EXCLUSIVE:: Outland Star Sam Heughan will play like the murderous tyrant MacbethStarting his debut with the Royal Shakespeare Company, and he said on the deadline that going back on stage for the first time in 12 years “is the drug that I am looking for”.
The actor, who has cropped his locks for the role, says that it is “exciting” to walk again on the boards now that the shooting is competing in the eighth and last season of time travel drama OutlandIn which he plays the Jamie Fraser, very charming who finds true love with Claire, played by Caitríona Balfe.
During our conversation, Heughan suggested that Starz will show season 8 of Outland “Towards next year.” The prequelle series Outlander: Blood of my blood First on August 8, “so I think it would probably be released next year,” he reveals.
Caitríona Balfe and Sam Heughan in ‘Outlander’ (Starz)
MacbethTo be directed by Daniel Raggett, performs performance instead of RCS studio studio in Stratford-Upon-Avon on October 9, taking place until December 6.
Lia Williams, The Distinguished, trained in a classic way, will play Lady Macbeth. It is also an eminent presence on television, having appeared as Wallis Simpson in The crown And as Isabel Kirby, the deputy chief of staff to the British intelligence department of MI6 at the Hit de Peacock The day of the jackal.
“I was looking for something that would really excite me. I do Outland For 11 years, and obviously it was great, but I wanted something else, “said Heughan.” And I went to the RSC to see Edward II There, and I just felt this buzz. I sat in the auditorium and I felt this excitement, a kind of unsubscribe in my stomach when the lights went out and I said to myself: “Yeah, this is the medication I am looking for.” And it’s terrifying. And I think it’s a good thing to be afraid again.
The last time Heughan was on stage was Batman liveWhere he played the Caped Crusader in uncomfortable tights.
He says that the show “was not quite Shakespeare or the RSC, but it was an international tour ranging from the whole of the United Kingdom and Europe in the United States that we did in Las Vegas, we played in Bueno Aires and the O2 in London suspended upside down, carrying PVC.”
Shockingly, he quips: “I don’t know, maybe there will be a bit in Macbeth Also. You never know.
Finish work on the Outland The series presented the ideal opportunity for the actor to return to his stage roots.
“I think that’s all,” he accepts.
The actor has trained at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, now called the Royal Conservatory of Scotland. “I did training in classical theater, and I built my career on the theater. This is what I did well before obtaining television jobs and trying to support myself in the Scottish theater, then in London too. And it is obviously a dream. I just remember having made the circle like, going back to the very first show that I made in a production of young people. Macbeth. And for me it’s the Scottish piece [for superstitious reasons, thespians often refer to Macbeth by that title] Obviously, but it is a coin that is super exciting. It is one of the shortest. It’s bloody. He has an incredible writing and a really fascinating character in the center. And I just remember being in the library as a dramatic student, reading books on various famous actors playing this role. »»
Heughan remembers having seen the RSC production of Adrian Noble of the play on Scotland with Derek Jacobi in the title role “and just being impressed by them and dreaming that one day I would be there”.
The closest he obtained was to play the roles of Malcolm, a soldier and a “murderer” as the program lists the program, opposite Liam Brennan as Thane who would be king, in a production that played the Royal Lyceum and Nottingham Playhouse in 2008, directed by Lucy Pitman-Wallace.
Sam Heughan and Lia Williams in marketing for “Macbeth” (Sebastian Nevelson / RSC)
As a student, he watched the video version of Patrick Stewart by trying the formerly faithful and valiant general killer who became transhysal of a king in the famous production of director Rupert Goold who played the West End and Broadway.
Above all, he looked at the fascinating filmed adaptation of Macbeth With Ian McKellen and Judi Dench. In 1976, Trevor Nunn had directed the play for the RSC in the other place, and he is now considered one of the largest productions of the Scottish play ever staged.
“The last people to do [Macbeth] In this theater, Ian McKellen and Judi Dench, “observes Heughan,” we are therefore very lucky “.
There will be ghosts in this house, I suggest.
Heughan laughs but says seriously: “There will be, and I hope we can rely on their talent and expertise.”
