The actor is no stranger to wielding a sword on big and small screens. For more than two decades, he’s starred as a warrior in many popular franchises, but he tells IndieWire why his latest role is truly something new.

Graham McTavish is no stranger to wielding a sword on big and small screens. For more than two decades, McTavish has starred as a warrior in many popular franchises, from “Outlander” to “The Hobbit” and “House of the Dragon.” And now his warrior rises like a phoenix once again in “Spartacus: House of Ashur.”

McTavish sat down with IndieWire to discuss his most recent role, and what sets it apart from all the rest. The new “Spartacus” series is a sequel to the original “Spartacus,” and explores an alternate path where the gladiator Ashur did not die at the end of “Spartacus: Vengeance.” McTavish stars as Korris, alongside Nick Tarabay’s Ashur and Tenika Davis’ Achillia. He opens up about playing his first gay character, the intense gladiator workout regime, and why one intimacy coordinator was not enough on set. He runs through his best and worst memories from all of his projects, including the lowest moment in his career, filming a certain scene in “The Hobbit.”

He also fondly looks back on his time on “Outlander,” working with Caitríona Balfe and Sam Heughan, and confesses how he would write the ending of the beloved long-running show, which will finish its run in 2026. Spoiler alert: He doesn’t want it to end.

From Dougal MacKenzie in “Outlander,” Sigismund Dijkstra in “The Witcher,” Saint of Killers in “Preacher,” Ser Harrold Westerling in “House of the Dragon,” and Dwalin in “The Hobbit” trilogy, McTavish has made his mark, slayed his way on screen, and lived to tell the tale — or not lived — in some cases.

The following interview has been condensed and edited for clarity and length.

IndieWire: You have played a memorable warrior in every show you’ve been in. From “Outlander” and “The Hobbit” to “House of the Dragon,” “The Witcher,” and now, of course, “Spartacus,” you’ve killed so many people on screen. What drew you to “Spartacus”?

Graham McTavish: Oh, it was very flattering. Steven DeKnight wrote this part for me. He’d seen “Preacher” on AMC, he’d loved the show and my character. He said, “I want to have that guy in this show, so I’m going to write this part for him.” And what’s wonderful is it’s very different from The Saint of Killers, but I love the fact that he invested Korris with a heart and emotion, and all of those other aspects of a man, that it’s not just killing people.

I was about to restart doing “The Witcher.” It was going to be a problem to do both. I thought there was no hope. But it all worked out. I had to go to New Zealand, start gladiator boot camp, then fly back from New Zealand to the UK to block, shoot all of my stuff in “The Witcher.”

Were you like, “What character am I playing this week?”

Thankfully, I didn’t get confused. The costumes helped. But I was completely exhausted.

Watching you pick up a sword looked exhausting. What was it like playing Korris and what was the workout routine like? Did you just live off of protein shakes, kale, and free weights?

Yes [laughs], everyone had these weights and exercise bands offset, constantly exercising. The gladiators, we’d do a minimum of 300 press ups in a day. It was insane. There was a lot of competition. I’d done this before. They love a boot camp, these shows. “Outlander”! They do, “Put them in a boot camp!” The only good thing about this boot camp was no horse riding.

Are you one of the many actors who lied on your CV about horse riding?

I did once lie. Unfortunately, I did not get the job. Well, I did get the job. But I’d already committed to another job. I’d told “First Knight” — Sean Connery, Richard Gere — that not only could I ride horses, but I could jump really high on a horse. Stupid, absolutely stupid. Fortunately, I never actually had to do that. Because I’d probably be dead. Most of the time, I’m doing a very good impersonation of somebody who is competent at riding horses.

How would you describe your character on a dating website?

Oh, gosh! Ex-slave looking for freedom, likes to work out, not super into women’s rights. He won his freedom by literally killing about 150 people, one after another. That’s going to shape your worldview. He’s not somebody who gives of himself in terms of emotions, certainly in the first part of the show. He’s tied to Ashur. They’re both very ambitious, tied at the hip. They’re like a bickering old married couple.

They’re frenemies.

That’s a very good way of putting it. They’re friendly, but they’re not going out for drinks. They literally have each other’s backs, more than once in the show. But the key change in the character arc for Korris is that he meets somebody who opens something within him, which is his heart. He’s not had that. He’s suppressed it, because experience has taught him not to get close to people, because they die.

