Outlander has already gotten off to a rip roarin’ start in Season 6, with Jamie having to make some tough decisions while also trying to keep Young Ian happy, Claire still struggling to deal with the trauma from her kidnapping and rape, Tom Christie’s power play, and (of course) the American Revolutionary War drawing ever closer. With all of this turmoil, though, the second episode of Outlander Season 6 managed to pull off a very intimate birth scene for Marsali and Fergus’ newest bairn, and actors Lauren Lyle and César Domboy joined intimacy coordinator Vanessa Coffey to talk about how they made it happen.
What Did Lauren Lyle and César Domboy Reveal About Marsali’s Outlander Season 6 Birth Scene?
As any Outlander fan worth their salt will know by now, Marsali and Fergus are…extremely fertile, and, as such, Marsali has been pregnant to some degree for a considerable portion of the time we’ve seen the character on screen. However, Season 6, Episode 2 featured a much more emotional and physically revealing birth for her than ever before, and Lauren Lyle and César Domboy opened up to TVLine about helping to craft the intimate scene, saying:
Lauren Lyle: The godsend is that everything is prosthetic. So that’s lovely and very helpful. We had good conversations and figured out why is it that that’s happening and what we wanted to do with it. So we worked it out, and it was great. César Domboy: It’s almost like a choreography at some point, because it’s me and Lauren literally going beat after beat, like, ‘OK, should we do this? Should I move there?’ Because you have to be aesthetic at some point, and to sell something like that, it has to be watchable…We found our rhythm.
OK, so if you haven’t watched the episode just yet, BEWARE! Spoilers are ahead! Ready?
Alright, so Marsali ended Season 5 pregnant with their fourth child, and the beginning of this season was a good time for her to give birth. Unfortunately, this delivery did not go as easily as the previous ones, with things moving very slowly and the situation becoming more potentially dangerous for mother and child. As we saw when Marsali delivered Felicite last season, Fergus was there to lend a helping hand, but this time his hands found his way to Marsali’s bare breast (which he also kissed) before moving to parts further down. Luckily, this works and she’s able to bring their son, Henri-Christian, into the world safely.
END SPOILERS!
As we’ve heard before when actors talk about working with intimacy coordinators, Lyle and Domboy revealed that part of what Vanessa Coffey helped them do was not only choreograph the scene, but first figure out why things are being done that way and how they can make sure both actors are comfortable with how it will be performed. Like Lyle noted, though, a big thing that added to her personal comfort level was the fact that she was able to have not just a fake belly, but a prosthetic breast as well.
Coffey was brought on for Season 6 by star Sam Heughan, who previously talked about wanting to make sure that the show could “get something more out of” intimate moments like this so that they’d have additional meaning. It certainly sounds like her work helped here, and Coffey spoke more about why the prosthetics were also helpful for the realism of the birth scene, saying:
So yes, we did have a prosthetic breast in place. That was also because obviously with Lauren’s breasts, her breasts wouldn’t look pregnant in the way Marsali’s should. The nipple changes quite a lot when you’re pregnant, especially in that state of pregnancy. So, again, we had to be true to what you would actually see at that time.
It’s good to know that Lauren Lyle and César Domboy were able to find their “rhythm” in the birth scene, which is sure to become one of the most memorable Outlander moments ever, despite how complicated this season is set to be. Outlander Season 6 continues Sundays on Starz, but for more to watch be sure to check out the 2022 TV premiere dates to see what else is on the small screen right now!
