After having been friends for a decade, Jeremy Irvine and Hermione Corfield are now starring opposite each other as passionate lovers in the Outlander prequel Blood Of My Blood. It could be tricky, understandably, but on a Zoom call with TV WEEK from the UK, the two of them insist their friendship makes the on-screen intimacy easier.
“You would think sex scenes and stuff would be more awkward, but actually, we know each other well,” Jeremy explains. “If I’ve just had a coffee…”
“Or a salmon bagel,” Hermione adds.
“…or a salmon bagel, for instance,” Jeremy continues, “and I haven’t brushed my teeth, I could just be like, ‘Sorry mate,’ and vice versa.”
In Blood Of My Blood, Jeremy and Hermione play Henry Beauchamp and Julia Moriston, the parents of Outlander’s Claire (Caitriona Balfe), while Jamie Roy and Harriet Slater play Brian Fraser and Ellen MacKenzie, the parents of Jamie (Sam Heughan).
Jamie tells TV WEEK he met Sam for a coffee while he was partway through shooting the show’s first season.
“I’d heard people saying, ‘Oh, you and Sam are so alike,’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, yeah, whatever,’” he remembers. “And when I actually got to meet him, I was like, ‘Oh there’s something strangely, strangely familiar about what I’m seeing and what I’m hearing.’
“He’s been so supportive, and we chat all the time, almost on a weekly basis.”
Out of the four Blood Of My Blood stars, only Hermione had watched Outlander before auditioning for the prequel. Harriet and Jamie started watching it during the audition process.
“We were both watching it whilst shooting season one and we finished about the same time,” Harriet says.
“I think I was a few days ahead,” Jamie points out. “I had to win.”
“Now we are fans,” Harriet says.
“Big fans,” Jamie adds. “The biggest. Can’t wait for season eight.”
Jeremy has chosen not to watch Outlander – “My character’s whole point is he’s meant to be a complete fish out of water in that world” – but that means conversations with fans can involve questions about characters he’s not really familiar with. Hermione says fans are always asking if there will be a prequel involving one particular character.
“Lord John Grey,” she says of the character played by Australian actor, David Berry. “Everyone’s very keen for that.”
There’s no doubt that the show’s location is a huge part of its appeal. As Jeremy puts it, Scotland is a major character in the Outlander world.
“Scotland is one of those places where anywhere you point the camera it just looks stunning,” he says. “We’re all co-stars to Scotland in this.
“It’s got this magical feeling to it as well. It’s a land of all these myths and legends and when you’re there and you see the scenery, you really understand why people believe in these fairy tales and things. It feels very real.”
But shooting outdoors in Scotland during the colder months can be a test of endurance.
“We’re wearing like four layers of wool and it’s still freezing because when it rains, the layers get damp,” Harriet explains. “I survive by sticking heat pads all over my person. But it is stunning, so it’s fully worth it.”
She believes leaning in to the elements can help with the performance.
“There’s a lot of acting you don’t really have to do when you’re actually just being battered in the face by the Scottish wind!”
The actors are now working on the show’s second season, and the weather conditions are very different.
“Yesterday when we were filming I was wearing like five layers of tweed and I nearly fainted,” Hermione says. “That was 31 degrees. So when it’s hot it’s difficult.”
Jeremy knows how lucky they are to have started work on season two before season one had even gone to air.
“I think we’ve probably both done lots of things where you’re like, ‘Oh yeah, this is going to work,’ and then it comes out and it doesn’t quite match up,” he says. “So to have that reassurance quite early on, going into season two, was amazing.”
Outlander: Blood of my Blood is available now on Stan
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