Judi Dench and Ian McKellen in the RSC production of Trevor Nunn in 1976 of “Macbeth” (Ay Cocks Studio Collection / Shakespeare Birthplace Trust)
The tragedy of Macbeth is that, by hearing the prophecy of the three witches whom he would become king of Scotland, he becomes tyrannical and, with the help of his wife, he murdered the monarch who stands on his way. But is his Musse to blame, or, I ask Heughan, am I nice to Macbeth?
“What is so great with Shakespeare,” he said brilliantly, “is that it can be read in different ways and represented in different ways. And you might say, “Well, it has always been in him and he is a bad man and he wanted to do it. Or you could say that it is on this path on which it was set up by supernatural powers where it is its ambition. But it’s super fascinating.
In terms of erroneous and erroneous policies, I mention, maliciously, if the White House could be an appropriate place for the game to be defined.
“Yeah, once again, I think it’s the beauty of Shakespeare, it’s that you can always draw parallels, and that’s why it is always so popular now. You can look at any country or anything that happens anywhere and see that in bad hands, power corrupts.
Or a too long blue tie, I add badly.
“Well, you never know. Maybe I will do it, ”he replies with irony.
In fact, Heughan and Williams had discussions with the director Raggett on where to define him.
“We have talked about many different ways to represent it and if that, I think, has already been done.
We discussed during a break in a table reading of the text. Just before our meeting in London, he stopped by three Spanish tourists “and they were excited. I am surprised that they recognized me,” he said, laughing, “because I shaved my head for the role.”
Explaining his justification for the new look, Heughan says: “It is also a new skin and a new self and new beginnings and the loss of a little Jamie Fraser, although he is also a wig. But I think it’s an interesting look. I certainly get used to it. ”
When he saw the production of raggett of Edward II Starring Daniel Evans, Who’s also the RSC’s Co-Artistic Director With Tamara Harvey, He Says that he felt “That Exciment and That Fear That Got Me Into Theater and Made Me An Actor in the First Place. And I Theink That’s Want I Want. to come to see Macbeth and be properly frightened.
Co-artistic directors of the RSC, Daniel Evans and Tamara Harvey (Baz Bamigboye / Deadline)
Work on Outland For 11 years, he said, “dominated” his life. “It becomes your life a hundred percent. And in some ways, it’s fantastic, and I was very lucky. I was obviously able to make movies and television shows and things, but that defines you and it also dictates where you live and what time you have and where you are in the world physically and where I go again. Stratford-upon-Avon.
In addition, he adds that he feels proud as from Scotland to play an associated role in the country of his birth.
It is delighted that the casting is “mainly all Scottish actors”. There is a large talent basin in Scotland, it boasts: “and great dynamism and energy”, adding: “I am so excited to have this little Scottish with Stratford-Upon-Avon flying our flag.”
Heughan also has announcements planned for his brand Sassenach Spirits. Maybe he will offer to wrap a few bottles as first night gifts for his distribution comrades.
Related: the casting “outlander” marks the conclusion of the shooting after the 8 -season race: “what a trip”
There is also the sadness to move on Outland. He had lunch with Balfe last week. “It was so pleasant to see her. She is obviously in London too, and therefore we are all very, very close and we always send me messages and things. It is therefore, I suppose, one of the main parts of our show. We really have this beautiful friendship now, and I am sure that we will follow ourselves in the following years.”
And the crew is also missing. “It’s not just the crew, it’s the family, they are friends now.”
There are discussions, he notes, which make comics “to celebrate the prequel show”.
And he does not write the possibility of a Outland Unique television special in the future. “Who knows?” He’s grove. “Who knows?” I know they did that with Downton Abbey and others. So you never know. Maybe the ginger wig is still there somewhere.
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The new 2025-26 season announced by the Co-Artistic directors of the RSC, Evans and Harvey, also includes a musical adaptation of The boy who exploited the windBased on the Memoirs of William Kamkwamba written with Bryan Mealer and the 2019 film directed by Chiwetel Ejiofor for Potboiler productions.
Poster of the Royal Shakespeare company for “ the boy who exploited the musical of the wind ” (Nakano Okparaeke / RSC)
The book and the lyrics of the show are by Richy Hughes and the music and words of Tim Sutton. The production is led by Lynette Linton, former artistic director of the Bush Theater in western London. It takes place at the Swan Theater of Stratford-Upon-Avon from February 10 to March 28.
Production has been ordered by and is presented in association with Kenny Wax Limited and Chuchu Nwagu Productions
