Caitriona Balfe, who plays protagonist Claire Fraser in the Starz series Outlander, had fans in hysterics as she shared the details of a hilarious on-set prank during their final days of shooting.
Filming for the show’s eighth and final season, which is estimated to be released sometime next year, recently wrapped. This spurred an emotional outpouring from its cast members on social media, who had filmed more than 100 episodes together over the course of a decade.
Ahead of season 7, part 2, Caitriona appeared beside her co-star Sam Heughan, who plays her husband Jamie Fraser on the show, at the New York Comic Con.
They were joined by various members of the cast and crew, including Roger Wakefield actor Richard Rankin and Executive Producer Maril Davis.
During the on-stage panel interview, the cast spoke about taking various props and outfits home from set, with Sam explaining that the costume department had gifted him Jamie’s kilt.
Richard also mentioned wanting to get his hands on one of Roger’s “cool coats”, while Caitriona marvelled at Claire’s many costumes with an abundance of useful pockets.
At this point, Richard joked: “Do you realise, Maril, how much stuff’s already been stolen?”
“I feel like you guys don’t think we know when things go missing,” Maril replied, causing the audience to laugh.
“But some of that we engineer ourselves. We send things home to you that you might want or might not want…”
This led to Sam revealing a rather funny prank producers pulled on the show’s lead, Caitriona.
“Did you not get a gift recently?” Sam asked his on-screen wife, prompting her to chuckle before she responded: “I did. I got a wonderful gift from Maril and Matt (Roberts). It was a beautiful bench.”
Maril then elaborated: “There was a particular bench that Caitriona didn’t love as much as the rest because it wasn’t very comfortable. And we might have sent it to her house after wrapping.”
Caitriona interjected: “Ok, here, in my defence Claire Fraser has always had really, really impeccable taste in furniture.
“It’s always been beautiful, it’s always been comfortable. She marries the two very well and this just did not stand up to it.”
Sam interrupted: “It kept appearing on set and Caitriona would come on and then get them to get rid of it!”
“I kept sending it away!” the actress explained, as Sam added: “So this poor bench got banished.”
“I came home on the last day of wrap and the bench was sitting in my yard,” Caitriona revealed, as the audience got another fit of the giggles.
Asked if it was still there, the star replied sheepishly: “We’re not going to discuss where the bench is.”
“She sent it back again,” Sam clarified cheekily, as Maril quipped: “And it will follow her for her whole life.”
The amusing exchange comes after Outlander released a tear-jerking trailer teasing what’s to come in the brand-new episodes of season 7.
Following the closure of Lionsgate+ in the UK, new episodes of Outlander will be available on Starz and to stream on Prime Video channel MGM+ from Sunday, November 22. You must be an Amazon Prime member before you can sign up for MGM+.