‘Blood of My Blood’ Star Harriet Slater Talks Joining the “Tight-Knit” ‘Outlander’ Universe, the Perils of Scottish Weather and Period Drama Superiority

‘Blood of My Blood’ Star Harriet Slater Talks Joining the “Tight-Knit” ‘Outlander’ Universe, the Perils of Scottish Weather and Period Drama Superiority

Harriet Slater is a self-proclaimed period drama superfan.

“They’re one of my favorite things to act in and also watch,” the English actress tells The Hollywood Reporter about the likes of Downton Abbey and Titanic. “I love the escapism.”

It’s fitting, then, that she’s leading the spinoff to the wildly popular Scotland-set time travel hit Outlander, titled Blood of My Blood, premiering Friday on Starz. As the platform prepares to bid farewell to Outlander in its eighth and final season early next year, the prequel series details the origin stories of the parents of Jamie Fraser (played by Sam Heughan) and Claire Randall (Caitriona Balfe), fan-favorite characters of the original show based on Diana Gabaldon’s book.

“It’s the love story that tells the love story,” Slater says about Blood of My Blood, in which she stars as Jamie’s mother, Ellen MacKenzie. It follows Hermione Corfield as Julia Moriston, who is transported back to the 18th century after a car accident in the 1910s. In the rugged Scottish Highlands, Julia and Henry Beauchamp (Jeremy Irvine), as well as Ellen and Brian Fraser (Jamie Roy), must defy the forces that seek to tear them apart.

“It’s an honor to play this person who means so much to so many people,” she says about getting to know Outlander‘s fervid fan base. “There’s an element of pressure with that, because you don’t want to let the fans down. But no, on the whole I think I feel confident. We’re all really proud of the show that we’ve made, and I think people will enjoy it.”

Speaking to THR from San Diego, where the cast and crew were amping up the crowds at Comic-Con, Slater was fighting some serious jet lag, but is heading back to Glasgow soon to start on an already commissioned season two. “We felt quite safe and almost expected to get a second season. But you just can’t ever think like that in this world,” she says about returning to the Outlander universe. “Especially at the minute — so many excellent shows get canceled for whatever reason.”

Below, Slater unpacks her jam-packed slate. She has the follow-up to Scott Mann’s Fall (aptly named Fall 2), helmed by Michael and Peter Spierig, coming this year, as well as a low-budget, mumblecore indie filmed on the streets of London. She discusses shooting the two movies back-to-back, building chemistry with her TV beau Roy, and the tight-knit camaraderie of the Outlander family: “We’re in each other’s pockets a lot of the time.”

Harriet, you are a busy woman right now. Let’s start with Blood of My Blood and when you found out you’d booked the job.

Oh, my gosh. It is a very exciting time at the minute. It’s funny this life — as an actor, I feel like you can spend really long periods out of work, and then all of a sudden it’s like everything can happen at once. That’s what it feels like at the minute. Suddenly it’s just got really, really busy, which is amazing. I think having the downtime really makes you appreciate the time that you’re working even more.

Blood of My Blood was just a dream come true. It’s so many things that I’ve always wanted as an actor. I love period dramas. They’re one of my favorite things to act in and also watch. I love the escapism of them. I love the time travel element of them, which actually is a real element of our show as well. Certain characters really do time travel, but I feel like when you’re watching a period drama, and also definitely when you’re in one, it can feel like you’ve just been transported back to a completely different time. And the role of Ellen MacKenzie is genuinely a dream. She’s so complex, she’s strong-willed, she’s smart, she’s someone that I really, actually quite admire and want to be like when I grow up. And coming back for season two, there’s a really nice familiarity, I think, with revisiting that role, but also she’s constantly growing and evolving. You feel like you’ve just got a handle on this person, and you finally get them, then suddenly they’re thrust into a completely different scenario and they act in ways that surprise you. You’re always on your toes. There’s never a dull day on set.

Were you an Outlander fan before this role?

I’d never seen it. I was definitely aware of how huge it was and how popular it was — and is! But I’d never seen a single episode. Then, it was when I got the tape through that I started watching it, and it was a long audition process for me. I was auditioning for eight months. There was a long gap because of the [SAG-AFTRA and WGA] strikes, and the whole thing got pushed so I actually didn’t hear until eight months after my very first tape, which was the longest ever wait for me. It was agonizing.

You’re playing the mother of one of the show’s most iconic characters, Jamie Fraser. Did you speak to Sam or anyone in the Outlander cast about playing Ellen and being in that universe?

I actually didn’t speak to Sam until quite late in the game, but I did have a really lovely chat with Caitriona [Balfe] a couple of weeks into living in Scotland. She was so generous with her time; she chatted to me for an hour all about the job and her experience of it. Her main piece of advice was to really enjoy it, which I know is the same thing that Sam said to Jamie, who plays Brian Fraser, Jamie’s father. The whole cast of Outlander was so welcoming from the very beginning, which I think we all just feel so grateful for.

