The actors reflect on the most-talked about moment from the Starz drama
SPOILER ALERT!
SAM HEUGHAN:We approached it a lot like a play.
But then, obviously, on the day, you just have to kind of go for it.
Credit: Ed Miller/Starz
TOBIAS MENZIES:It was about trying to get the tone right.
I was keen for it to be as psychological as possible.
I just didn’t want it to feel sensational.
Sam and I didn’t talk a lot [while shooting those scenes].
We would sort of keep to ourselves between shots.
HEUGHAN:It’s not about rape.
It’s not about the act at all.
It’s about two men battling their wills to beat each other.
Obviously, Claire is involved in this so it’s about honor.
It’s kind of epic and it continues throughout season 2.
MENZIES:I don’t think Jack hates Jamie.
I think he is stimulated by him.
He’s intrigued by him.
He’s drawn to this person.
Jack is someone who is interested in pain and people’s pain thresholds.
He’s sort of clinical in his atomization of Jamie.
It’s none of those things.
And that felt truer to some sort of sadistic quality.
One of the things that we ended up deciding is for Jack to unravel Jamie in some way.
He intuits that Jamie is built on Claire.
She is Jamie’s safe place.
That’s when Jack understands how that is the person he has to contaminate.
It’s all about, in some weird way, embodying Claire.
If he can poison that relationship, then he can undermine who Jamie is in a very profound way.
HEUGHAN:Physically Jamie can deal with anything.
And I think we saw that throughout season 1.
He can put his body on the line.
He has much more to lose now he that he’s got Claire.
We found out at the end of season 1 that she’s pregnant.
So, he’s got an added responsibility.
And he’s got this mental thing now.
Normally he can shake something off.
But [the rape] has really affected him.
I think every actor enjoys putting themselves through something like that because it’s a challenge.
It’s fun to play off someone like Tobias.
He’s a great actor and it’s good to go to those dark places.
