Outlander star Sam Heughan has said that actors on the long-running historical drama were "perhaps forced" into filming nude scenes, describing the process as "always a negotiation" with producers that "wasn't particularly a nice one". His comments, made during an on-stage conversation with fellow Scottish actor Alan Cumming at Pitlochry Festival Theatre, shed light on working conditions during the show's early years before industry safeguards for intimate scenes became standard.

Heughan, who played Jamie Fraser across all eight series of the show since it began in 2014, said the production initially lacked intimacy co-ordinators and that cast members were "very much left to our own devices". He contrasted this with current practices, calling the later introduction of intimacy co-ordinators a "great protection" for performers, and noted guidelines had improved significantly over the past 12 years. Cumming told the audience that "some lines have been crossed" in the past, while Heughan also described filming his character's rape and torture as the most challenging scene of his career. Outlander concluded this year, though a prequel, Blood of My Blood, has been renewed for a second series airing in September; producer Sony Pictures Television has been approached for comment.