Caitriona Balfe almost didn’t land the role of Claire Fraser on Outlander

Imagine a scenario in which Caitriona Balfe wasn’t the one playing the role of Claire Fraser on Outlander. Preposterous, I know! I simply can’t envision anyone else being in that role, but apparently, it almost happened.

Less than a decade ago, circa 2013, Balfe was trying to make her name as an actress, but she was unknown and struggling. Thanks to her manager, she got the chance to send in an audition tape for the role of Claire Fraser, but it went nowhere. She never heard back from the casting team and she chalked it up to the fact that she was given next to no information about the role itself.

Balfe spoke about the turn of events that ended up landing her the role eventually, and I have to say it was fate at play here. While on The Hollywood Reporter’s podcast Awards Chatter, Balfe revealed she was given a second chance at the part, and the rest is, as they say, history.

How Caitriona Balfe landed her Outlander role

Caitriona Balfe was going nowhere fast right before she got the role of Claire Fraser on Outlander. It had been nearly five months since she had work, and she was at the breaking point and about to give up (as is the case for so many successful actors right before they get their breakout role).

As I mentioned above, Balfe’s manager had her send in an audition tape for a new television role, but she knew absolutely nothing about it. “My manager had sent me this two or three-line logline and was like, ‘Here, tape this audition,’” Balfe said. “It was such a thinly drawn description of the role, of the character.” Apparently, it had no description about Diana Gabaldon’s novel series, or about who Claire was as a character.

“None of that information was on it,” Balfe explained. “It was basically ‘a nurse.’ There was no personality description. I think it was, ‘a nurse, 1940s.’ It didn’t even mention, I think, the time travel. It was literally two lines.”

If you’re wondering why Caitriona Balfe was given such little information, well, that’s because when you’re not high up on the ladder of Hollywood success, you’re not given access to much at all.

"I think this is what people also don’t understand is that when you are as low down on the rung as I was at that point, every bit of access is minimized. So if I had had an agent and an agency and all of those things, I probably would have gotten half a page of a logline. I would have gotten who the creators are, what the network is, what the order is. Is it just a pilot? Is it a full season order? All of these things. But you don’t. You just get these two little lines, and it’s like, ‘Make something up out of that.’"

Well, she sent that tape in and heard nothing back. She wasn’t too surprised by that given how little information she had to go off of for the audition. However, as I mentioned before, fate had other plans.

“Then I actually went to Belgium to shoot three days on an indie film,” Balfe said. “While I was over in Europe, I went to London. My manager had put me in touch with an agent in London and I’d had a meeting with him.”

This agent took one look at Caitriona Balfe and knew she was the perfect person to play the role of Claire Fraser (well, duh!).

“He was like, ‘I think you’d be really good for this role,’” Balfe said. “I was like, ‘Oh, I’ve already auditioned for that. They didn’t want me.’ He said, ‘Well, can I see your tape?’ I sent it to him, and he was like, ‘You know, I don’t think that that’s what they’re looking for. Here’s a better description of the character. Here’s a little bit more in depth. Will you re-tape?’ I said, ‘Of course, I’m literally doing nothing else.’ So I re-taped, and it went in.”

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is when Balfe’s career took a drastic turn for the better.

She was supposed to go on vacation but was called in by the creators because they wanted to meet her right away. She went in and did a chemistry test with actor Sam Heughan (who was also an unknown at the time). I don’t know about the rest of you, but this all feels so strange to think about now! Unknown actors!?

“It went straight from having sent in that [second] tape, not hearing anything for maybe two weeks and then all of a sudden they want you to do the chemistry read,” Balfe remembered. “They were so down to the wire—they were supposed to start shooting mid-September and this was happening in August. Sam had already been cast in June, so I don’t think they had time to go through many rounds.”

Things went pretty fast from there. She got the call to go in, had three days to read the first Outlander book before her test with Heughan, and voila–she was cast! Balfe recalls executive producer Ronald D. Moore giving her some solid encouragement once she had been cast, and honestly, it gives me goosebumps reading what he said.

“His exact words were, ‘Are you ready for your life to change?’ He literally said that as the elevator was opening, and I was like, ‘I guess?’” Balfe said.

Not only did her life change, but she also went on to snag awards, nominations, and even star in Oscar-nominated films like this year’s Belfast. We are so proud of Caitriona Balfe, and so thankful to her manager and that London agent for never giving up on her. They gave us our Claire Fraser, and for that, we are so grateful!

Check Balfe out in Belfast (she’s phenomenal!), and mark your calendars for March 6, when Outlander season 6 finally premieres.

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h/t Parade