He’s a lonely warrior looking for love?

Lonely warrior, keeps himself fit, looking for love, lives in a small cell, looking for larger accommodation.

Swipe left. Absolutely not, sorry, Korris. Let’s take a little walk down memory lane. What was your rose and thorn, high and low, on the following iconic projects you were in. Let’s start with “The Hobbit.“

There were plenty of hard moments in “The Hobbit.” I think probably the toughest was having 400 pounds of fish poured on my head. Real fish! Five times! But the best part of it, was really the overall experience being amazing. It’s a life-changing experience. I doubt I will ever experience anything like that again. It’s very difficult to imagine doing a trilogy like that in those circumstances, with those people. It was such a wonderful combination of things that would be very hard to replicate in the future.

Graham McTavish is no stranger to wielding a sword on big and small screens. For more than two decades, McTavish has starred as a warrior in many popular franchises, from “Outlander” to “The Hobbit” and “House of the Dragon.” And now his warrior rises like a phoenix once again in “Spartacus: House of Ashur.”

McTavish sat down with IndieWire to discuss his most recent role, and what sets it apart from all the rest. The new “Spartacus” series is a sequel to the original “Spartacus,” and explores an alternate path where the gladiator Ashur did not die at the end of “Spartacus: Vengeance.” McTavish stars as Korris, alongside Nick Tarabay’s Ashur and Tenika Davis’ Achillia. He opens up about playing his first gay character, the intense gladiator workout regime, and why one intimacy coordinator was not enough on set. He runs through his best and worst memories from all of his projects, including the lowest moment in his career, filming a certain scene in “The Hobbit.”

He also fondly looks back on his time on “Outlander,” working with Caitríona Balfe and Sam Heughan, and confesses how he would write the ending of the beloved long-running show, which will finish its run in 2026. Spoiler alert: He doesn’t want it to end.

From Dougal MacKenzie in “Outlander,” Sigismund Dijkstra in “The Witcher,” Saint of Killers in “Preacher,” Ser Harrold Westerling in “House of the Dragon,” and Dwalin in “The Hobbit” trilogy, McTavish has made his mark, slayed his way on screen, and lived to tell the tale — or not lived — in some cases.

The following interview has been condensed and edited for clarity and length.

IndieWire: You have played a memorable warrior in every show you’ve been in. From “Outlander” and “The Hobbit” to “House of the Dragon,” “The Witcher,” and now, of course, “Spartacus,” you’ve killed so many people on screen. What drew you to “Spartacus”?

Graham McTavish: Oh, it was very flattering. Steven DeKnight wrote this part for me. He’d seen “Preacher” on AMC, he’d loved the show and my character. He said, “I want to have that guy in this show, so I’m going to write this part for him.” And what’s wonderful is it’s very different from The Saint of Killers, but I love the fact that he invested Korris with a heart and emotion, and all of those other aspects of a man, that it’s not just killing people.

I was about to restart doing “The Witcher.” It was going to be a problem to do both. I thought there was no hope. But it all worked out. I had to go to New Zealand, start gladiator boot camp, then fly back from New Zealand to the UK to block, shoot all of my stuff in “The Witcher.”

Were you like, “What character am I playing this week?”

Thankfully, I didn’t get confused. The costumes helped. But I was completely exhausted.

Watching you pick up a sword looked exhausting. What was it like playing Korris and what was the workout routine like? Did you just live off of protein shakes, kale, and free weights?

Yes [laughs], everyone had these weights and exercise bands offset, constantly exercising. The gladiators, we’d do a minimum of 300 press ups in a day. It was insane. There was a lot of competition. I’d done this before. They love a boot camp, these shows. “Outlander”! They do, “Put them in a boot camp!” The only good thing about this boot camp was no horse riding.

Are you one of the many actors who lied on your CV about horse riding?

I did once lie. Unfortunately, I did not get the job. Well, I did get the job. But I’d already committed to another job. I’d told “First Knight” — Sean Connery, Richard Gere — that not only could I ride horses, but I could jump really high on a horse. Stupid, absolutely stupid. Fortunately, I never actually had to do that. Because I’d probably be dead. Most of the time, I’m doing a very good impersonation of somebody who is competent at riding horses.

How would you describe your character on a dating website?

