Sam Heughan Claims ‘Outlander’ Producers ‘Betrayed His Trust’ During Season 1’s Sexual Assault Scene: ‘I Pushed Back’

usmagazine.com:

Outlander star Sam Heughan has reflected on filming character Jamie Fraser’s difficult sexual assault.“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,” Heughan, 42, wrote in his Waypoints memoir, according to an excerpt published by Insider, noting the STARZ creative team insisted that he should be nude.The Scotland native added: “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.”During the season one finale of Outlander, Jamie was brutally raped by rival Black Jack Randall (played by Tobias Menzies).

The scene, which aired in May 2015, featured Black Jack assaulting Jamie in the shadows of their prison cell. Heughan and the Crown alum, 48, were only naked at the end of the clip — which had allegedly been reworked during the editing process.“It would have been handled differently [if it was filmed today],” the Men In Kilts alum wrote, claiming a full-frontal shot was filmed. “Times have changed.

The [penis] 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.