we absolutely did have to show that because that’s the thing that drives Jamie for the next two seasons.
“The power of what happened to him and his love for Claire (Jamie’s wife) is what really cures him, I don’t know if you’re ever really cured, but it helps get him back on his rightful path.”