Oh, gosh! Ex-slave looking for freedom, likes to work out, not super into women’s rights. He won his freedom by literally killing about 150 people, one after another. That’s going to shape your worldview. He’s not somebody who gives of himself in terms of emotions, certainly in the first part of the show. He’s tied to Ashur. They’re both very ambitious, tied at the hip. They’re like a bickering old married couple.

They’re frenemies.

That’s a very good way of putting it. They’re friendly, but they’re not going out for drinks. They literally have each other’s backs, more than once in the show. But the key change in the character arc for Korris is that he meets somebody who opens something within him, which is his heart. He’s not had that. He’s suppressed it, because experience has taught him not to get close to people, because they die.

He’s a lonely warrior looking for love?

Lonely warrior, keeps himself fit, looking for love, lives in a small cell, looking for larger accommodation.

Swipe left. Absolutely not, sorry, Korris. Let’s take a little walk down memory lane. What was your rose and thorn, high and low, on the following iconic projects you were in. Let’s start with “The Hobbit.“

There were plenty of hard moments in “The Hobbit.” I think probably the toughest was having 400 pounds of fish poured on my head. Real fish! Five times! But the best part of it, was really the overall experience being amazing. It’s a life-changing experience. I doubt I will ever experience anything like that again. It’s very difficult to imagine doing a trilogy like that in those circumstances, with those people. It was such a wonderful combination of things that would be very hard to replicate in the future.

Rose and thorn for “Outlander”?

Oh gosh, with “Outlander,” it was the opportunity to work in Scotland, to work in a period of history that I am obsessed with. Also, we all started together. So, it was an immediate camaraderie amongst the Highlanders. And I include Caitríona in that. We went through all sorts of experiences together. But the worst… oh, well [dramatically], the coffee.

Word is you were called the latte queen on set?

Shocking! Yes, I do like a good coffee. In New Zealand, where I am now, you can’t get a bad coffee. On “Outlander,” Sam and I used to order protein shakes during the day. Because we were trying to keep in shape blah, blah, blah. We’d be drinking them, but they were a bit thin. So, we asked, “Can you tell us what’s in the protein shake?” They said, “Berries, water, banana.” We said, “But where’s the protein?” And they said, “Oh, you need protein?” We went two months just drinking fruit smoothies.

You all were babies when you started that show together.

Oh, I remember we were filming outdoors on a slope. There was me, Bill Patterson (Ned Gowan) and a few other people. They’d erected a tent. Through the middle of the tent ran an actual river. It was that wet. We were sitting there, and Bill, who’s lovely, said, “Oh, this is one of the 10 most awful experiences of my life today.” I turned to him, “Bill, this doesn’t even make the top 100 worst experiences for me. Every day on ‘The Hobbit’ was worse than this.”

Graham McTavish is no stranger to wielding a sword on big and small screens. For more than two decades, McTavish has starred as a warrior in many popular franchises, from “Outlander” to “The Hobbit” and “House of the Dragon.” And now his warrior rises like a phoenix once again in “Spartacus: House of Ashur.”

McTavish sat down with IndieWire to discuss his most recent role, and what sets it apart from all the rest. The new “Spartacus” series is a sequel to the original “Spartacus,” and explores an alternate path where the gladiator Ashur did not die at the end of “Spartacus: Vengeance.” McTavish stars as Korris, alongside Nick Tarabay’s Ashur and Tenika Davis’ Achillia. He opens up about playing his first gay character, the intense gladiator workout regime, and why one intimacy coordinator was not enough on set. He runs through his best and worst memories from all of his projects, including the lowest moment in his career, filming a certain scene in “The Hobbit.”

He also fondly looks back on his time on “Outlander,” working with Caitríona Balfe and Sam Heughan, and confesses how he would write the ending of the beloved long-running show, which will finish its run in 2026. Spoiler alert: He doesn’t want it to end.

From Dougal MacKenzie in “Outlander,” Sigismund Dijkstra in “The Witcher,” Saint of Killers in “Preacher,” Ser Harrold Westerling in “House of the Dragon,” and Dwalin in “The Hobbit” trilogy, McTavish has made his mark, slayed his way on screen, and lived to tell the tale — or not lived — in some cases.

The following interview has been condensed and edited for clarity and length.

