"Outlander" Star Tobias Menzies on Playing 2 Roles & Filming 1st Love Scene

And you had a great, you had a great love scene in the first season. Yeah. And that was your first. Is this right?

This is correct. This is correct. I've never been asked to be the lover man. I mean I've never, I've never done a love scene on I've done love scenes.

You've never, you've never. It's a rumor. It's a rumor going around. I'll just clear out I am not a virgin. I'm here at Young Hollywood joined on the sofa with my fellow brit Tobias Menzies. How are you?

I'm good sir, how are you?

We're just talking about that lovely sunshine here in Los Angeles. It's nice. We don't get back home much. We get they have much more here. There's a better quality. And you you were pointing out the fact that you tan better than me.

Well, I I think you know, I think the viewers can probably see that just by

Thank you. Just checking the the the the rouge of your of your chin there. Is it a little bit red? Is it? That's my fire side. That's why I'm getting. Yeah. That's my fire side. Outlander, come back for season one b.

Who the bloody hell are you? I'm Jonathan Randall, Esquire. Captain of his majesty's eighth dragoons. And your service. We made 16 episodes for the first season, which is a lot. So we it into two.

Right. So that was that in one go? All 16 in one go?

Yeah, we shot it all in one go. It took a little over a year. So it was

A year in Scotland. Yeah. So you even needed sunshine.

Yeah, I definitely need some sunshine. Yes, you definitely need to come here and get some vitamin D.

It's very interesting. You're playing two characters, which

That's right.

I don't you've not done before.

No. I mean, No. It's an unusual thing for television, really. Um, but yes, I play um the heroine's husband in the 1940s, Frank. Right. Right. And then obviously there's two time periods because she travels back in time at the beginning of the story and I also play his ancestor who is

Which is back to the 1700s.

Yeah, 1740s and he's the villain of the piece and he's uh yeah, Jonathan Randall, who's the ancestor of her husband. Right. Um, and one of the first people she meets when she falls through time. Yeah, one is essentially a nice guy and the other one is definitely not a nice guy.

very different. Very different characters. Very different looking as well. Yes. Very envious of Jonathan Black Jack's hair.

Yeah. It's pretty good.

Very envious of that. Who'd you prefer to play? Which one's most challenging or which one'd you get the most enjoyment out of?

You know, I've really enjoyed the the variety really. Switching between the two has been a real pleasure. Um, and obviously exciting sort of challenge as an actor to be given that range of stuff to play. So it's um And they're too, you know, I think one of the really strong things about Diana's writing is that she writes really good characters. And so all of them, you know, Jamie, Claire and the two characters that I play all have their own sort of particular thing. They're all really good.

And you mentioned Diana, it's it was based it's based off a book. Yeah, same name, Outlander, which is I think a seven books and it sold So obviously it has a huge fan base. readership already before we even came to it. Which also must put a bit more pressure on you. Does it?

It does a bit. Yeah. There's a sense of responsibility about doing doing it justice, I suppose. But thus far, the feedback has been really positive and they seem to feel like we are doing it. Um yeah, being kind of uh respectful of it as well as sort of trying to There's an element of you have to make it into your own thing and make it into a TV show.

Yeah. It's got everything as well. It's romance, historic, adventure. Sci-fi.

Yes, it was a weird kind of mongrel of a of a story because obviously there's time travel. There's historical romance, historical adventure. And then yeah, I mean in typical sort of Diana Gabaldon fashion, the story sort of ranges across lots of different sort of uh story lines. Then towards the end of the season it comes to some of the sort of darker stuff of the first book, which is the encounter between Jack and Jamie in Wentworth Prison. Which is quite a lot to take in, right? It's a it's a it's hard to watch. It's violent and yeah, I mean if if half the stuff we shot is on is in, uh it will be uncomfortable viewing.

Yeah. And you had a great, you had a great love scene in the first season. Yeah. And that was your first. Is this right?

This is correct. This is correct. I've never been asked to be a lover man.

I know. I know. How was that? I mean, I've never, I've never done a love scene on I've done love scenes. I've never I've never made out with a woman. It's a rumor. It's a rumor going around. I'll just clear out. I am not a virgin. And but yeah, popping your cherry in front of a lot of people not it wasn't real, but it's just that it's it's is it is it weird?

It is weird, yeah. I mean, it's no other way around there. Yeah. It's odd. It's a curious way to spend a couple of hours, you know, in a room that's pretty full. It's got a lot of people in there. And, you know, you pull out your bums out and uh, you know.

Yeah. No, I just remember your bum from season one. It's a beautiful bum. It's a great bum.

But listen, I had um, the lovely Caitriona Balfe.

I was going to say it was going to be her. Um to to ease my pain. So yeah. Right. Is there a moment for you in in this whole journey that's stuck out as being that six hours being, you know, wow, you know.

Um, yeah, I think um, I mean some of the the toughest stuff we shot in the first half of the season was the the sort of pre-story between Jamie and I, which is the slogging scene and um seems like a very kind of important um ingredient to sort of set up the rest of the story. And uh I even find it hard to watch. So yeah, we must have done something right, I suppose.

Yeah, some good good prosthetics. And obviously you mentioned it's in it's in Scotland. This is shot in Scotland. But you've been everywhere to shoot things, you know, things as as people know nowadays are always on vacation. Yes. Um, what three things can't you be without? To start with the basics. Let's start with the basics. A tooth your toothbrush. Okay. It's smart. Because sometimes you can be Most people wouldn't predict for us because there's That's another. They think we have bad teeth over there. We have horrible teeth.

I do have quite wonky teeth.

You have quite good teeth. They're not mine. You now Now mine. You've been a You've done it Americans have done your teeth.

They actually wasn't a choice. It was in England. They were knocked out before I came to America.

Oh, really? It's someone punched them out.

Someone punched them out, yeah.

We got to hear that story. This has gone dark, hasn't it? This has gone dark. It's now like Black Mirror. I'm going to interview you now. So how so when did you first realize you'd lost your teeth?

After I fell to the ground and was like That taste of blood. But I got great teeth out of it.

You do have great teeth. But now everyone knows that they're not mine. I've got to talk about Black Mirror quickly as well.

Oh, yeah. I actually watched that. Someone recommended it. Someone uh who I was interviewing on this sofa recommended it and I went home and watched it. Very interesting stuff. Charlie Brooker is a rather brilliant man. He just has such an unusual kind of satirical mind. And I've been a fan of his for for a long time. He does a show called Screen Wipe, which is kind of his satirical look at like what's going on in the news and stuff. He's a very brilliant man and yes, I was just very excited to And that was the second season I did. So they'd done three, which had all been brilliant. And I mean he seems weirdly prolific because each one is completely sort of different in itself.

So different. So different, yeah. Starz Network, watch this guy. He's brilliant. Outlander. Outlander. To play two people. Show off. Two people.