OUTLANDER season five saw Claire Fraser take Marsali Fraser under her wing and decide to train her up as an apprentice surgeon. However, reflecting on the show, Marsali star Lauren Lyle has revealed a key moment cut from a surgery scene.
Fans of Outlander will remember Marsali’s shock when Claire (played by Caitriona Balfe) showed her the body of Mr. Farrish and explained she wanted to investigate why he had died. Eventually Marsali came round to the idea of training alongside Claire and learning more about medicine and surgery.
Discussing the key season five scene on the Outcasts podcast, actress Lauren detailed what was involved in shooting Claire’s recruitment of Marsali.
She read out the scene with hosts David Berry and Tim Downie before revealing it was set to end in a much more explicit manner.
Lauren explained: “We had Mr Farrish being dead, he was in and out, he had his loin cloth on but then when they had the fake body, the cadaver, they gave him a full anatomy.
“So we could see everything.”
Outlander deleted scene: Marsali and Claire Fraser surgery moment cut from series revealed (Image: STARZ)
Outlander deleted scene: Marsali was shocked when Claire showed her a dead body (Image: STARZ)
She continued, referring to the script: “We did actually, you know how at the end it says Marsali becomes very intrigued, we did with every turn, we got closer and closer to his male anatomy.
“It was to the point where I was lifting up the sheet to look and Claire was snapping my hand away.
“We would do it and they would allow us to run with that and keep going.
“Then it didn’t quite make it, it was cut before it got to that.”
Outlander deleted scene: Lauren Lyle detailed how the moment Marsali peeked at the penis was cut from the show (Image: STARZ)
Outlander deleted scene: Marsali has become Claire Fraser’s apprentice (Image: STARZ)
Wanting to know more about how the scene was set, David and Tim pressed for details about the cadaver.
“It was mainly all fake blood and prosthetics,” Lauren revealed.
“It was very prosthetic, it was like lots of harder plastic stuff and they did put lots of jellied bits and what not around it and loads of fake blood.
“So if we were to put our hands in, they would have got bloody. I think we did at one point put our hands in but it was horrible.
“It looks amazing, the art department did such a phenomenal job, it looked really real.
“Every single organ was in the right place. It was a full inside, it wasn’t sort of just enough to just sort of pass it, it was really the whole thing.”
Lauren went on to add she had to be careful not to break out into laughter as Mr Farrish lay dead on the table.
“Revealing his head was always quite funny, we had to try not to laugh,” she recalled.
“It was quite funny because you’re on set in this ridiculous way going, ‘What the hell is this job that we do? What is this job where we are running around looking at bodies and trying to convince people it is God’s work that we should do this?’
“They’ve got fake willies andy you’re in a corset and I’m pregnant and I’m meant to be 22, like the whole thing is ridiculous.
“Every time I was on set in Outlander, I’m like ‘What the hell is this job we do?’”