IndieWire: You have played a memorable warrior in every show you’ve been in. From “Outlander” and “The Hobbit” to “House of the Dragon,” “The Witcher,” and now, of course, “Spartacus,” you’ve killed so many people on screen. What drew you to “Spartacus”?

Graham McTavish: Oh, it was very flattering. Steven DeKnight wrote this part for me. He’d seen “Preacher” on AMC, he’d loved the show and my character. He said, “I want to have that guy in this show, so I’m going to write this part for him.” And what’s wonderful is it’s very different from The Saint of Killers, but I love the fact that he invested Korris with a heart and emotion, and all of those other aspects of a man, that it’s not just killing people.

I was about to restart doing “The Witcher.” It was going to be a problem to do both. I thought there was no hope. But it all worked out. I had to go to New Zealand, start gladiator boot camp, then fly back from New Zealand to the UK to block, shoot all of my stuff in “The Witcher.”

Were you like, “What character am I playing this week?”

Thankfully, I didn’t get confused. The costumes helped. But I was completely exhausted.

Watching you pick up a sword looked exhausting. What was it like playing Korris and what was the workout routine like? Did you just live off of protein shakes, kale, and free weights?

Yes [laughs], everyone had these weights and exercise bands offset, constantly exercising. The gladiators, we’d do a minimum of 300 press ups in a day. It was insane. There was a lot of competition. I’d done this before. They love a boot camp, these shows. “Outlander”! They do, “Put them in a boot camp!” The only good thing about this boot camp was no horse riding.

Are you one of the many actors who lied on your CV about horse riding?

I did once lie. Unfortunately, I did not get the job. Well, I did get the job. But I’d already committed to another job. I’d told “First Knight” — Sean Connery, Richard Gere — that not only could I ride horses, but I could jump really high on a horse. Stupid, absolutely stupid. Fortunately, I never actually had to do that. Because I’d probably be dead. Most of the time, I’m doing a very good impersonation of somebody who is competent at riding horses.

How would you describe your character on a dating website?

Oh, gosh! Ex-slave looking for freedom, likes to work out, not super into women’s rights. He won his freedom by literally killing about 150 people, one after another. That’s going to shape your worldview. He’s not somebody who gives of himself in terms of emotions, certainly in the first part of the show. He’s tied to Ashur. They’re both very ambitious, tied at the hip. They’re like a bickering old married couple.

They’re frenemies.

That’s a very good way of putting it. They’re friendly, but they’re not going out for drinks. They literally have each other’s backs, more than once in the show. But the key change in the character arc for Korris is that he meets somebody who opens something within him, which is his heart. He’s not had that. He’s suppressed it, because experience has taught him not to get close to people, because they die.

He’s a lonely warrior looking for love?

Lonely warrior, keeps himself fit, looking for love, lives in a small cell, looking for larger accommodation.

Swipe left. Absolutely not, sorry, Korris. Let’s take a little walk down memory lane. What was your rose and thorn, high and low, on the following iconic projects you were in. Let’s start with “The Hobbit.“

There were plenty of hard moments in “The Hobbit.” I think probably the toughest was having 400 pounds of fish poured on my head. Real fish! Five times! But the best part of it, was really the overall experience being amazing. It’s a life-changing experience. I doubt I will ever experience anything like that again. It’s very difficult to imagine doing a trilogy like that in those circumstances, with those people. It was such a wonderful combination of things that would be very hard to replicate in the future.

Rose and thorn for “Outlander”?

Oh gosh, with “Outlander,” it was the opportunity to work in Scotland, to work in a period of history that I am obsessed with. Also, we all started together. So, it was an immediate camaraderie amongst the Highlanders. And I include Caitríona in that. We went through all sorts of experiences together. But the worst… oh, well [dramatically], the coffee.

Word is you were called the latte queen on set?

Shocking! Yes, I do like a good coffee. In New Zealand, where I am now, you can’t get a bad coffee. On “Outlander,” Sam and I used to order protein shakes during the day. Because we were trying to keep in shape blah, blah, blah. We’d be drinking them, but they were a bit thin. So, we asked, “Can you tell us what’s in the protein shake?” They said, “Berries, water, banana.” We said, “But where’s the protein?” And they said, “Oh, you need protein?” We went two months just drinking fruit smoothies.

You all were babies when you started that show together.

