As Outlander Ends, Caitríona Balfe Enters a Brave New World—One She’s Long Been Building For Herself

Four years ago, Caitríona Balfe longed to lead an episode of Outlander, the time-traveling Starz romance she’s starred in since 2014. “I’d been chipping away at the door like, ‘Come on guys, please. I really want to direct,’ probably since season three,” she tells Vanity Fair now. Balfe inched closer during season seven with the opportunity to direct some second unit footage. But on March 6, as part of the show’s long-awaited eighth and final season, audiences will see Balfe’s dream finally come true with episode two, the fittingly titled “Prophecies,” her directorial debut. “It’s such a buzz,” Balfe says with a smile. “Honestly, when I was directing that episode, it kind of felt like season one again. My brain was just firing on all cylinders.”

Balfe left her native Ireland at age 19 to become one of the most sought-after runway models of the early 2000s, walking shows for Chanel, Valentino, and Givenchy. Her transition to acting yielded small parts in J.J. Abrams’s Super 8 (2011) and Now You See Me (2013), but Balfe wanted more, and at one point even considered quitting acting altogether. Then came her breakthrough role as Claire Beauchamp, a former World War II nurse in Scotland transported back to the mid-18th century, where she collides with a group of rebel Highlanders, including her true love Jamie, played by Scottish actor Sam Heughan.

Once upon a time, she and Heughan’s steamy, kilt-ripping scenes were the talk of the town—and sparked incessant, baseless speculation about the nature of their off-screen relationship. (Balfe married Scottish music manager Anthony McGill and announced the birth of their son, whose name has not been made public, in August 2021.) “Sam and I immediately bonded. From the very first moment we met at our chemistry test, I was like, this is a man who is so thoughtful and kind,” Balfe says, “and we just immediately clicked. In the very beginning, we sort of promised that we would have each other’s backs because we knew that we were going to be at the center of this thing for as long as it went on for. And that has remained.”

Now that the horny antics of Heated Rivalry are sweeping the globe, what would Balfe tell breakout stars Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams about navigating their newfound fame? “I haven’t seen Heated Rivalry yet,” she admits. “But it seems that phenomenon far eclipses our show. You got to just be grateful for the experience,” Balfe continues, adding with a laugh: “And make sure that you send messages to your parents not to watch certain episodes.”

And a word of warning from one half of TV’s most beloved onscreen couples to another: know when to log off. “The fans have been beyond generous, sending so much love towards us, and initiatives we’ve supported. That has far eclipsed the negativity,” says Balfe. But she’s also learned the value in staying offline. “In the beginning, we were all so much more active on social media, or at least I used to be back in the day before it became a cesspool,” she says. “It’s hard not to absorb some of it. But then you quickly realize these people aren’t in my life. My life is not online.”

These days, Balfe utilizes her social platform to raise awareness for causes close to her heart, including the current humanitarian crisis in Gaza. “I’ve always been politically literate and voiced my opinions before I was an actor,” she says. “If you’re standing up for children, that just goes without saying. That to me isn’t even being political, that’s being a human being. We should all be able to just blanketly agree that children should be protected. That shouldn’t be picking a side. If you're alive at this moment, you should be able to just live how you want.” Although Balfe is inclined to get politically involved, each actor must make that decision for themselves, she adds, “I don’t think that we should be policing each other.”

Balfe often felt a calling towards advocacy during her eight seasons on Outlander. At the start of season five, she and Heughan became executive producers alongside mainstay EPs Ronald D. Moore, Maril Davis, and Matthew B. Roberts. “The writers changed every season. Sam and I were the throughline that had to filter all these different voices that were coming in so that the character remained the same throughout,” she explains now. “Like with any job, if you’re going to be somewhere for a decade, you need to keep growing. You need to keep adding to your skillset, otherwise you become stagnant.”

In between seasons spent in the Scottish Highlands, Balfe has made a name for herself in film: first Jodie Foster’s Money Monster between seasons one and two, opposite Christian Bale in the Oscar-nominated Ford v Ferrari between seasons four and five, even earning a Golden Globe nomination for Belfast before filming seasons seven and eight. Upon seeing the diverse crew on Kenneth Branagh’s semi-autobiographical film, Balfe returned to the Outlander set along with Heughen to champion an inclusive transformation of their own production staff. “The moment you make people aware of the fact that this is not a very diverse crew,” says Balfe, you can then discover from where the deficiency stems. “Maybe the problem is that they’re not investing in giving everybody the opportunity to learn the skills so that they can do the job. Outlander set up this skills program where they would go into schools and do outreach: ‘Come work on the show, develop your skills.’ When we finished, was there parity? No. But I think the framework was started, and the industry as a whole in Scotland was becoming more diverse.”

When filming wrapped in late 2024, Balfe took six months off to spend with her young family. After that, “I definitely wasn’t looking for another period drama,” she says with a laugh. Then came a new film adaptation of Jane Austen’s Sense & Sensibility from rising Blue Jean director Georgia Oakley. “Just talking with her about her vision, I was like, ‘Oh, this feels really fresh,’” says Balfe. “And to play a much freer, younger version of Mrs. Dashwood felt sort of exciting.” The Daisy Edgar-Jones-led Sense & Sensibility will be released this September. Balfe’s other upcoming projects include A Long Winter, Oscar-nominated Irish filmmaker Andrew Haigh’s follow-up to All of Us Strangers, and Jennifer Peedom’s Tenzing, in which Balfe stars alongside Tom Hiddleston and Willem Dafoe. “I’ve been having a nice year,” Balfe demures.

Still, her former professional home sometimes beckons. “I am enjoying being in London,” says Balfe, “but then I sort of feel like I need to stand in a Scottish forest and be rained on. You know what I mean?” I ask if she, like her character Claire, could travel back in time to Outlander season one, what would Balfe tell herself? “Oh, take more holidays when you can,” she sighs wistfully. “Look, I’m glad when I started that I didn’t know it would go as long as it did. I was taking it one step at a time. I don’t know that I could have enjoyed it any more than I have. I’d just probably tell myself to get a bit more sleep.”