His birthday is May 1, 1721, which makes him 304 years old now.
At that age, perhaps James Alexander Malcolm MacKenzie Fraser should retire the kilt. Or should he?
“I still hear, ‘My wife or my girlfriend is in love with you,’ ” a blushing Sam Heughan says. “It makes you feel like a rock star.
“I was gifted Jamie’s coat, boots and kilt,” he shares. “So, even if I’m aging along with Jamie Fraser, I’ll always have that outfit at the ready, in my closet at my Scotland home, in case I want to jump on a horse.”
Alas, the time-traveling romantic adventure “Outlander” is coming to a close. The eighth and final season just debuted on Starz.
As the centuries-spanning love affair between Jamie and Claire (Caitríona Balfe) wraps up, the 45-year-old Heughan is ready to lift a glass and celebrate.
As the last 10-episode run begins, the Revolutionary War has come to Fraser’s Ridge in North Carolina’s foothills, and it’s one last stand for the characters made popular in Diana Gabaldon’s bestselling books.
Don’t expect plot secrets from Heughan. “I do nothing this season,” he teases. “We have a cup of tea and I’m just reading in bed.” Seriously? “It’s satisfying,” he says of the conclusion. “The rest of it, well, it’s kind of a secret.”
Heughan, who lives in Glasgow, Scotland, offered his good life tips:
The last time
“I’m feeling sentimental about it the show ending,” he says. “It’s that feeling you have when you realize it’s the last time. The last time with these people. The last time at this place. The last time where I stand on the bluffs as Jamie Fraser.”
Feel the love
His best fan encounter? “At one of the Comic Cons in San Diego, we were traveling in our big SUV,” he says. “There was one core group of fans with bagpipes and dressed up as Highlanders. On the second day, I saw them from the road where we were driving. We pulled up at a stoplight, I rolled down the window and shouted, ‘Outlander!’ And suddenly, all these Highlanders turned around and started shouting, ‘Outlander! Outlander!’ Everyone on the street began to surround the car. It was pretty intense and emotional. I felt like I was home in Scotland with my friends.
“These are the best fans anyone could ever wish for in life,” Heughan continues. “I’m so grateful for the love and passion they feel for the series.”
Complete journey
His character Jamie has been through it all: beatings, homelessness, stabbings, shootings, drownings, assaults and fires, not to mention losing (and reuniting with) the love of his life. “Jamie didn’t know what he was getting into when he met Claire,” Heughan says. “What if he never met her?
“Talk about a complete journey for my own life and on the screen.”
Be a gentleman
Heughan and Balfe enjoy a close friendship, which influenced a scene in which she almost drowns in the ocean on their way to America. At one point, Jamie thinks Claire is dead. “There were some lines that were very challenging,” he acknowledges. “I remember floating in a very large bathtub in South Africa, where we were shooting the drowning scene. The line is Jamie saying to Claire: ‘If you die, I will kill you!’ I had a real problem with that one. I had to do it over and over again because Jamie is a gentleman — and I don’t speak like that. Finally, Caitríona said to me, ‘Just say the damn line so we can get out of the tub!’ ”
Rough and tumble
Heughan says his body has taken a beaten while filming the show. He was thrown from a horse during an action scene, battled the cold, and suffered other bumps and bruises silently so it wouldn’t stop production. There have also been some near misses. “It’s not easy to drive a horse driven cart. I didn’t crash, although once we almost fell into a ditch.”
Get it right
Earlier in the series many of the key characters spoke Scottish Gaelic. Heughan knew it well, having grown up in Scotland. “Some of the cast was more dedicated than others,” he shares. “Some had big idiot boards with the words. Some made up their own Gaelic and just spoke (gibberish). I made sure to get it right.”
Sense of belonging
“Over the years, being a Scotsman, I’ve loved how you see many more Americans and other tourists coming to Scotland for a visit because of the show,” Heughan says. “I’ll hear, ‘I’m a Scot, too. My great-great grandparents left Scotland and came to America.’ Yet, now that the new generation is back in Scotland, something quite magical happens. There is a feeling of belonging to the land. You put your feet on that dirt and something feels familiar even if you’ve never been to Scotland before. It’s a connection to that dirt and the people. Maybe it’s a core memory of something passed down through the generations.”
Emotionally charged
Heughan admits he got a little misty-eyed filming the last season. “It was very hard because it felt so emotional,” he says. “It made the last season very dramatic and charged in the best way. … If you see us crying, we’re really crying.”