Oh, I remember we were filming outdoors on a slope. There was me, Bill Patterson (Ned Gowan) and a few other people. They’d erected a tent. Through the middle of the tent ran an actual river. It was that wet. We were sitting there, and Bill, who’s lovely, said, “Oh, this is one of the 10 most awful experiences of my life today.” I turned to him, “Bill, this doesn’t even make the top 100 worst experiences for me. Every day on ‘The Hobbit’ was worse than this.”

Well, the fish. You should have given Bill a cup of coffee and said, “Now it’s going to get worse.”

Truly. We were abandoned in barrels, floated up a river, coming out of a toilet.

Did you ever audition for “Game of Thrones”? Because there’s an internet rumor that says that you turned down a role on it.

It wasn’t that I turned down a role, it was that I was never actually available. Throughout the entire run of “Game of Thrones,” I was either on “The Hobbit,” “Outlander,” or “Preacher,” so I literally had no opportunity. When it came to “House of the Dragon,” Ryan Condal, who’s the showrunner, I’d done “Colony” for him. He wanted me to be in it. I think one of the reasons he wanted me, was that they’d just run out of beards. “Game of Thrones” used all the beards in the acting world. “Who’s still got a beard? Graham McTavish. Let’s get him in. He’s got a beard.”

So, the internet lied. In Episode 2 of “Spartacus,” there is a very graphic group love scene, where you are walking through it like you’re at a park. What was it like working with intimacy coordinators on “Spartacus”? That might be the largest sex scene on television today.

Oh, is it?! There were two intimacy coordinators. The thing about those scenes, there’s a lot of, how do I put this… a lot of prosthetics involved. That helps. It’s more like a costume, certainly for the men. There are things that are done for the women that make it a little less extreme, I suppose. I didn’t really do any scenes like that, as you rightly point out, I walk through it with a with a glass of wine.

Pretty great day on set for you.

Yeah! Fill your boots. Have fun. I’m off! The thing about those scenes, it’s exactly like a fight scene, very carefully choreographed. There’s no surprises. It’s all simulated. But it’s very strange. That day I was standing offset, and Dan Hamill is down on the ground… And there’s two women. Dan’s going, “I’m ready, OK? OK? Are you comfortable down there?” There’s a kind of absurdity about it all. But “Spartacus” is a very honest portrayal of ancient Rome. This is not gratuitous in terms of its historical accuracy. They live in a world of the constant presence of death.

So, they get joy where they can, which leads really well into the next question. Let’s talk about your character’s relationships. Is this your first time playing a gay character?

Yes, absolutely! I approached it as a love story. It’s a love story. Whatever someone’s sexuality is, everybody can identify with the feelings of love, the feelings that you’re frightened of what might happen. The world that they’re living in is an interesting anomaly. It was okay for men to have relationships with other men, as long as one of the men was a slave. If they were both free men, that was frowned upon. The relationship that I have in this show is two free men. It’s very dangerous.

You and Tenika have a very brutal fight scene. What was your favorite thing about working with her? Do you find love scenes harder or fight scenes more difficult?

Love scenes and fight scenes have their own individual challenges. You have to be acting in a different way when you’re in a love scene — hopefully — than a fight scene. But with Tenika, goodness me, she plays a warrior, and she really is a warrior. She had training in martial arts, so she had a head start with the training we were doing. She pushed herself so hard to do this. I had massive respect. That’s kind of echoed in in my character. When she wasn’t filming, she was training, she had no life.

You can see that camaraderie between the two of you, even when you’re at odds.

Korris massively respects Achillia. When he goes into that fight, he intends to kill her. It’s a big, pivotal moment for him, because he was so against this idea of a female Gladiator. He’s thinks it’s an absurd idea. Nobody is like her.

You have been on shows with strong female leads. “Spartacus” is no exception. What has it been like having women lead your shows?

Oh, Caitríona, it was really her first acting role. I remember Caitríona was very nervous at first. Nervous about the accent, because her natural accent is Irish, and she had to be English. But I think the support that she got from the rest of us, Sam in particular. Because they were together all the time. They were hugely mutually supportive. That’s really how I view doing acting. It might sound like a disingenuous thing to say. But I really didn’t look at Caitríona and think, “Oh, this is a woman playing this great role.” I just looked at her and thought, “This is a great role, and she’s doing a great job.” Just the same as I looked at Tobias (Menzies) and it’s the same on “Spartacus” when I’m working with Nick. Same with Tenika. The only thing that counts in acting is if you can do it and do justice to the role and the writing. All of those people I’ve just described did that, and that’s and that’s why I have huge respect for them.

