The opportunity for a character’s story to unfold over several years is a rarity — one that many actors spend their entire careers dreaming about. For Sophie Skelton, there has been a particular coming of age alongside her role as Outlander’s Brianna Fraser, with her own twenties unfolding in parallel with the character she came to know intimately for over a decade.

Introduced in the series’ second season, Skelton’s time on the show demanded a remarkable range from the actress, navigating complex themes including PTSD and sexual violence, all layered against the time-travelling premise that defines the historical drama. The decision to leave university and commit fully to the role was one she made without hesitation; little did she know quite what that journey would become.

Since its debut in 2014, Outlander has cultivated an extremely loyal fanbase, with deep emotional investment in both the story and its characters. But, like all good things, it must come to an end. Filming on the eighth and final season officially wrapped in September 2024, closing the book on more than ten years of production.

With season eight set to air on Starz, it marks the end of an era for the actress, who will say goodbye to a role that has shaped most of her adult life. Since filming concluded, Skelton has moved to New York, most recently starring in I Can Only Imagine 2, based on the real story of the band MercyMe and their rise to fame.

Sitting down with 1883 (and her dog, who stayed loyally beside her throughout), she reflects on life beyond Outlander, the personal ambitions that have taken shape over the past decade, and what it means to finally step forward without the weight of a defining role.

It’s been over a decade since Outlander began. How does it feel having such a huge aspect of your life come to an end?

I feel like I’ve gone through the five stages of grief. We do such long days, so your job becomes your life, those people become your family, and that place became my home. Not only was I letting go of playing that character for ten years and being inside of her head and the job, but I was also letting go of the place and the people. It was really a big Band-Aid ripping moment.

I’m excited as I love getting my teeth into new roles, but it comes in waves, especially with us promoting the show now when we wrapped quite a while ago. I’m grateful for the stuff I’ve learnt on the job; it wasn’t always an easy ride — it’s kind of notorious for being a tough show. I definitely feel I was in the deep end of the industry for ten years, so I feel like we’re in good stead for what’s next.

I like the positive mentality, always a good way to be!

Right! It was quite liberating to let go of my twenties and the job at the same time. It definitely pleased my OCD to cut the cord and start a new chapter afresh — it was a poetic ending.

Most actors never get the chance to grow alongside a character in that way. What has it been like to grow and evolve alongside Brianna?

Professionally, I’ve learned a lot from Outlander being based on books, and also from being both British and a woman. I’ve had a high degree of people-pleasing tendencies for most of my life, so when I got this job where people had been reading the books since before I was born, I felt a huge responsibility to ensure I kept the character they had envisioned from the pages alive.

A huge learning curve for me was to trust my instincts. That was a hard lesson in the limelight, but it’s good to learn to make the character your own. You’re not going to please everyone anyway, so just do what feels right.

How about personally?

I mean, that character has been through so much. Being able to play her in flashback periods where she’s a sixteen-year-old girl trying to figure out her hormones, the guilt of her dad dying and blaming herself for it, was super interesting.

Flipping back and forth between the somewhat matured version of her and the younger version, I kept looking at some of my own tendencies as I was navigating my twenties. To be in someone’s head so intimately for ten years and be able to learn from her, see how she gets through trauma knowing that she comes out the other side, has been a beacon of light for me and hopefully for others.

Growing up watching Brianna, you know that you can get through the hardest days with compassion, empathy and grace. You can be stronger than the stuff that’s happened to you.

Were there ever times you didn’t know what was coming next for her?

I always want to put 100% in, so initially, I read the first four books and kind of knew what was coming. After that, as the show and the books split paths, I stopped reading the books because I found myself thinking “this storyline isn’t here” or “I love this bit”. I needed to let go of that and just go with the flow. It definitely got to a point where I didn’t know what was coming for her, as sometimes we’d get the script super last-minute.

I guess in some ways, acting in a role that was previously a book is kind of a poisoned chalice? Books are so personal, and people are so attached to their own vision of the character.

