Sam Heughan and Caitriona Balfe’s Real-Life Friendship: Inside Their ‘Outlander’ Bond
Claire & Jamie’s portrayers have a close relationship behind-the-scenes
When you play lovers on screen for over a decade, you’re bound to form a strong bond, and that’s exactly the case for Outlander’s Sam Heughan and Caitriona Balfe, who have played Jamie and Claire Fraser on the Starz hit since 2014. Their love story has spanned across decades and continents, and off-screen, the duo have become close pals over the years. In Outlander, Balfe’s Claire travels back in time to 1743 Scotland, where she meets handsome Scotsman Jamie—and her world is forever changed. Here, see what Caitriona Balfe and Sam Heughan have said about one another over the years.
Sam and Caitriona ‘have got each other’s back’
Growing close over the years they’ve spent working with each other, it’s clear that the respect and admiration the two share for one another. “Sam’s just so kind,” Caitriona told Elle in 2017. “He’s a really good friend. He always checks in. I don’t know, he has one of the biggest hearts and smallest egos that I know.”
Sam also gushed about his costar, saying, “No, she’s not only a great actress, she’s a great friend and a great advice giver, too. And we have each other’s backs. It’s a remarkable journey that we’ve been on, starting this together, being thrown in the deep end and being like, Okay! We’re going to do this together. It’s a nice bond and I think people are fascinated by it, in a weird way—I know the fans are. We respect each other and have got each other’s backs. I’m very fortunate that we have that, it’s great.”
The ‘Outlander’ duo is always proud of each other
Acting alongside one another for so long, the two have come to truly admire each other’s craft. During a conversation with TVLine, Balfe remembered watching Heughan during a scene of an episode she directed in the upcoming eighth season. “It was just so beautifully done, and when I was watching it, I was like, ‘That is why every woman falls in love with Jamie Fraser.’”
The show’s producers recognize their chemistry as well
When you have two leads as impressive as this acting duo, oftentimes, egos can get in the way, causing conflict and drama on set. However, that’s hardly the case with Sam Heughan and Caitriona Balfe, and it’s something that producer Maril Davis is grateful for.
“That friendship and that chemistry has always been so evident and they just work so well together and you see it on the screen and you see it in real life and that relationship,” she told Express in 2023. “I have so much respect for them that they have been able to have this friendship but they’re the only two that have been in that position and they’ve remained really strong and I think that that has helped guide our show in terms of, there hasn’t been a falling out between the two of them, they’ve maintained they know how important that is.”
Jamie and Caitriona were an instant fit
While many women tested for the role of Claire, Caitriona was ultimately the perfect fit, and the chemistry between these two actors was instantaneous. “We just started chatting in the test before we started the audition, and we just seemed to get on,” he told Entertainment Weekly back in 2014. “Her humor is fantastic. She’s great fun to work with. She’s very hardworking, a wonderful actress, very natural. It’s been really fun to see where the relationship goes between us. We didn’t make any overly complex decisions on our characters’ relationship. We just wanted to see where the story has taken us. So far, it’s been a real journey.”
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