Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series is not, strictly speaking, a romance series. There’s a lot going on. You have time travel, historical fiction, straight-up drama…but also a lot of steamy sex between lead characters Claire and Jamie Fraser, who can’t keep their hands off each other even deep into their marriage. I don’t think it’s out of line to say that the sex scenes are a draw for many fans.
But there’s been a little less of that in season 7 of the Outlander TV show on Starz; in one recent scene, Claire (Caitriona Balfe) begins to initiate sex with Jamie (Sam Heughan) but stops when she realizes that she’s only trying to bury her grief over losing contact with her daughter, son-in-law, and grandchildren, who have returned to the future.
Outlander stopping itself from having a sex scene? It’s almost unheard of. “What really is evolving is these two characters and this marriage,” Balfe told Decider. “You know, we’re talking 30 years later. It would be highly, I think, unreal and unrealistic if they still had the same kind of first passion that they had.”
This is something that’s grown over time, it has deepened, it has evolved. They are no less passionate, but it’s just in a different form.
Sam Heughan appreciates the Outlander intimacy coordinator
Also, sometimes sex scenes are dropped for more practical reasons. “There are a couple iconic [sex] scenes I think people will miss [in Season 7], but that was logistics. Our locations don’t always want to play along with our storyline,” said producer Maril Davis.
For the sex scenes that remain, Outlander now uses an intimacy coordinator named Vanessa Coffey, whom Heughan appreciates. “I think when we started, we were honestly kind of thrown in, I think, a little bit in the deep end and we just had to figure it out ourselves,” he said. “And it’s great that the industry has changed, and we have a lot more support.”
She just makes it not only safe for everyone, but it helps us explore these scenes and maybe help us get more out of them, right? To explore what intimacy is for these two characters.
