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Photo: Aurora Corvillo Diez

We waited (some of us more patiently than others) for what seemed like forever on the announcement of who would be cast as Claire.

Sam’s casting was announced July 9th, and knowing that production was supposed to begin mid-September, we expected news of our leading lady to come ‘any day now.’ After all, they had to rehearse, right?

The rest of July passed with no other casting announcements. August gave us Frank/Black Jack Randall, Angus Mhor & Mrs Fitz, but still no Claire.

August 29th, Sam taunted us with these tweets:

Tomorrow, I’m going to introduce you all to my new friend…

— Sam Heughan (@Heughan) August 29, 2013

Think: beautiful, wild hair, brown eyes..

— Sam Heughan (@Heughan) August 29, 2013

I know right? What a tease! It turned out to be:

RUSTY! pic.twitter.com/Uq8jPylhdV

— Sam Heughan (@Heughan) August 30, 2013

September 5th produced Colum & Dougal, Sept 10th gave us Murtagh…

Then, on September 11th our patience was rewarded.

Her name is Catriona Balfe (pronounced Katreena Balf).  She’s a former Victoria Secret model, well-rounded actress probably best known for her roles in Super 8, Now You See Me, and the not yet released Escape Plan (with Arnold Scwarzzenager & Sylvester Stallone).

Here’s a brief clip of her speaking in an interview:

Don’t you think she even sounds like Claire should sound? She is irish and, get this—knows Gaelic:

@drobertsjhs @MoreThanTango I grew up speaking Gaelic, the boys won’t be able to talk behind my back on set now 😉

— Caitriona Balfe (@caitrionambalfe) September 13, 2013

I just LOVE that about her!

So- she looks like Claire, can hold her own with the boys on set, but do she & Sam have chemistry?  Here’s what Herself had to say about that:

“Hard to believe lightning can strike twice, but it surely did.  The moment Caitriona Balfe came on screen, I sat up straight and said, ‘There she is!’  She and Sam Heughan absolutely lit up the screen with fireworks.” ~ Diana Gabaldon

And, she later elaborated on Compuserve:

Hm.  Well, I can tell you that they’d never met or read together before (because Sam told me that), and I can tell you what the scenes were, I think. (Aside from anything else,… some of the audition scene scripts had apparently leaked, because a number of the self-taped auditions I saw on VIMEO were using them.)

Anything else I know was told me by the production or PR people and I can’t talk about those things unless I ask them specifically if it’s OK to mention thus-and-so.   (Not that there’s anything at all mysterious or weird; it’s just that some of the corporate entities involved are secretive by habit, and hey–it’s their show.)

There are two audition scenes, two takes of each, each about five minutes long.   The first one is the conversation between Jamie and Claire right after they’ve had sex for the first time, where she asks him, “Was it like you expected it to be?”, he tells her about horses and snakes , and it ends with “Do you want to do it again?”  “Would ye mind verra much?” and “No.  I wouldn’t mind at all.”  It starts with them fairly far apart, sitting facing each other, and they get closer and closer during the conversation, so with “I wouldn’t mind at all,” they’re kissing.

The second one is the big fight they have along the road, after Jamie, Dougal and the other men rescue Claire from Fort William.   That’s the one that ends with, “You’re tearing my guts out, Claire,” and then “Forgiven.”   That’s the one that had fireworks.  ~ Diana Gabaldon

I simply can not WAIT to see them together! For the time being, the closest we’re going to get is this selfie they took just the other day:

First Jamie and Claire selfie @Writer_DG@Heughan@Outlander_Starz#outlander@TallShipProds#jamie#clairepic.twitter.com/OQ2EZ6Qo8p

— Caitriona Balfe (@caitrionambalfe) September 20, 2013

Love them!