There’s nothing like the absence of screens to turn you into a reader. Irish actress Caitríona Balfe says: “When I was growing up, we didn’t have a TV for a long time. So our thing would be to go to the library every week, and you’d get three or four books, and then that would be the kind of thing you do as entertainment.”
The reading habit of 46 years has endured, although now he finds himself not only with television, but also in one of the most popular programs: Outlanderadapted by Starz from Diana Gabaldon’s book series. Balfe has spent more than a decade starring as the adventurous Claire, opposite Sam Heughan, as the show’s eighth and final season is underway.
He says about the series that he started filming in 2013, he says: “It has been an important part of my life. [filming in 2024]a quarter of my life had been on the show. It was the most amazing, most amazing trip. ” The show created a romantic atmosphere at the time, fueled by incredible love, historical proportions, and highly talked-about moments. Finally, Balfe speaks negatively about the partner he found in Heughan. He says: “We always went along with how we wanted to describe this couple. “It was very important to us that it wasn’t empty and that it wasn’t just feeding the audience what they think they want, but more what will motivate them.”
However, she says there are pressures when it comes to many body images. “They come from the studio, or they come from the audience, and you’re an actor – you’re a person – it’s not my first thing that I want to do, take off my clothes. And so it became an interesting challenge to be like ‘We want to show you a real, honest relationship.'”
Much of the filming was done without the support of an intimate coordinator until Vanessa Coffey joined the show after Season 5. “I wish we had. [one]”Says Balfe about the role of the coordinator of intimacy, which especially became popular after reading #MeToo in 2017. “I think we learned from some of the pitfalls. I was lucky that both Sam and Tobias [Menzies] — and Sam and Tobias could say that because they had pictures too — that we were all good friends and could take care of each other. But in the beginning, it didn’t always know what was being filmed, how it was being filmed, and then you’re looking at screenshots and memes and you’re like, ‘Oh, my God, my poor parents.’ And you learn the hard way, maybe, how to protect yourself more. ”
Outside of television, Balfe has amassed a career of carefully selected film projects that demonstrate his depth as an actor. He starred alongside Oscar winners Matt Damon and Christian Bale Ford v Ferrariwhile starring in Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast earned him two Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations. Next, you have the style of Jane Austen Sense and Sensibility in which she plays Mrs. Dashwood opposite Daisy Edgar-Jones – a role she was nervous about taking, given how well-known the material is. An interview with director Georgia Oakley confirmed the deal.
“When I heard he was doing it, I said, ‘Oh, okay, that’s interesting, I’ll talk to him,'” he says. “And when we talked, he had this great vision. I think it will be very different visually. I think the first versions, even though they were poor, they still lived in this crazy family, and I think he made it easier. You can clearly see that they have lost things, to a great extent. And I know it was a beautiful love story between my sister. “
Read on to discover four of Balfe’s favorite books — one of which is tied to an upcoming literary project Balfe will star in.
His first choice is A Soldier’s Ship by Claire Kilroya book about the struggles of an Irish mother in the early days of motherhood. She says: “I read this when my son was about 2 years old, and I vividly remember sitting on the bed and like my heart was in my throat and being scared by it and being scared by the things I understood in it. And I’m also saying, ‘Oh, thank God it’s not that bad for me.’
The book, which was long-listed for the Women’s Prize in 2024, also helped Balfe face the “heartbreak” of motherhood. He says: “That’s something that people don’t explain to you when you’re about to become a parent, that there’s grief for the person you were. “It wasn’t easy for me to have a child, so I was in this place where I was saying, ‘I have to be very grateful,’ but then you were hit by these waves of these other emotions and I couldn’t explain it.’
This book also influenced the way he thinks about raising his son. He says: “He’s just this clean vessel, and he has a lot of compassion and kindness, and that’s all. And if, well, how can we stop this society from changing him and making him something that he already is?
His second choice is The song of the prophet by Paul Lynch. “Actually, I had chosen a previous book that he had written, a beautiful book called Mercyso I knew about him as a writer,” says Balfe The song of the prophet when I came out, I said, ‘Oh, I’ve got to get Paul’s new book,’ completely unprepared for what was between its pages.”
The song of the prophet tells the story of a family torn apart as Ireland descends into totalitarianism. He says: “It really shows how easy it can be for the world around you to change, and when you’re trying to live in your own little world, you can miss things. “We’re blinded by our self-promotion in the way of Western democracy because we see ourselves as this kind of evolution and how well we’ve prepared things, but why shouldn’t it happen to us as easily as it happens to anyone else?
Balfe began reading his third choice, Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier20 years ago, but he recently took it up again to prepare for his role Housekeeperwhich foreshadows du Maurier’s possible influence for this book. “I read it very differently this time, because now I look at it and read it about the discovery of Daphne du Maurier and what kind of person she was, how that influenced all the people she wrote about,” she says.
The film, starring Helena Bonham Carter, Emma Laird, and Anthony Hopkins, imagines that du Maurier arrives at the old house of a British widow, and falls in love with the housekeeper, played by Balfe. She adds: “It’s like I’m playing a version of Mrs. Danvers, but it’s very different from the Mrs. Danvers book. “It’s based on a novella that Rose Tremain wrote, and she added a novel that will come out this year. I read it too, it’s very good.”
His last book, Orbital by Samantha Harveywon the 2024 Booker Prize and tells the story of life aboard the International Space Station. “I’ve given it as a gift more than any other book,” says Balfe. “I’ve probably given it to about 10 people. He took the book on a family vacation to Mexico and loved it. It’s the kind of book where you read a page, and then you realize you’ve been dreaming for more than 10 minutes, and you’re like, ‘Oh, my God!’ It took me completely by surprise.
He continues: “I don’t know if this thing happens to you when you fly, but how you feel when you watch movies or read in the air.” I think there’s something about that detachment from being on Earth that puts you in this vulnerable, emotional state.
If you are in an airplane, can you imagine what it would be like to be orbiting in space?”
Check out the full episode below.
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