"Outlander's" Sophie Skelton on the Life-Changing Choice Bree Has to Make

From Oprah Magazine

• Sophie Skelton returns as Brianna Fraser in Outlander season 5.
  

• The 25-year-old British actress joined the series based on Diana Gabaldon's books at the end of season 2.

• In this exclusive interview from OprahMag.com's visit to the set in Scotland, Skelton talks about what's in store for Brianna and Roger (Richard Rankin).

To say that the Outlander cast is tight-lipped about what exactly will happen in season 5 is an understatement. But ahead of the Starz series' February 16 premiere, Sophie Skelton tells OprahMag.com this much: "We put you through the wringer. You can laugh through the tears, put it that way."

At the time of our chat, Skelton and the crew are on a break from shooting an intense, emergency-driven scene with Caitriona Balfe and Sam Heughan, who play her TV mom and dad (we've been sworn to secrecy, but let's just say it involves a major book moment). Conceived in the 18th century and born in the 20th, Skelton's Brianna Randall Fraser first appeared in the season 2 finale. Since then, Bree's met the love of her life, traveled back in time to meet her biological father, endured a brutal rape at the hands of villain Stephen Bonnet, and given birth to her first child.

The extremity of Bree's ups and downs, the bulk of which took place in season 4 alone, exemplify what could be considered rule one of being an Outlander fan: If your favorite characters experience momentary bliss, be prepared for the bottom to fall out at any minute.

"Everyone has their own trauma this season," Skelton says, when asked which character has the most stressful plot line this year. "I’d say Bree, Roger [Richard Rankin], and Jamie all go through a lot. Claire has a tough time…it's all in very different ways! Can’t really give too much away on that."

Will fans experience more tears of joy or tears of heartbreak? I ask, echoing a fan's question to Outlander writer and executive producer Matthew B. Roberts last September. (For the record, Roberts's answer was "yes.")

"There’s probably more heartbreak, I hate to say it," Skelton admits. "You get your nuggets of joy, and then we just take them away from you!" Sounds like Outlander, all right.

There are some warm and fuzzy things to look forward to, including Adso the cat, a British Shorthair who's made an appearance across cast members' Instagram accounts, as well as Bree's very own horse. Most importantly, Bree's now the mother of a growing boy—a rapidly growing boy.

"I think we're onto our third set of twins now, but they've all been really great," she says of the tiny actors who've played little Jemmy. Skelton admits that its markedly easier to work with the older tots. "Quite a little personality! It’s fun, because it means that Jemmy can become a lot more of the storyline, which will be interesting." Skelton hints at "great stuff with Jemmy" toward the end of season 5.

We first met Bree as a Harvard undergrad, and Skelton has relished the opportunity to show Bree's progression. "This season, for Bree, is mostly about the lengths she would go to protect her child."

Taking on the role of Bree was a formidable challenge, and Skelton says she was "sort of warned at the very beginning." As with any book adapted to screen, passionate fans of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series had their own ideas of what Claire and Jamie's offspring should be like (and the show's producers know it: Ahead of her first appearance, Skelton told Entertainment Weekly that they had to reshoot her first scene because her dyed-red hair wasn't 110 percent perfect yet).

Bree's entry point in the Outlander saga arguably didn't help: As viewers contended with Jamie and Claire's agonizing goodbye at Culloden, they were also introduced to Bree as a petulant undergrad who said cruel things to Claire—an arguably normal reaction when you learn that your real biological father lived in the 1700s, and your mom loved him more than she did the man that raised you. We've all been there, right?

"I was always looking forward to books four and five, because that's when Brianna really becomes the Bree that I love," Skelton says. "When she’s growing up, she’s struggling with Frank’s death, and the relationship with her mum being so strained that she can kind of act out a little bit, as you’ve seen."

Skelton makes an astute observation about any urge to read Bree's behavior as bratty. "There's a kind of Fraser temperament that in an 18^th-century Highlander man can look one way. But put that in an 18-year-old girl? What looks strong here looks bratty there, which is quite difficult." Fortunately, "one thing that’s been surprising is fans doing a bit of a turnaround, in terms of reading the books and picturing the Bree that we’ve created onscreen, as opposed to book Bree."

You'll see the softer side of Bree in season 5, Skelton says, and she and Roger are "the strongest you've ever seen them." When the couple is together, that is. "As always with Roger and Bree, they get torn apart a lot." They do have a difference of opinion on whether to stay in the 1700s, and whether to make that choice is something Bree will grapple with.

"Roger came back somewhat temporarily, whereas Bree is with her dad. She’s with her mother, who she never thought she’d see again," she says. "For Bree, home is where the family is and where her dad is. So I think Bree can settle into this time a lot more than Roger can."

That said, she faces her own growing pains on the Ridge. "A lot of Bree’s frustrations come from the fact that she can’t execute her career here," Skelton explains. "For Claire, she can be a healer, but Bree? An engineering degree in the 1700s isn’t the easiest." The season will touch on her dealing with the role shift to being an 18th-century mother, as well as "the cook, the cleaner, and everything else" a woman of her time is solely expected to be.

Whether or not Bree chooses to travel back to the future with Jemmy and Roger in tow remains to be seen (unless, of course, you've read the books). But the British actress who plays her loves where she is right now. "It’s quite rare that you work on something where there aren’t any egos, and everybody is so down to earth and so lovely and so welcoming that we do all genuinely get on that well. There’s a lot of banter on set."

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