Jamie Fraser’s accent had to be softened in Outlander
Sam Heughan was told he needed to soften Jamie Fraser’s Highland accent for Outlander, according to the show’s producers.
The 44-year-old Balmaclellan-born actor, who moved to Edinburgh when he was 12, has a soft Scottish accent in real-life, but his role in the historical Starz series required much stronger inflections.
Speaking on the Outlander podcast previously, producer Elicia Bessette addressed how Heughan and some of the other Scottish cast members had to do more additional dialogue recording (ADR) in post-production to tone down their accents.
Claire Fraser star Caitríona Balfe only had to record “about six lines” of ADR in post-production compared to Heughan.
“Poor Sam – only because we have those requests to Americanise his accent sometimes,” Bessette said.
Her words suggested Heughan’s ADR process was somewhat longer than 45-year-old Balfe’s sessions given the Dublin native speaks in clipped Received Pronunciation in Outlander for Claire.
Executive producer Ronald D. Moore, who was also on the podcast, said: “Yeah, that’s really tough.” Bessette elaborated: “Just to understand what they’re really saying.”
Moore continued: “A lot of times we get so used to hearing them in the Scottish accent and other people in America in the studio go, ‘What? What did he say?’
“It’s weird, I can hear them now perfectly but in the beginning I would write the ADR note constantly on the screen, now I never do.”
Bessette said: “And that goes for Colum [MacKenzie] and Dougal [MacKenzie], Angus [Mhor], Rupert [MacKenzie]. We sometimes just have to ask them to lay low on Scottish.”
Heughan previously told Entertainment Weekly: “My accent is an Edinburgh sort of soft southwest Scottish accent.
“It could almost be English. So we try to do a bit of a Highland lilt to it.”
Some of the stars of Outlander have previously commented on Outlander’s very specific Scottish accent, which requires all the Highland characters to speak in a particular way as people did in the region during the 18th century.
Marsali Fraser star Lauren Lyle, who hails from Glasgow, admitted she was surprised she would have to change her accent for Outlander and had to work on it.
She previously said on the Outlander podcast: “When I first joined the show I had to have a session with the dialect coach. I was quite confused because I’m very Scottish.
“It was mainly to do with getting rid of the Glaswegian accent, and also letting me know that the way Diana [Gabaldon] wanted my name to be pronounced was ‘Marsali’ like ‘parsley’.”
Additionally, Steven Cree – who plays Old Ian Murray – admitted he needed to exaggerate his accent when he made a comeback in season seven.
He told the Express in 2023: “In a way, it felt like going and putting on a wig and some clothes with my mates and putting on a Scottish accent. I feel like we’re all putting on Scottish accents in it.”
He joked: “It does, honestly. I feel like I hear myself back on it, I feel like I’m putting on a bad Scottish accent.”