Outlander: Blood of My Blood has us more obsessed than ever! And with Season 1 coming to a close, we sat down to talk with Tony Curran about Lord Lovat’s complexity, his twisted relationship with Brian, and what we can expect from him in the upcoming episodes. Ready?
Here we go!
Like Father, Like Son…
After everything Lord Lovat has done throughout the season, we asked Curran if he thinks there’s any good in him. In this regard, he shared that “my better half, my wife, keeps asking me this. ‘Is there anything remotely to like about this man?’ And maybe there always has to be a bad guy, but there’s one thing about the way I try to play Lovat: he seems like a sort of uncompromising, vindictive, nasty piece of work, and the way his actions, the way he behaves, that would appear to be the case. But in his eyes, he feels like he didn’t fall from grace, from his titles and his lance. He feels like he was pushed. He feels like he’s been victimized, and he feels like the victim, not the victimizer.”
“So as much as he comes across as the victimizer, he feels like he’s the one who’s been hard done by. All of these things that he is doing to get back to where he belongs, well, he doesn’t have a problem behaving the way he does. So whether or not he thinks he’s a good person, that’s a good question. I think he’s quite a selfish person, more narcissistic. And I think, he’ll do anything by all means necessary to get back to where he thinks he belongs,” he pointed out.
Delving a little into that small part of Lovat that still retains some good, he and Brian have a complicated father-son relationship, but does Lovat see any of himself in Brian? Is there a part of him that loves his son, even if it’s in a twisted way? Regarding this, Curran commented that “there are moments where Lord Lovat sees a strength in Brian. He sees himself in him when he’s being brave, strong, and calculating. Although Brian is more genuine and he’s more authentic than sort of his father. But there are moments where he sees him doing something that helps Lovat, then he’s proud of him. He’s a selfish man, after all.”
“But then, when there are elements of Brian that disappoint and frustrate Lovat, then he can’t abide that. When Brian’s not holding up the sort of Lovat or the Fraser ideal, and it deeply offends and deeply frustrates Lovat is when their loggerheads together, when they fight each other, and when they disagree and have these spats with each other. So I think he thinks Brian’s a waste of time sometimes. He really does. I think he thinks less of him than he thinks more of him, if you will,” he confessed.
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The Hidden Truth
Diving into the darker side of the character and given everything he’s doing to protect the son he had with Julia, we can’t help but wonder what will happen if Lovat ever finds out the truth. About this, Curran said that “he won’t be able to Castle Leathers if he finds out the father of his child has come to get his child and his wife. I think it could be very dangerous. This would be another arrow in him. This would be another scandal if they were to find out this, the truth about who the father of this child is. And, for him, the prophecy wasn’t to come to pass because of this.”
“Obviously, Davina comes and warns Lord Lovat. She tries to warn him with good intentions because she doesn’t trust her. He won’t believe her. But, at the same time, he has to entertain the fact that this might be true. With Lovat, you’re on tenderhooks, you’re on sort of eggshells with him, as happens in that scene with Davina, who is listening to her at one moment and threatening her at the next. So I think things like that are very dangerous to him. And if he has to take someone out, well, the Reverend, for instance, to keep any more scandal from brewing or, then he will,” Curran explained.
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Facing the Consequences
Finally, with the season finale approaching, Curran shared with us that “Season 2 pretty much picks up where episode 10 finishes, actually. Maybe I can’t say too much about what was, what’s coming down the pipe, but it’s not good. It’s not good for anybody. And certainly it’s not good for Lord Lovat. But we have to ask ourselves what’s coming in episodes 8, 9, and 10. Does Lord Lovat ruin Ellen Mackenzie? Is her flower being plucked, as it were, already? Is she being deflowered? Also, is she a virgin? Is she not? But what if she is? After all, Ellen ruined the marriage between the Grants and the Mackenzies because she’s already been with someone else. And that’s ruined the Mackenzies. It’s a complete scandal. But, if it’s not, that’s when Lovat has to be malleable and move again. And maybe asking himself if someone is helping her. And maybe it’s someone close to him.”
“So, I think our second season picks up with a lot of what happens at the end of 9 and 10. And Season 1 doesn’t end well for anybody. In summary, Season 2 picks up with the carnage or with the unpredictability of where some of a lot of these characters are at and where they want to be. And obviously, good drama is never neatly tied up in a little happy little bow. So there may be some more time travel, and there’s definitely going to be more Grants, Mackenzies, and Frasers. And even within those clans of infighting, like me with Brian, Colum, and Dougal, or Arch Bug with Henry. There are no happy families in this show. Everybody’s, there’s always something going on,” he ended.
It sounds really interesting, and we can’t wait! And you?
Outlander: Blood of My Blood airs on Fridays on STARZ.