I remember speaking mostly to the showrunner Matt Roberts and our EP Maril Davis about the character. I remember distinctly Matt saying, “Jamie is [like] his mum, really.” He gets a lot of his personality traits that we know and love from his mum. He does also get a lot from his dad too, obviously, but I think from Ellen he gets his fire and his fierceness, his survival instinct and his cunning.

How did you find building that romantic chemistry between you and Jamie?

We obviously had chemistry from the beginning, which is probably largely why we were cast. It would be a really hard job if we didn’t have any chemistry — and not very fun to watch. So we never really had to build the chemistry. But we’ve definitely built a real friendship, which I think adds a level of familiarity on screen. We hang out all the time. All of us do, to be honest. I think living in Glasgow feels like a bit of a bubble, because we’re so far removed from our friends and family back home. A lot of us live in London, usually, and so we only really have each other up here. We’re in each other’s pockets a lot of the time, but in a lovely way.

How would you tease what fans are going to really enjoy about Blood of My Blood?

At its core, it’s very romantic. It’s also very action-packed. We really delve into the clan politics of the time, which I found particularly interesting because I knew nothing about it. [But] it’s the love story that tells the love story. That’s how Matt Roberts likes to describe it. As we see where Jamie and Claire came from, essentially, and how they learned to love. It has been written in a way where you really don’t have to have watched any of Outlander, at all, in order to enjoy it.

I think it’s nice, especially for my character, and for a lot of the characters — even though fans might think they know them, they actually know a version of them 30 years in the future of our show. There are certain characters who they might be surprised by, because they might seem like quite different people because they’re younger. Murtagh [Fitzgibbons Fraser], for instance, Rory [Alexander], who plays him, is so wonderful. He has this gorgeous lightness to him. He has a literal twinkle in his eye, which is so infectious and really hard not to catch in a scene with him. And it’s so different to the Murtagh that we see in Outlander, who’s quite jaded and grumpy at times. It’s a real treat to explore the character arc of these people and see how they end up where they do.

What’s it like being on an Outlander set?

We film a lot in the Highlands. We also film a lot at the studio, Wardpark Studios in Cumbernauld, [Scotland]. It is genuinely such a treat to get out on locations like that. I think Scotland has got to be one of the most stunning places on the planet. It’s so dramatic and beautiful, and Maril always says that is number one on the call sheet, really, because it’s so present in the show. It really does feel like a character of its own. You can forget that you’re acting at times when you can’t see the cameras and you are completely immersed in the world, it really does feel like you’ve been transported back in time. And we really had to lean into the elements, because the weather can be a challenge at times. We always, always have weather cover on standby, because any day, you can get called up in the morning and they’ll say, “Look, the winds are too high,” or “The rain’s too much. We can’t film these scenes today, so we’re going to have to go to the weather cover.” You almost have two sets of work to prepare, just in case the weather’s not on our side.

It’s interesting that you talk about being such a big fan of period dramas. What are some of your favorites?

Good question. I love Downton Abbey. I’m actually re-watching it for the third time at the minute. I can’t remember exactly when it came out, but I used to watch it with my family weekly. Do you remember that? When things would come out an episode at time, and we’d all sit down at the same time around the country and watch it together? I kind of miss that in a way, but I think it’s the element of nostalgia, too. Titanic is one of my favorite films of all time.

I feel like period dramas are having their moment right now. With [HBO’s] The Gilded Age and new versions of Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility on the way. What is it that we love so much about them?

There’s definitely an element of escapism and the romance of it. For me, personally, it’s largely to do with the costumes as well. That’s a huge part of finding a character. That first costume fitting, trying everything on, it gives me such a rush of adrenaline.

Are you excited to for this show to finally be out in the world? Or a little nervous?

I think there’s always an element of nervousness when something is about to go out into the world. When you’re filming it, it can feel like you’re in a bubble, and it feels private in a way, because you’re so far removed from the audience. A lot of the time you make it in this studio and it’s all-consuming. You don’t really think about anything else other than the job whilst you’re shooting it, and then comes this amazing time that we’re having at the minute where it’s about to go out into the world and we’re having these interactions with the fans in real life for the first time.