Graham McTavish is no stranger to wielding a sword on big and small screens. For more than two decades, McTavish has starred as a warrior in many popular franchises, from “Outlander” to “The Hobbit” and “House of the Dragon.” And now his warrior rises like a phoenix once again in “Spartacus: House of Ashur.”

McTavish sat down with IndieWire to discuss his most recent role, and what sets it apart from all the rest. The new “Spartacus” series is a sequel to the original “Spartacus,” and explores an alternate path where the gladiator Ashur did not die at the end of “Spartacus: Vengeance.” McTavish stars as Korris, alongside Nick Tarabay’s Ashur and Tenika Davis’ Achillia. He opens up about playing his first gay character, the intense gladiator workout regime, and why one intimacy coordinator was not enough on set. He runs through his best and worst memories from all of his projects, including the lowest moment in his career, filming a certain scene in “The Hobbit.”

He also fondly looks back on his time on “Outlander,” working with Caitríona Balfe and Sam Heughan, and confesses how he would write the ending of the beloved long-running show, which will finish its run in 2026. Spoiler alert: He doesn’t want it to end.

From Dougal MacKenzie in “Outlander,” Sigismund Dijkstra in “The Witcher,” Saint of Killers in “Preacher,” Ser Harrold Westerling in “House of the Dragon,” and Dwalin in “The Hobbit” trilogy, McTavish has made his mark, slayed his way on screen, and lived to tell the tale — or not lived — in some cases.

The following interview has been condensed and edited for clarity and length.

IndieWire: You have played a memorable warrior in every show you’ve been in. From “Outlander” and “The Hobbit” to “House of the Dragon,” “The Witcher,” and now, of course, “Spartacus,” you’ve killed so many people on screen. What drew you to “Spartacus”?

Graham McTavish: Oh, it was very flattering. Steven DeKnight wrote this part for me. He’d seen “Preacher” on AMC, he’d loved the show and my character. He said, “I want to have that guy in this show, so I’m going to write this part for him.” And what’s wonderful is it’s very different from The Saint of Killers, but I love the fact that he invested Korris with a heart and emotion, and all of those other aspects of a man, that it’s not just killing people.

I was about to restart doing “The Witcher.” It was going to be a problem to do both. I thought there was no hope. But it all worked out. I had to go to New Zealand, start gladiator boot camp, then fly back from New Zealand to the UK to block, shoot all of my stuff in “The Witcher.”

Were you like, “What character am I playing this week?”

Thankfully, I didn’t get confused. The costumes helped. But I was completely exhausted.

Watching you pick up a sword looked exhausting. What was it like playing Korris and what was the workout routine like? Did you just live off of protein shakes, kale, and free weights?

Yes [laughs], everyone had these weights and exercise bands offset, constantly exercising. The gladiators, we’d do a minimum of 300 press ups in a day. It was insane. There was a lot of competition. I’d done this before. They love a boot camp, these shows. “Outlander”! They do, “Put them in a boot camp!” The only good thing about this boot camp was no horse riding.

Are you one of the many actors who lied on your CV about horse riding?

I did once lie. Unfortunately, I did not get the job. Well, I did get the job. But I’d already committed to another job. I’d told “First Knight” — Sean Connery, Richard Gere — that not only could I ride horses, but I could jump really high on a horse. Stupid, absolutely stupid. Fortunately, I never actually had to do that. Because I’d probably be dead. Most of the time, I’m doing a very good impersonation of somebody who is competent at riding horses.

How would you describe your character on a dating website?

Oh, gosh! Ex-slave looking for freedom, likes to work out, not super into women’s rights. He won his freedom by literally killing about 150 people, one after another. That’s going to shape your worldview. He’s not somebody who gives of himself in terms of emotions, certainly in the first part of the show. He’s tied to Ashur. They’re both very ambitious, tied at the hip. They’re like a bickering old married couple.

They’re frenemies.

