Season 5 was a rough one for many of the characters after the attack on Frasier’s Ridge. Season 6 has not forgotten that Claire and Marsali are living with the trauma. “We see Claire unravel in a way that we’ve never seen her before,” Balfe says. “Claire is such a resilient character and it’s not easy for her to ask for help. I think that that’s one of things that probably is why she’s struggling so much, because really when you’re experiencing the darkest of times, you should be sharing. Her inability to sort of share in that way was hard for her as she’s usually the ear for people.”
While Marsali did not experience sexual assault, she still faced the threat of death or bodily harm. “[Marsali] is in a much darker place than we’ve seen her before,” Lyle says. “She’s not coping in a way that she’s always been able to cope before. Marsali has always come from such a place of strength. She’s such a formidable young woman, and that’s the tagline for her. Marsali is normally quite spritely, excited, and can be quite funny sometimes. You don’t see as much of that this time.” On top of this, Marsali is pregnant during Season 6. “I did loads of research into giving birth at the time, and what that meant, and what it would be like to have four children and be so young,” Lyle says. “The costume department made corsets with little wooden windows that you could open to breastfeed and then shut again. I really knew what I was talking about when it came to her and her experience at the time.”
Outlander Season 6 was filmed during circumstances neither Balfe or Lyle faced in previous seasons. “COVID was definitely a challenge,” Balfe says. “On a personal level, I was pregnant for the entirety of the season, so that was quite challenging just in terms of the energy that’s needed to film Outlander and how difficult it is sometimes to film.” Lyle says: “It was a mad time to film. I went on a lot of walks, ate a lot of great pasta, and we watched a lot of great [episodes of] The Office US.”
Shifting tone in characterization was also not easy. “It was a challenge to take on a lot more of a sort of intense, deeply saddened energy,” Lyle says. “It’s also really enjoyable to get to do something different, but sometimes you just sort of take it with you. It can make a day on set slightly more intense because you’ve got to sort of stick with that feeling. That could be hard at times, but at the same time, also a real blessing to get to have a chance to do that.” The same is true for Claire’s journey this season. “I was so conscious of trying to really land the right voice, her internal voice, and really find the right path for her in terms of her PTSD,” Balfe says. “What form that took, how it manifested within her, and to always make it as truthful and as plausible as possible, even within these grand circumstances.”
Fans often wonder how much actors get to weigh in on various Outlander plotlines. Both reveal they had some influence in shaping Claire and Marsali’s trajectory. “The hardest thing for all of us to try and lock down is what would be someone’s internal monologue,” Balfe says. “Everyone has a different idea of what somebody’s hopes and fears are. I had a strong point of view of what I felt Claire’s fears would be. What would she blame herself for? What would she, in her darkest moments, take responsibility for, even if it’s not really her responsibility?”
The answers to these questions were generated collectively. “It’s more like an interesting puzzle that you get to go on with the writers,” Balfe says. “It’s a lot of back and forth and it’s like, well, what about this, or what about this? They’re proposing a lot of things and I’m proposing a lot of things, and it’s about finding a common ground and finding the thing that sounds the most plausible and the most truthful to all of us. We had a great collaboration with the writers, and I think that we made sure that it was improved on each draft,” Balfe says. “‘Let’s really hone in on what it is that she [Claire] would do, her internal monologue, what that would be if she’s really experiencing the darkest parts of the recesses of her mind.’ I think we found that.” Lyle says: “They [the writers] were sort of in agreement as well, to be fair, but I’ve always fought for her [Marsali] to have just something to say, that’s with being a woman of the time, that there’s something more to it than that.”