The incredible and unique thing about this job is that it has such a passionate, enthusiastic fan base who have been so supportive and so excited since the very beginning. Since the day we got announced, they’ve shown us so much love and support, which is just such a wonderful thing. But last week, we actually got to meet these people face to face at Comic-Con and at the premiere. That was so exciting, because they’re so excited by it. So honestly, I’m not actually feeling that nervous about it anymore. I think if we hadn’t had that interaction, and we didn’t have the fan base set up already, then potentially — but I feel like we already have at least a few people who are going to tune in. It’s a real privilege, really, and it’s an honor to play this person who means so much to so many people. There’s an element of pressure with that, because you don’t want to let the fans down. But no, on the whole I think I feel confident. We’re all really proud of the show that we’ve made, and I think people will enjoy it.

You’ve filmed two movies alongside this show, as well, right?

One of them was an indie feature, [From London With Love], which I shot in London. I actually don’t know what genre it was. It was a really interesting one, because the tone shifts continually throughout it, and that was quite hard to get my head around as an actor in the beginning. I remember I had multiple chats with the director and the producer and the writer, and I was like, “What can you compare this to?” Because I think it’s important to understand the tone of a piece when you’re going into it as an actor. You don’t want to be acting comedy if it’s actually a gritty drama, and vice versa. The director, Danila Kozlovsky, said he specifically didn’t want to pinpoint the tone. He wanted it to be kind of experimental and continually shifting. So that was a real challenge. But I guess it’s definitely a rom-com at times. It’s also a musical at times. It’s also almost mumblecore drama at times. I’m really excited for that one.

What was itlike being on an indie set compared to something like Fall 2?

[The indie] felt like such a collaborative team effort. We only had 20 days to shoot the entire film, and it was actually really exciting at times. I remember this one day where we went out onto the street, guerrilla style, and just shot on the streets of London. There were sirens in the background, and everyone who walked past wasn’t a supporting artist. They were just real people. Some of them were quite unhelpful! [But] I did feel really proud of all of us for achieving what we achieved.

Fall 2 was a completely different experience. We shot in Thailand for two months over December and January at the end of last year. I’d always wanted to go to Thailand, so that was one of the biggest draws for me. I’d actually decided in August, when I was on holiday in Rhodes, that the next place I was going to visit was Thailand. I think it was two weeks later I got this self tape through for a film that shot in Thailand. I was so, so thrilled when I got the job and had the most amazing time out there. I miss it so much. I miss the people so much. We really bonded with the crew. They’re just the loveliest, kindest, gentlest, most positive people. And the film itself… It’s really quite traumatic. It’s about two girls who go on a trip to Thailand, and their aim is to do the plank walk on this mountain. You walk along them just with a rope.

Sounds scary already…

You can find them on YouTube, and it’s terrifying to watch. Obviously, things go slightly awry and we end up trapped at the top. It’s basically a similar formula to the original Fall with Ginny Gardner and Grace Caroline Currey. It was a proper hit. It’s like being on a roller coaster, watching that film. My mum could barely get through it. She watched it when she found out I had the job, and she called me like, “My hands were sweating so much and when I finally went to bed, I had to get up and change my T-shirt because I’d sweated through it! I’m still so nervous.”

I’d never been in anything like that before. I don’t think I’d ever done a thriller. And we actually performed a lot of our own stunts as well.

Was that new for you?

For sure. I don’t know if I’d any ever done any stunt work — only minimal [stuff]. We had a wonderful stunt team. They would show us everything first, and they would also shoot it all themselves. But then we would also do pretty much all of it ourselves after because they needed our faces. They needed shots of our faces in it. The only thing I didn’t do myself was a skydive. I drew the line there. That’s something I’d like to do when I’m older. I just worry about things going wrong.

But I was slightly nervous about not damaging myself in any way because we were all hoping we’d go back for a second season [of Blood of My Blood].

Tell me about your reaction when you guys found out about season two.

I think I was walking down Oxford Street, and my agent called, and the whole thing was quite chaotic. I was so, so excited and so relieved. It got to the end of season one, and I actually started to think, “Oh, maybe this is it. Maybe we won’t get another one.” Because Outlander ran for such a long time, I think we felt quite safe and almost expected to get a second season. But you just can’t ever think like that in this world. Especially at the minute. So many excellent shows get canceled for whatever reason, and it’s completely out of your control.

We’re so tight as a group. We really are good friends, which is quite rare, I think, and makes the job so much easier.

Who’s your best friend on set?

You can’t ask me to choose between them!

You can diplomatically decline to answer.

I’m going to diplomatically decline to answer. (Laughs.) But I will say my first friend on the job was Jamie, who plays Brian. I met him in the chemistry read, and then I also met him when I came up for my fitting, two days after I’d found out I’d got the job. I flew up to Glasgow, and he texted me and was like, “Let’s go out for a drink.” He took me to this wonderful bar and we had a Negroni and quickly realized that that was both our favorite drinks. And we’ve not stopped drinking Negronis!

Outlander: Blood of My Blood premieres on Starz at 8 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 8, with new episodes dropping weekly.