You project your own personality in that character, don’t you? It’s funny you say that because the author, Diana, said that she would write Brianna based on her teenage daughter, and at times you could see where their dynamic was. When you’re playing a character who’s written from the mother’s point of view and you’re the emotional daughter dealing with hormones, life and not always saying the best things, it’s hard to please people. You may as well just let it go.

Turning that on its head, I’m sure so many people likely did empathise with your portrayal. People who went, ‘this is exactly how I felt’.

Exactly. It’s really lovely when you get people coming up to you saying “it’s not what I imagined, but you did it better” or “you’ve made her more grounded”. That’s always really high praise and nice to hear.

Mainly, it’s the young women feeling seen. To have a character who’s not always written as totally redeemable or likeable is important, because we all have bits of us that aren’t great. To have someone to look up to who isn’t afraid to show their ugly side is actually quite healthy.

Perhaps people will come back at different stages of themselves, similarly to how you did as the actor, and see things in a different era through their own lens.

Totally. You see women growing up and having kids, and they’re like “I get Claire a lot more now” or whatever.

There’s been some intense twists and turns for Brianna, particularly the depiction of her PTSD. How did you prepare for those storylines?

I obviously wanted to be extremely sensitive to those storylines, and I was not under the illusion that we hadn’t already had a fair amount of rape in the show. I felt a responsibility to have it presented differently or to teach us something new about the connotations of sexual abuse or PTSD.

For example, in the books, Brianna felt guilty that she wasn’t strong enough to fight. I wanted to turn the thought process on its head where people are like, “I would have just scratched his eyes, I would have fought harder, I would have done this or that”. Which is obviously very easy to say until you’re in the situation.

I did a lot of research, and there’s something called tonic immobility, which is essentially where your body plays dead as an animalistic response.

That’s amazing to hear, honestly, but that must have been a lot for you, being in those shoes and then trying to switch off from that at the end of the day?

I usually pride myself on knowing where the day ends and my night begins, in leaving the character at the door. When you put your body through something, you can differentiate between the realism and not, but once you put your nervous system through something, it’s super interesting how it kind of sticks in your bones.

That must have been incredibly intense. With the character spanning such a large historical range, did it take a lot of looking at how women in different eras were treated and how that shaped their experiences?

A hundred per cent. The sixties and seventies, when Brianna was a young woman, were very loose in terms of the way society was.

Whereas in the 1700s, they held themselves a lot more rigidly when walking. Once I put a corset on, it does that for you.

Would you say that you have to quite like a character and the role to spend so much time playing them?

One of the golden rules of acting is that you can’t judge your character. You have to come up with reasons why they do what they do.

Outlander has a super committed fandom. Is there any interaction from a fan that has really stayed with you?

I’ve had people write letters about things they’ve never told anyone in their lives. In lockdown we had a fan convention over Zoom, and one fan shared something deeply personal with me. We ended up just sobbing together.

How do you try to approach having any kind of work/life balance?

I moved to London when we finished and had this romantic idea that I’d suddenly have loads of time to see friends and family. In reality, everyone had moved on with their lives.

To reset the scales, I went on a medical mission to Uganda with a surgeon friend who runs a non-profit.

If there were no limits, is there a role you would dream of playing?

I was a ballet dancer for a really long time, so I’d love to do something like Black Swan. I also love playing slightly messed-up characters and really delving into someone’s psychology.

Have you watched anything recently that you’d recommend?

I love Succession. I’m also obsessed with Shrinking on Apple — Jessica Williams is incredible in that.

Finally, is there any chance Outlander will see you return?

I don’t think so. Never say never, but there’s always a risk of milking something. I think we’ve done the fans and the characters justice, and it feels like a really good place to end.

The final season of Outlander is out now on STARZ.

Interview Bex Whitley

Photography  Lee Malone 

Stylist  Karen Clarkson at The Wall Group

Written by Anya Wareck

Hair Miguel Perez at Forward Artists

Makeup Lucy Wearing at Forward Artists

Stylist Assistant Maïlys Pereira