That’s a very good way of putting it. They’re friendly, but they’re not going out for drinks. They literally have each other’s backs, more than once in the show. But the key change in the character arc for Korris is that he meets somebody who opens something within him, which is his heart. He’s not had that. He’s suppressed it, because experience has taught him not to get close to people, because they die.

He’s a lonely warrior looking for love?

Lonely warrior, keeps himself fit, looking for love, lives in a small cell, looking for larger accommodation.

Swipe left. Absolutely not, sorry, Korris. Let’s take a little walk down memory lane. What was your rose and thorn, high and low, on the following iconic projects you were in. Let’s start with “The Hobbit.“

There were plenty of hard moments in “The Hobbit.” I think probably the toughest was having 400 pounds of fish poured on my head. Real fish! Five times! But the best part of it, was really the overall experience being amazing. It’s a life-changing experience. I doubt I will ever experience anything like that again. It’s very difficult to imagine doing a trilogy like that in those circumstances, with those people. It was such a wonderful combination of things that would be very hard to replicate in the future.

Rose and thorn for “Outlander”?

Oh gosh, with “Outlander,” it was the opportunity to work in Scotland, to work in a period of history that I am obsessed with. Also, we all started together. So, it was an immediate camaraderie amongst the Highlanders. And I include Caitríona in that. We went through all sorts of experiences together. But the worst… oh, well [dramatically], the coffee.

Word is you were called the latte queen on set?

Shocking! Yes, I do like a good coffee. In New Zealand, where I am now, you can’t get a bad coffee. On “Outlander,” Sam and I used to order protein shakes during the day. Because we were trying to keep in shape blah, blah, blah. We’d be drinking them, but they were a bit thin. So, we asked, “Can you tell us what’s in the protein shake?” They said, “Berries, water, banana.” We said, “But where’s the protein?” And they said, “Oh, you need protein?” We went two months just drinking fruit smoothies.

You all were babies when you started that show together.

Oh, I remember we were filming outdoors on a slope. There was me, Bill Patterson (Ned Gowan) and a few other people. They’d erected a tent. Through the middle of the tent ran an actual river. It was that wet. We were sitting there, and Bill, who’s lovely, said, “Oh, this is one of the 10 most awful experiences of my life today.” I turned to him, “Bill, this doesn’t even make the top 100 worst experiences for me. Every day on ‘The Hobbit’ was worse than this.”

Well, the fish. You should have given Bill a cup of coffee and said, “Now it’s going to get worse.”

Truly. We were abandoned in barrels, floated up a river, coming out of a toilet.

Did you ever audition for “Game of Thrones”? Because there’s an internet rumor that says that you turned down a role on it.

It wasn’t that I turned down a role, it was that I was never actually available. Throughout the entire run of “Game of Thrones,” I was either on “The Hobbit,” “Outlander,” or “Preacher,” so I literally had no opportunity. When it came to “House of the Dragon,” Ryan Condal, who’s the showrunner, I’d done “Colony” for him. He wanted me to be in it. I think one of the reasons he wanted me, was that they’d just run out of beards. “Game of Thrones” used all the beards in the acting world. “Who’s still got a beard? Graham McTavish. Let’s get him in. He’s got a beard.”

So, the internet lied. In Episode 2 of “Spartacus,” there is a very graphic group love scene, where you are walking through it like you’re at a park. What was it like working with intimacy coordinators on “Spartacus”? That might be the largest sex scene on television today.

Oh, is it?! There were two intimacy coordinators. The thing about those scenes, there’s a lot of, how do I put this… a lot of prosthetics involved. That helps. It’s more like a costume, certainly for the men. There are things that are done for the women that make it a little less extreme, I suppose. I didn’t really do any scenes like that, as you rightly point out, I walk through it with a with a glass of wine.

Pretty great day on set for you.

Yeah! Fill your boots. Have fun. I’m off! The thing about those scenes, it’s exactly like a fight scene, very carefully choreographed. There’s no surprises. It’s all simulated. But it’s very strange. That day I was standing offset, and Dan Hamill is down on the ground… And there’s two women. Dan’s going, “I’m ready, OK? OK? Are you comfortable down there?” There’s a kind of absurdity about it all. But “Spartacus” is a very honest portrayal of ancient Rome. This is not gratuitous in terms of its historical accuracy. They live in a world of the constant presence of death.

