'Outlander' star Sam Heughan feels 'betrayed' by his creative team for frontal shot
Sam Heughan writes in his newly published memoir that the front nudity shot 'betrayed' his 'trust in the creative team'
Outlander star, Sam Heughan, revealed in his new memoir that he felt "betrayed" by the series' creative team after he was coerced into filming a full-frontal nudity scene.
On October 25, Sam Heughan's memoir Waypoints: My Scottish Journey was published, where he touched upon the nude scene at the end of the Outlander pilot season.
According to Variety, Heughan has been the co-lead since the show's debut in 2014 and was contractually required to film nude scenes. However, he did not expect to go fully frontal in one of the scenes.
The controversial scene in point is where Heughan’s character, Jamie Fraser, is depicted being sexually assaulted by Tobias Menzes’ character.
In his memoir, Heughan writes, "This wasn’t a moment where I felt that being naked would add to the horror of what Jamie undergoes in that castle dungeon as a form of punishment, subjugation and humiliation."
He continued, "The cock shot was unnecessary and did betray my trust in the creative team a bit, We don’t need to see the horror to imagine what the characters go through."
The 42-year old British actor also added, "Imagination is way more powerful, I pushed back, reasoning that nudity sexualized a horrific experience for my character, and it sparked quite a debate. Creative conversations are a feature of all productions, good art is made by questioning the truth and we all want to get it right."
Earlier in 2022, Heughan revealed in the Happy Sad Confused podcast that he was the one who brought an intimacy coordinator on set because he said, "It’s important that everyone is protected, but also we find a way to explore these scenes and actually maybe get something more out of them."
Outlander finished its sixth season in May 2022 and has been renewed for a seventh season, which will have 16 episodes.
