Questions for Sam Heughan

To Sam:

We have no particular expectation that you’ll answer all or any of these questions, we just thought it might be easier to sort the substantive questions out from the twitter flood, so that you’d at least be able to find the questions without having to read through everything. Then you can decide if you want to answer them. If so, just answer what, when and where you like and we’ll figure it out. (And no comment is a perfectly fine answer- at which point the question will be removed.)  Next to each category, I’ve put my best guess as to whether the answers are likely to be Quick (would fit on twitter) or long (would need some other method and probably not comfortable to do on a phone).

Instructions for the Heughligans-

Since Sam is being swamped with twitter messages, I thought it might be helpful if we consolidated some of the actual -respectful and polite- unanswered questions that we have in one place and then maybe we can convince him to visit occasionally and answer a couple at a time and then I’ll collect the answers in the relevant places. If you post a question here in the comments, I’ll add them to the page (if appropriate). I’ll categorize the questions to make it easier for him.

Reference Questions – (Quick)

• Has the Young Alexander the Great movie ever been released? If so, do you know of any way to get hold of it? The trailers look great and a lot of us would love to see it. And when was it filmed? Oddly, hard to find information on it. (from @chaoscritter)
• What was the name of your character in River City (2005)? Your agent’s page says Lee McGowan, but the credits on the blog for the show say Andrew Murray. (from @chaoscritter)
• Can I put a picture of you on your Wikipedia page? If yes, which one should I use. (Personally, quite fond of this one for that purpose.) (Yes, I know we’ve all been absconding with your pictures all over the place and using and misusing them in a variety of ways without worrying about copyright issues, but Wikipedia is very strict about that and I don’t want to get my account revoked over there.) (from @chaoscritter)

Outlander Related- (Quick)

• How did the role of Jamie Fraser come to your attention? (From Bookworm Mel)
• Were you aware of the popularity of this series before you considered the role? (From Bookworm Mel)
• Are you left or right-handed? (don’t remember who asked.)
• Parlez-vous Francais, Sam? (from @celticfrenchfry) Or any other languages for that matter?
• Are you going to read ahead in the series or wait to find out what happens next until after a season is finished shooting? (don’t remember who asked.)
• Jamie is excellent with sword fighting (as well as dancing over them). Do you have any experience with swords or fencing? Are you looking forward to the sword fighting scenes? (from @nanci712)
• I was wondering if you are more of a seaman than Jamie, who we all know wishes he was dead rather than get on a boat……(from @wbfjf))

Outlander Related- (Long)

• How did you prepare for the audition? (From Bookworm Mel)
• We’ve noticed you on horses for brief periods in some of the movies clips. Was riding something you learned fro the roles or did you already know how? How comfortable are you with horses and do you enjoy riding? (from Susie Walker)
• Do you have any specific plans to prepare for the role. (from @jenny_woodruff and Stephanie de Raynal)
• What is your biggest fear in portraying Jamie Fraser? (from Stephanie de Raynal)
• How much do you as 20th century Lowlander share the moral values, sense of honour, spiritual beliefs (ghosts etc.) of 18th century Highlander Jamie Fraser? Follow up question: Is the distinction between Highlanders and Lowlanders still valid in the 21st century or is it a rather romanticized view on Scottish society? (from liljan98)
• From what I can tell, you didn’t have to look to hard to find the Jamie within you. How does it feel to be so similar to a character naturally? (from Karen Deyo)
• You’ve portrayed all different types of characters- what character/role has been your most challenging as an actor?  (from @sharonL329)
• Two part question: What are you looking forward to the most about playing Jamie, other than all us crazy women going gaga? and What are you looking forward to the least, other than all us crazy women going gaga? (from Gayla Ross @QueenAsgara)

Acting – (Quick)

• Who was your inspiration to become an actor? (From Linda Schultz)
• At what age did you know what you wanted to do? (From Linda Schultz)
• Who do you feel would be the toughest character to portray in Outlander? (from Stephanie de Raynal)

Acting – (Long)

• Is there any special meaning to you to be able to play a Scot in a series situated in Scotland? From what I’ve seen so far, most (?) of your parts so far were English characters, not Scottish. (From liljan98)
• If given the chance to work with any actor or actress in the world, who would it be and why? (from @shiggins640)
• When you take on the persona of a character to you find yourself permanently taking on some of their characteristics, like they permanently become a part of you? (from Karen Deyo)

More general – (Short)

• What is your favorite beer? (from @sharonL329)
• What does the “Scot..ish” part of your Twitter profile mean? Those two dots have been driving me crazy. Was it just a typo or is there some meaning to it? (from booklassy)
• Are you a sports fan? Favorite sports/teams? (from @mcastellanox4)
• Dogs or cats or both or other? (from @JanPaquete)
• You smoke in a lot of your roles, what about real life? (from @JanPaquete)
• What sports do you like? Ride a motorbike? Like F1 or World Rally? (from Nancy Martin)
• Did you get a lifetime supply of Tennent’s for doing those wackily awesome ads? (If so, care to share?) (From Marion @citymap)
• I noticed that you follow both news and politics, do you keep up with it while you are on a set (such as in Norway) ? (from Karen Deyo)
• How surprised are you about the increase of your followers, and the fact that yours fans are in places so distant, like Brazil? (from rangelhellaine)

More general – (Long)

• Has your family been following the fan craze that has been going on for the past two weeks? What do they think about it? (from Stephanie de Raynal)
• Is there a story behind the clown costume? (I absolutely adore this picture, by the way.) (from @chaoscritter)
• You seem to be very comfortable in your own skin. You know who you are and you are comfortable sharing yourself with us. Does anything ruffle you or embarrass you? (from Karen Deyo)
• What is your favorite star constellation and why. When I look up at the stars I always love to see Orion. Driving on long road (night-time) road-trips I would feel like he was guiding me to my destination as he traveled across the sky. Do you have anything that touches you that way that you can/will share? (from Karen Deyo)
• Do you think true love is a once in a lifetime experience as Jamie Fraser believes? (from @sharonL329)