So, they get joy where they can, which leads really well into the next question. Let’s talk about your character’s relationships. Is this your first time playing a gay character?

Yes, absolutely! I approached it as a love story. It’s a love story. Whatever someone’s sexuality is, everybody can identify with the feelings of love, the feelings that you’re frightened of what might happen. The world that they’re living in is an interesting anomaly. It was okay for men to have relationships with other men, as long as one of the men was a slave. If they were both free men, that was frowned upon. The relationship that I have in this show is two free men. It’s very dangerous.

You and Tenika have a very brutal fight scene. What was your favorite thing about working with her? Do you find love scenes harder or fight scenes more difficult?

Love scenes and fight scenes have their own individual challenges. You have to be acting in a different way when you’re in a love scene — hopefully — than a fight scene. But with Tenika, goodness me, she plays a warrior, and she really is a warrior. She had training in martial arts, so she had a head start with the training we were doing. She pushed herself so hard to do this. I had massive respect. That’s kind of echoed in in my character. When she wasn’t filming, she was training, she had no life.

You can see that camaraderie between the two of you, even when you’re at odds.

Korris massively respects Achillia. When he goes into that fight, he intends to kill her. It’s a big, pivotal moment for him, because he was so against this idea of a female Gladiator. He’s thinks it’s an absurd idea. Nobody is like her.

You have been on shows with strong female leads. “Spartacus” is no exception. What has it been like having women lead your shows?

Oh, Caitríona, it was really her first acting role. I remember Caitríona was very nervous at first. Nervous about the accent, because her natural accent is Irish, and she had to be English. But I think the support that she got from the rest of us, Sam in particular. Because they were together all the time. They were hugely mutually supportive. That’s really how I view doing acting. It might sound like a disingenuous thing to say. But I really didn’t look at Caitríona and think, “Oh, this is a woman playing this great role.” I just looked at her and thought, “This is a great role, and she’s doing a great job.” Just the same as I looked at Tobias (Menzies) and it’s the same on “Spartacus” when I’m working with Nick. Same with Tenika. The only thing that counts in acting is if you can do it and do justice to the role and the writing. All of those people I’ve just described did that, and that’s and that’s why I have huge respect for them.

“Outlander” is coming to an end. You are such a part of the fabric of that show. Do you think Caitríona and Sam were sad about your death, or do you think they enjoyed it?

I have a photograph of them taken from the ground where they’ve just been stabbing me and they’re laughing. They’re laughing in my face. One day that photo’s going to come out. I’ve got a few photos. One day. Were they sad? I think maybe a little bit, but we all knew it was coming. We knew from when we began the show, I wasn’t going to make it. It was a sad day for me, and it was such a great scene! There is literally not a day that goes by without somebody talking to me about “Outlander.” Every single day!

Let’s say you got to write the ending to “Outlander.” How would you end it?

Oh, my God. How would I end the story of Jamie and Claire? Look, one thing, I don’t want it to be sad. We’ve gone too far with those people. I don’t think that would be appropriate for either Jamie or Claire to suddenly die. I think that would be hard. It would be tough. How would I end it? Because the show is about time travel, I would just love the idea of them going through the stones together, and you actually have no idea where they’re going to end up. They just leave. They just go through stones. Final frames, just on the stones. There it is. Where have they gone?

Where have they gone? We don’t know, but they exist somewhere, and that makes us happy. With “Outlander” ending, what do you look back on most fondly in that time in your life?

When we were beginning that show, we were fresh to it. We had no idea how it would go, whether people would like it. You’re in a bubble. You hope. The thing that really stays with me, is how much fun we had together. So much laughter, loads of laughter every day, with the combination of people, Duncan, me, Caitríona, Sam, Stephen, Grant, Bill Patterson, all of them, just constant joking, it was a great set for that. Gary Lewis always making me laugh.

Those kind of relationships, those real relationships, translate so well on screen. It’s the same with Nick and me on “Spartacus.” We got on really well, we made each other laugh. And when you have that actual chemistry offset, it’s difficult for you to not recreate it. It’s going to be there on set. That was the thing. Laughter, lots of laughter.

“Spartacus” is beautifully brutal and bloody. You usually you rock no hair-don’t care, and in this, you have so much hair! You could do a shampoo commercial with that wig.

Well, I think that’s in Korris’s future. [Laughs] Shampoo.