The 'Outlander: Blood Of My Blood' Cast On Intimacy, Courting, & Their Go-To Comfort Watch

Acts of service are Jamie Roy's love language. More specifically, breakfast in bed.

Love, according to the Scotsman, is a universal tongue, unbound by time or words. "[It's] just these feelings, and I think that itself transcends time," the smiling 33-year-old actor reflected on how romance is expressed in Outlander: Blood of My Blood Season 2. And good thing, because Season 2 is just as nonlinear as Season 1, following two central couples through time: Roy's Brian Fraser and Ellen MacKenzie, played by Harriet Slater, in the corset-clad 18th century, and Henry Beauchamp and Julia Moriston, played by Jeremy Irvine and Hermione Corfield, respectively, living out their lives in the 1920s, khaki and all.

Though the base emotion may stay the same, Roy knows romantic gestures change with the time period. He offers an example: "An act of love today would probably be different than, you know, back in the day. Like, for instance, you can go and kill a dude in the 1700s and say that was for love… You do that today, and it's a bit of a red flag."

Corfield sees time itself as an act of love. "You can have romantic moments today, and I think when people do them, it's more romantic. Something that takes effort." For Julia and Henry in Outlander: Blood of My Blood Season 2, their relationship is all about effort. Irvine defines perfect love as trust. "And I think also loving each other's flaws, which I think they do," Corfield added. That is, until those flaws start to threaten their relationship as the season goes on.

How the parallel couples navigate their relationships unfolds over 10 episodes, turning up the heat in every possible way, even teasing an epic battle in the final episodes. For the signature steamy scenes, production brought on intimacy coordinator Emma Weissensteiner to choreograph them and ensure the actors' safety. The addition of an intimacy coordinator is quite the improvement. "It's controlling a situation rather than doing what used to be back in the day, which was two actors in a bed improvising, which could lead to uncomfortable situations for everyone," Irvine explained.

Beyond the safety, Roy found a deeper artistic collaboration with the intimacy coordination team. "A lot of people think they're just there for the technical aspect, but for our show, I can speak to that they're so creative as well," Roy noted, pointing to the assistance with historical accuracy and character building. "What's the message we're trying to get across from this scene? You know, it's not just for gratuitous purpose. The characters have to change from the start to the end of it."

As such, it's easy to get pulled into stories that are grounded in such a well-fleshed-out world. Part of that is achieved through casting. Both Roy and Corfield bear a striking resemblance to their Outlander children, Jamie and Claire, played by Sam Heughan and Caitríona Balfe. "I don't think any of the cast or production, or anyone, saw it until I had dark hair," Corfield, a natural blonde, explained of her transformation. By the time she got to set, the hair and makeup department was shocked: "Oh my gosh… you look so much like her!"

Roy, who plays Jamie's father, only got the comparison once over a family holiday party after he'd been cast in the series. "I'd come back to Scotland; it was before the casting was announced," he said. "One of my relatives came up to me and said, 'You look like that guy off of that show Outlander... and, at this point, I was sworn to secrecy, so I couldn't tell anybody. And I was like, 'Really? D'you think so?'"

If you're thinking this season has a look and feel similar to the original Outlander seasons, it's because we're getting closer to that Jamie and Claire timeline. Plus, there's the aforementioned battle. But according to the executive producers, the similarity was not intentional. After leaving Season 1 on a cliffhanger, even they didn't know how the new season would pick up, and the actors were just as much in the dark. "We sort of filmed beginnings of Season 2 at the end of Season 1," Irvine shared, "and we didn't know which one they were going to use."

Roy and Slater had their own ideas. "I think that we were kind of hoping there might be a world in which they do, you know, leave and live a life in Spain," Slater suggested, Bonnie and Clyde style.

"Leave Scotland altogether forever? Alright, sounds good. Jump in the ship. Let's go," Roy mocked up some dialogue for his character.

"Why didn't we do that?" the duo laughed. "So much more fun filming in Spain!"

Escapism comes in many forms, and the key quartet in Blood of My Blood shared their go-to comfort watches. For Irvine, it's any show from British chef Rick Stein. For Roy, it's The Great British Bake Off and Love Island, which he considers more of an anthropological study. "It's almost like human torture, but they all signed up to it, and we all get to be flies on the wall and see people, how they react in this tiny little sandbox."

Slater agreed: "I was a religious Made in Chelsea watcher, and it was for that reason I found the psychology of it so interesting." But her ultimate comfort watch is Twilight (2008).

"When he first meets her, and she stinks, and then she gets on his back, and he runs up the tree," she recounts, her laughter so intense she was almost in tears. "It brings me so much joy."

An avid reader, Slater also grew up on the Harry Potter series. "I kind of remember learning to read by reading Harry Potter. I used to read the first book with my dad, and we'd take it in turns to read a chapter. I just found them so magical, and I really, really got lost in the story." While discussing the film adaptations, Slater and Roy break out their best Amos Diggory impression of "my boy" from Goblet of Fire (2005).

Corfield's choice of America's Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders also calls back to childhood. "I'm fascinated by dance. I think 'cause I danced when I was younger, and I always wondered what my career would be like as a dancer," she says. "A sad part of my brain still thinks I can do that." Perhaps an idea for Blood of My Blood Season 3.

Season 2 of Outlander: Blood of My Blood is streaming now on Starz.