Richard Rankin Talks Emotional Last Day of Filming 'Outlander' & New Show 'Rebus'

For almost 10 years, Richard Rankin has played Roger Wakefield on Outlander, where he’s been time-traveling back and forth 200 years. So technically, he’s actually worked on Outlander for 210 years. Outlander math. Rankin sat down exclusively with SheKnows to chat about his time on the long-running Starz show, and talk about his new show, Rebus, where he plays Detective John Rebus, a character that is the exact opposite of Roger, in every single way. Rankin shares what it was like being a lead in his own show, and his bittersweet and emotional last day filming with co-stars Caitríona Balfe, Sam Heughan, and Sophie Skelton.

SheKnows: Richard, this is such a great vehicle for you. It’s gritty, suspenseful. And I love that your character likes to punch first and think last. It’s kind of amazing.

Richard Rankin: Yeah! How many episodes have you watched?

SK: I watched four of them.

RR: Well done, trying to get back on my good side, Reshma.

SK:  I mean, it’s a campaign. I’ll be running it for the next few years.

RR:  You’re doing really well. You’re earning points. But yes, he does like to punch now and ask later. I think it’s just something that’s in him. He has a very quick temperament. And I think that is for a multitude of reasons. He just has a sort of a fire inside him. He’s an ex-military man. It’s sort of inherent in him, his reactions almost subconscious. And we learn this very quickly about him, which I’m very grateful for, because it really helped me as an actor to know that that’s what he was capable of, and just that that could just be him at any moment.

SK: The opening scene where he’s about to kill that guy. It established him so well. So, you’ve been doing Outlander for like 10 years now, what drew you to this particular character and how is he different from Roger?

RR: Could he be any more different from Roger?! It’s a lot of things, really, when I got involved with this show, I met with Niall MacCormick, the director, and Gregory Burke, and they put forward an idea of the show, which I found to be quite quickly irresistible. Niall had an amazing mood board and examples of how he wanted it to be shot in terms of the aesthetic, and the cinematography and the tone and the grittiness. And I remember specifically saying to him, if this is how we get to shoot it, then I’m in. I’d already read the script at this point. When I read those first 10-15, pages, I thought, wow, we are really going for a different angle here. We’re going for something very fresh, very unique, very original. And this is a character that we’re taking which is very well known, very well loved in Scotland. Well, actually, not Scotland, kind of worldwide. Ian Rankin’s novels are, you know, brilliant. Such a huge following and a huge fan base.

SK: Have you been asked if you’re related to Ian and if you’re a “nepo baby?” I know you’re not.

RR: [laughing] No, we’re not. We used to joke that we were uncle and nephew. Before that, Ian Rankin actually said to me… I kind of feel like it was on Twitter, but maybe it was in person. He said, “I’m going to write something for you one day, I’m going to put you in something. And I don’t know what that is, but it’s going to be soon.” And it happened. Everything sort of fell into place in a way. I think without all of these elements, I’m not sure that I would have done it. I didn’t really want to be doing procedural crime, or playing a detective or a police officer. Again, not that there’s anything wrong with it, and there’s a huge appetite for that kind of television. It’s just, I didn’t really see that for me, but it’s Rebus, the director’s incredible. It’s coming from brilliant source material, and we’ve got an incredibly talented writer adapting it. And I thought, “Well, okay, we can really reimagine this world in a very new, very exciting way.”

SK: It’s so different from what you’ve been doing. I think it takes you a little out of your comfort zone.

RR: Absolutely, it takes me out of my comfort zone! It required a lot of me. It required so much of me to take this character and commit. Every ounce of me over the period of shooting into the prep up to that point.

SK: On that note, when you’re on one show for 10 years, it’s quite a lot. You’re working with the same group of actors. On Rebus, obviously you’re number one on the call sheet, you’re setting the tone on set. What did you learn from, working with Caitriona and Sam on Outlander, that you have taken and brought to other sets that you’re on?

RR: I think that’s just that awareness of what, for lack of a better word, the weight of being number one. You have a head of department for every department, right, for lighting, for costume, for makeup, for your camera team, for grips, your electricians, all the rest. I suppose you could say that whoever’s number one on the call sheet is kind of the head of the head of department for the actors, in a kind of an unofficial way, they do set the tone. You do look to them, and you do, kind of, you take him, and you look at what they’re doing, how they’re going about their day, how they’re influencing, you know, the rest of the cast members, and you see the influence that that has, whether or not – And this is not in reference to Caitríona. This is just generally speaking, you, you do see the influence that they have, good or bad down the line exactly. It states what is acceptable and what’s not on set.

SK: Anything specific you learned from the Outlander gang and are taking with you.

