Izzy Meikle-Small from Outlander didn't make a good first impression on Diana Gabaldon.
"I met Diana on maybe my third or fourth week of filming, and I didn't know she was going to be there," Meikle-Small, who joins Starz's famous time-travel drama as Rachel Hunter in season seven, says of meeting the author whose books inspired the TV series.
"I believe there has been a resurgence of interest in period dramas with things like Bridgerton and Queen Charlotte."
Outlander, on the other hand, is a timeless story of what individuals will do for love and their family."
"It was a hilarious day." We were all laughing because we were filming a scenario in which we were in a loch and I, Sam [Heughan], and Cat [Caitriona Balfe] were in a boat that was pushing off because we were fleeing.
"It was really high stakes," she says over Zoom in late June, recalling a scenario from earlier this season's episode "Singapore," in which British soldiers attack Fort Ticonderoga, forcing the Continental Army to retreat.
This season, Joey Phillips and Izzy Meikle-Small join the Outlander ensemble as Denny and Rachel Hunter, Quaker siblings whose paths cross with the Frasers'.
"They put us in the shallowest part of the loch, but the boat was too heavy for Sam to push away." So every time we performed the take, Sam would leap in and bravely try to push us off, and he'd always be grounded," Meikle-Small recalls.