The Starz hit “Outlander,” based on the books by Diana Gabaldon and adapted for television by Ronald D. Moore, has had a bodice-ripping first season. Caitriona Balfe plays Claire Fraser, a bold British World War II nurse who is thrown back in time, in Scotland, from her 1945 existence to a rough land about 200 years earlier. To complicate matters, she has ended up with a husband in both epochs: Jamie (Sam Heughan) in the 18th century, Frank in the 20th (Tobias Menzies). It’s just your typical time-traveling-historical-romance-fantasy-drama-adventure.
Meeting at the London West Hollywood hotel not long before returning to Scotland to shoot Season 2, Balfe (whose first name is pronounced Katrina and last name rhymes with Ralph) chats easily about her character’s trials, triumphs and corsetry.
Even in the 20th century, Claire seems ahead of her time.
She doesn’t feel like she really belongs in the 1940s or the 1700s, and that’s due to Diana, who’s an incredible force of nature. Claire was raised by an uncle who was an atheist and an anthropologist, and she traveled the world, and she’s always been a timeless or placeless character.
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