Sam Heughan was advised to soften his Scottish accent to play Jamie Fraser in Outlander, according to the historical drama’s producers.
Sam Heughan was advised to tone down Jamie Fraser’s Highland accent for the hit series Outlander, as revealed by the show’s production team.
The Scots actor, who relocated to Edinburgh at 12, naturally speaks with a gentle Scottish lilt. However, his character in the popular Starz historical drama demanded a much thicker accent.
On a previous episode of the Outlander podcast, producer Elicia Bessette discussed the need for Heughan and other Scottish actors to engage in additional dialogue recording (ADR) during post-production to moderate their accents.
Caitríona Balfe, who plays Claire Fraser, only had to redo “about six lines” in ADR after filming, in stark contrast to Heughan.
“Poor Sam – only because we have those requests to Americanise his accent sometimes,” Bessette remarked, reports the Scottish Daily Express.
Her comments implied that Heughan’s ADR sessions were more extensive than those of Balfe, who hails from Dublin and uses a refined Received Pronunciation for her portrayal of Claire in Outlander.
Joining the conversation on the podcast, executive producer Ronald D. Moore acknowledged: “Yeah, that’s really tough.” Bessette added: “Just to understand what they’re really saying.”
Moore elaborated: “A lot of times we get so used to hearing them in the Scottish accent and other people in America in the studio go, ‘What? What did he say?'”.
“It’s weird, I can hear them now perfectly but in the beginning I would write the ADR note constantly on the screen, now I never do.”
Bessette remarked: “And that goes for Colum [MacKenzie] and Dougal [MacKenzie], Angus [Mhor], Rupert [MacKenzie]. We sometimes just have to ask them to lay low on Scottish.”
Sam Heughan, who plays Jamie Fraser, previously shared with Entertainment Weekly: “My accent is an Edinburgh sort of soft southwest Scottish accent. It could almost be English. So we try to do a bit of a Highland lilt to it.”
The unique Scottish accent in Outlander has been a talking point among the cast, as it demands all Highland characters to adopt a specific dialect reflective of the 18th-century region.
Lauren Lyle, portraying Marsali Fraser and originally from Glasgow, was taken aback by the need to alter her natural accent for the show, necessitating practice.
On the Outlander podcast, she confessed: “When I first joined the show I had to have a session with the dialect coach. I was quite confused because I’m very Scottish.
“The session was mostly about shedding my Glaswegian accent, and also to understand that Diana [Gabaldon] wanted my character’s name pronounced ‘Marsali’ like ‘parsley’.”
Steven Cree, who plays Old Ian Murray, also acknowledged he had to amplify his Scottish accent upon returning for season seven.
Speaking to the Express in 2023, he said: “In a way, it felt like going and putting on a wig and some clothes with my mates and putting on a Scottish accent. I feel like we’re all putting on Scottish accents in it.”
He quipped: “It does, honestly. I feel like I hear myself back on it, I feel like I’m putting on a bad Scottish accent.”
