WARNING: If you have not already watched the season five premiere of Outlander, leave now! Head over the nearest stone circle and then time-travel back to this article once you've finished the episode. For everyone else, let's discuss all those sweet and sultry moments...
The Droughtlander is officially over!
To celebrate the return of our beloved Starz drama, the Frasers cordially invited fans to attend the wedding of Brianna Ellen Randall Fraser and Roger Wakefield MacKenzie -- and now that you've already watched this heartwarming episode, we're spilling secrets straight from the stars.
ET sat down with Caitriona Balfe, Sam Heughan, Sophie Skelton and Richard Rankin last month at the Television Critics Association's Winter press tour and asked them to give us ultra-spoilery answers about what it was like to film Bree and Roger's wedding, and what they really think about that "nerve-wracking" love montage scene.
Caitriona Balfe and Sam Heughan React to Bree's Wedding Day:
As fans know, Claire and Jamie tied the knot in a quaint, but memorable ceremony way back in the seventh episode of Outlander. Now, four seasons and 49 episodes later, we were curious to know what it was like for Balfe and Heughan to watch their on-screen daughter walk down the aisle in her own wedding.
"It was such a great episode. We shot it for a very long time," Balfe recalled with a laugh. "I think it was seven days we were shooting that wedding?"
"And then we did pickups," Heughan said of the long shooting schedule.
"But it's beautiful and it's a really special moment," Balfe noted. "You know, Claire never thought she would be able to see Brianna get married. She didn't think that that was something that was going to be possible, so those little moments with Sophie [as] Brianna were really special. And also I think being the parents of Brianna and watching her get married was a really special thing for Jamie and Claire."
Heughan added, "Jamie never imagined he would get to be there for his daughter and I think he's very proud to give her away and wants it all to go very well. That moment where he takes her "something borrowed, something blue," he just wants it to be right."
Balfe joked that Jamie seemed "a bit grumpy" during the wedding's more tender moments.
"There's a little bit of jealousy," the actress teased. "It's like this weird kind of male thing where he's like, 'Ugh, some other man!' It's a bit weird."
"No, he's just not good enough for my daughter," Heughan quipped as Balfe burst into giggles.
Sophie Skelton and Richard Rankin Spill On-Set Wedding Secrets:
From the Fraser family's pre-wedding rituals to those tear-jerking nuptials and even that ahead-of-its-time cake cutting, there were plenty of special moments throughout Bree and Roger's big day. So which scene was their favorite to film?
"Honestly, it's all kind of blurred together," Skelton said candidly. "We did so many takes of that wedding I think we got married about 50 times."
"How many was it?" Rankin asked his on-screen bride. "Seventeen or something?"
"I think it was seven, but 17 sounds more interesting, so we'll go with that," Skelton answered with a sweet smirk.
The co-stars revealed that the entire Outlander cast actually filmed Bree and Roger's wedding ceremony as one long scene. "We did many takes of it, but we didn't split it up at all," Skelton explained. "So every time we did it, we ran it from the top to the bottom and it was quite a long wedding."
"It was a very, very long [wedding,]" Rankin added. "We got married so many times just to make sure that we were absolutely married. We got married about 41 times. We started to forget our vows to each other. We were just staring blankly at each other in the takes."
"Started to lose our minds," Skelton agreed. "But it was fun! It's actually a rare day that we get all the cast together in one scene. As you know, there's so many characters in the show that when you're all together, it's really fun. It was kind of like a big party."
"It was a big laugh," Rankin continued. "It was long, but I really enjoyed filming the wedding stuff. We had the Ceilidh in there, which just felt like a Ceilidh. We had some really sweet scenes between Roger and Brianna."
"We ate a lot of cake," Skelton said. "Which I'm pretty sure [the baker] did put actual brandy in."
"Yeah, I think you may be right!" Rankin admitted. "I was starting to feel a tad tipsy after a little while, but we were giggling quite a lot."
"It was fun! It was really fun," Skelton concluded with a smile. "And we were actually really lucky with the weather. I don't think it really rained. It was really cold. But didn't rain, so happy days."
Outlander Cast Reacts to THAT Sultry Romance Montage:
By the end of the episode, fans watched as three couples shared some sweet, yet sultry times together. Roger and Bree consummated their marriage, Claire and Jamie shared a passionate bedroom moment, while Jocasta and Murtaugh had a secret rendezvous. Although these three steamy hookups took place in separate places on Fraser's Ridge, the Outlander editors decided to intersperse all three scenes together.
"It's uhh -- it's a love montage," Balfe said with a big laugh.
"It is a love montage, but it's Outlander!" Heughan agreed with a big smile and two thumbs up.
After five seasons, 58 episodes and countless on-screen kisses, we asked Outlander's two leads if they still get butterflies before filming those big, romantic scenes.
"I definitely get butterflies watching it," Balfe said before quickly correcting herself with a laugh, "No, that sounds bad actually. It's not butterflies, it's more... It's interesting."
"Especially when it's a group montage," Heughan smirked. "It's slightly nerve-wracking."
Meanwhile, two other members of the "love montage" were quite pleased with the way the scenes played out together on-screen.
"I really liked that!" Rankin exclaimed genuinely. "I thought that was really well put together."
"The montage is sweet," Skelton said. "Obviously, you have such different relationships in the show and it's nice that we have three completely different ages and relationships and circumstances and outcomes of those scenes."
"And then Lord John at the end!" Rankin interrupted with a giggle. "How he just sat there with the drunken guy! That was really funny. I liked that. I thought it was a really nice tone the way they put all of that together, which made for, actually, a really nice kind of heartwarming episode."
As for those butterflies? Rankin revealed that he and Skelton are "really quite comfortable" with each other and they no longer get nervous before those intimate moments on set as the scenes tend to be "quite technical" in reality. "[We're] quite secure in each other when we're filming," he said.
"I feel like we're used to it. You just get used to it," Skelton added. "There's just always so many people on set as well, you know? There's actually 30 people in the room."
Hey Sassenachs - Check back to ETonline next Sunday, Feb. 23 after you've watched Outlander episode 502. @LeanneAguilera is going to have even more exclusive after-episode content straight from the cast!
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