RR: Oh yeah! I mean just the tone that Caitríona and Sam, I suppose it was a kind of a kind of a “co pro” with them. They just set a very relaxed, very welcoming atmosphere. Especially for people who are visiting or guest actors or who are coming on for an episode, it’s very important. A lot of people are going to be coming in, they might be quite anxious, especially to such a huge show, thinking there’s expectations. They’re going to be aware that a lot of us cast members have, you know, been together for a very long period of time, and there might be, a bit of unease or apprehension, I think helping people come on to set.

I don’t think there’s ever a reason why you shouldn’t have a good day on set. I don’t think anybody should be intimidated. I don’t think anybody should be made to feel in any way sort of scared or unwelcome, or like they can’t be free to enjoy their time there and do their job. I don’t think that should ever be the case. I think people should always have the opportunity to go and have fun on set, because that’s why actors ultimately do what they do is to go and enjoy that process. And I think the space around them should be as much as possible, we should curate a space around them in which to be able to do that.

SK: What is one thing that was fun about doing a new show, and one thing that was a little challenging?

RR: I mean, it’s just fun to do a new show. It was fun to have the opportunity to be able to apply all of my sort of craft to, all that it required of me was to come and do my job to its fullest potential. And I feel like I had that opportunity so that was incredible. Challenge? It was very tiring, and I was in pretty much all day, every day, and the content was demanding. So, I had to work Saturdays and Sundays every week. We were rehearsing out of hours with other actors that we wanted to sort of finesse things with. None of this is a complaint, by the way, it was just the process. It was probably the most challenging aspect of it, and trying to do anything out with of work was difficult, like getting to the gym or going for a run….

SK: I feel like punching people on camera is a good workout. Don’t underestimate that.

RR:  Oh, I don’t know that I should advocate violence.

SK:  Pretend violence! So, you guys wrapped Outlander last week. What was that like for you, and what are you looking forward to next? What’s the next genre you’re going to be in?

RR: I don’t know. I don’t know!

SK: I think comedy. I’m just putting it out there.

RR: Yeah, I don’t think comedy is my forte really.

SK: You’re funny when you don’t mean to be.

RR: I think that’s the problem, if that’s actually true, then that’s a problem, because then I need to be able to do it when I’m asked, I think!

SK: You can do both. I’m not saying this just to get back in your good graces.

RR:  I’d give it a go.

SK: I think you should. So, what was the what was the last day like? The second last day, like on set?

RR: It was weird. It was weird because we’d already wrapped twice. I wrapped on main unit, and then I wrapped on second unit, and then we wrapped on reshoots and pickups last week. So, it was like, almost like, being in some sort of purgatory when you’re just like wrapping on the same show. It’s like God, and it was like, I don’t know, because when you wrap on something, there’s always, you know, as a round of applause, and everyone’s really grateful for each other, and it’s a lot hugging and stuff going on, and then you kind of do it. But when we wrapped on Friday, I wrapped with Caitríona and Sam, and it was, I think we kind of stepped back from it, because we’d done the ceremonious parts. So, it was like, “Oh, okay, thanks, thanks, guys. I suppose I’ll just go then.” And then you go and you get your stuff from your trailer and, like, this is just, it’s just the nature of it. Yeah, and then I left.

SK: You didn’t go out and celebrate?

RR: It didn’t hit me until later on, oh no we’ve spent a lot of great time together the last couple of weeks for sure, we’ve celebrated. Just was saying how it was in that moment. Yeah, we had a great time from New York and coming back and heading out for dinners, drinks and making sure that we properly wrapped the show. But there was one point that evening of the day that I wrapped where I just thought to myself, “I’ll never play Roger again.” And that was a really profound moment. I felt… bizarrely emotional.

SK: Did you cry? Because I feel like it would be hard not to.

RR: Yeah, I did actually quite, quite sort of like (laughing) spontaneously, out of nowhere. I was very teary. I couldn’t even tell you why. I just thought to myself, I’ll never play this character again. And it was kind of like someone had died a little bit.

SK: Aw…. So we’re out of time.

RR: Oh, you’re just going to leave me like that? Thanks, Reshma!

SK: Yes, I’m going to just make you cry and head out. But I think Outlander fans and all of your fans in general, are going to love this new piece. It’s so different than what you have played, and you do such a great job. Thank you so much, Richard.

Rebus is streaming now on Viaplay in the US. Outlander season 7, part two begins on November 22^nd on Starz. Watch Rankin and co-stars John Bell, Skelton, Balfe and Heughan chat about season 7 at the Paley Center event.

This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

Before you go, check out the all-time best ‘Outlander’ episodes you need to watch.