Caitríona Balfe has said she expects the ending of Outlander to be bittersweet, adding that she will be "bereft" after playing lead character Claire Randall for over ten years.
The hit time travel series, based on the books by Diana Gabaldon, comes to and end next year, following the seventh season which is due this Friday.
Based on the seventh book in the Outlander series, An Echo in The Bone, the new series continues the classic ripping yarn, following the time-tripping exploits of Second World War military nurse Claire, who finds herself transported to 1743 and the height of the Jacobite rebellion in Scotland. It's like a really serious Goodnight Sweetheart.
A lot has changed since then and there is sure to be weeping in the glens when the drama comes to an end.
Speaking to RTÉ Entertainment via Zoom, Balfe said, "It’s going to be very sad, very bittersweet. It’s had an amazing run and it will be more than a decade by the time it’s finished, which is an incredible length of time to spend as a character on a show and I will be bereft of spending that time with Claire.
"I think I’ve become institutionalised, so used to being told where to go and what to do by my Outlander family. But I also think it’s time for new challenges hopefully on the horizon. But it will be bittersweet for sure."
Balfe has really had the chance to develop the character across an epic narrative timeframe and she says she enjoys exploring the nuances of the show’s heroine.
"I’ve taken this character from her early twenties to her sixties and it’s such a huge privilege to live with a character for that long, to be able to do it over ten years and to have that time and what she’s experienced to build those memories and in my own self as well," she says.
"She’s experienced so much, and I’ve been stretched as an actor so much through her and she’s such a fantastic character.
Balfe adds, "It was nice to see her in the beginning as a feisty and always on the forward foot. She wasn’t very thoughtful maybe and to have watched her mature and grown wiser and maybe the edges rub off her in some ways and other sides of her deepen . . . has been a real challenge and a real privilege."
Outlander is a sci-fi fantasy that uses key historical events as the vast backdrop of a love affair that spans the centuries.
It’s a trippy and romantic history for sure. And it also leads to no end of heartache and passion. Balfe says she sees Outlander as a story about how the love between Claire and her husband, dashing highland warrior Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan), survives despite the odds.
"It is romantic, but I think it is more about how a love sustains," she says. "The lead characters got married before they really courted and then what we see is how a marriage finds itself and how a marriage works and deals with problems - what a mature love is, and I think that is one of the things that has been so interesting.
"Yes, they have passion and that’s unquestionable but it’s all of the other things that they’ve found in each other. The ability to push one another to become a better person, the ability to see when someone is struggling and to know when to step back and to know when to engage.
She adds, "All of those things have been really fascinating and it’s something Sam and I talk about quite often - where are they in their relationship, what have they learnt this season, what’s new?"
There’s lots to learn in season seven as Claire faces some of the greatest challenges of the saga yet.
"Claire has really had to learn how to cope and learn to accept problems in a different way. We saw the disintegration of her psyche last season," Balfe says.
"She has gone through a really traumatic experience and didn’t know how to cope and didn’t know how to share and accept help and that has to change.
"As we saw, she was self-medicating . . . this season is really lovely because we see that she has actually learnt from that, how to cope in a healthier way, asking for help and sharing instead of compartmentalising like she used to."
Outlander started back in 2014 during the Jacobite rebellion of the 1740s and Claire and Jamie now find themselves facing into the outbreak of the American War of Independence.
Who knows what side they’re on. Not.
However, Balfe is unsure if the show has had a "Braveheart effect" in encouraging support for a second Scottish independence referendum.
"I don’t know but I think the popularity of Outlander has definitely increased over the years in Scotland," she says.
"When we started, it was on a streamer site in the UK which wasn’t that well known and terrestrial TV is so strong in the UK, streaming was a novel idea, but it’s definitely gained a lot of support. I can’t say if a TV show has that power to influence politics.
"But I think it’s interesting that in the new season we are examining the foundation of the United States and how that democracy came into being at a time when democracy was quite challenged over the past few years there.
"It’s always interesting when your work has some kind of relevance in the current time and maybe brings the inception of these political movements or landscapes into people’s living rooms who may not know about them."
Alan Corr @CorrAlan2
Outlander season seven premieres Friday 16 June on LIONSGATE+.
