Who is Sam Heughan, you say? First of all, it’s Sam HEW-han, or Sam Heasdf;lkj as I like to refer to him because keysmash is how he makes me feel.

No one knew or cared (well, his family probably did) who he was before 5:00 pm last Friday when a Starz PR intern (who shall remain nameless but is now fully relegated to coffee and faxes instead of twitter) jumped the gun and announced that “HEY THIS GUY YOU DON’T KNOW WILL BE JAMIE FRASER! HAVE A GREAT HOLIDAY WEEKEND. *dustcloud*” And all of twitter and the Outlander fandom were like …

 

ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW: SAM HEUGHAN IS JAMIE FRASER

Maybe you guys don’t understand but JAMIE FRASER HAS BEEN CAST??!?!?!?! This is major news. Don’t remember Jamie Fraser and Outlander or what the hell I’m talking about? Here’s a refresher. Do you have any idea how long-suffering Outlander fans are? The first book was published in 1991. That’s right.

My good friend Shhhhalan alerted me to this bit of news as I was coming in from the pool, and before I stopped dripping on the tile, I had managed to follow Sam on twitter. Because the casting of Jamie Fraser required my immediate attention. So I’m busy checking twitter, tumblr, Facebook and Google while texting Bekah and trying to cook dinner for my kids (guess what didn’t get done?)

Me: Jamie Fraser’s been cast

Bekah: What????!? Who???

Me: Sam Heughan

Bekah: Hot?? Tell me he’s hot.  You don’t sound excited. I’m scared.

Me: I’m still looking him up and following him on twitter. HOLD ON

Bekah: Oh…younger than I thought. Cute.

Me: GAH.

Bekah: Ooh .. blue eyes look nice. He looks big. Muscular. Needs red body hair. More … MAN. Less lacrosse player.

Me: OH MAN HIS MOUTH.

Bekah: TELL ME!!

Me: It’s NICE. And he’s Scottish. YAY!

Bekah: OOh … has he been in much?

Me: Bunch of British stuff.

Bekah: Age?

Me: 33!!! He’s a 1980 baby like me! His face is really nice. Jaw. Lips. Eyes.

*10 minutes later*

Me: Oh shit. I think I love him.

Bekah: Ahh!! YAY!

As if I had any other choice after watching this business 10 times:

Good lord. That’s a boy that can bring it.

So, my original internet stalking taught me Sam is 6’3″ (Jamie’s exact height), and built lean like a basketball player, has played some pretty intense gay roles on stage and on tv, is ridiculously handsome and is actually Scottish. Here he is being silly.

 

Here he is being gay sexy. (Sidenote: a;slkjl;dkfjasl;kfjaslkfj)

 

Then I saw this little trailer and was super impressed in just a couple of minutes. SOLD.

 

 OH BUT THEN THE NAYSAYERS CAME OUT

These idiots. Heavens. Coming up with all kind of excuses why Sam is not “their Jamie.” (Imma stop you right there, Negative Nellys, and remind you to dinna fash yerself about “your” Jamie. Your imagination is not what’s important here. The author is pretty clear on what Jamie looks and is like. So stop.) The best part is: Diana Gabaldon just lays the smack down on them. I kind of love it. Her facebook page has been full of all kinds of arguments – from the creator, mind you – about why Sam is so great for Jamie. And these goofballs are still talking about Gerard Butler.

In case you can’t read that, this girl Kimberly was all “HIM?” And Diana G was all:

 

Their biggest complaints?

1. His hair. Is.Not.Red.Or.Long

You’ve been to your local CVS right? There are literally entire aisles devoted to hair dye. As to its length, JAMIE HAS SHORT HAIR. It’s not longer until he’s older. I even read someone say that he needs a wig. A WIG. We know how wigs go, you guys. They never go well.

2. His natural voice isn’t “Scottish” enough.

This one baffles me. He’s Scottish. And an actor. Pretty sure that means he can handle it. I’m Southern but I don’t sound like a debutante or a redneck. BUT I CAN. Very easily in fact. Oh, and listen to the Scotland Promo here and tell me his voice isn’t rich and sexy and Scottish.

3. He’s not “bulky” or “braw” or whatever.

I’m gonna chalk this complaint (and most of them to be quite honest) up to POOR READING COMPREHENSION SKILLS. Jamie is not a heavy weight prize-fighter. He’s lean. Ms. Gabaldon dropped the mic on this already, so I’m not going to re-hash it. I’ll just let the first time Claire looks at him naked do it for you.

Emphasis mine to show you how wrong you are. If you get “hairy, bulky man muscles” from that description than nothing I can say will help you. You need a reading comprehension seminar or some shit.

4. And then there’s this girl on Facebook: “I’m not so concerned about muscle as “presence.” Would men respect and follow him? Also, he has to be able to stand up to Claire. He just looks boyish to me. He hasn’t seen enough of life.”

UM. WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?

 

Then the author basically told everyone to go the eff home

How many books to film have we talked about around here? Dozens at least. How many authors get on their personal blogs and start giving everyone the minute details of the first time they saw the audition tapes of a certain actor, how that felt, what scenes they did, and how amazing they were? BEFORE THEY ARE EVEN CONFIRMED. Sure, we might get a few nice words here or there during press junket time about how they killed it in the audition, or how they just WERE the character. But usually it’s just that – nice and expected words. Diana practically gushed about Sam. If the creator who has lived with the character for decades says things like, “Sam Heughan’s GONE, and so am I. It’s Jamie Fraser, right _there_ in front of me, moving, talking. One of the biggest thrills ever” then You.Trust.Her.

 

Then Sam started replying to twitter crazies and I became one

Just a week ago, this poor guy had like 1000 followers who were probably real life friends and a couple of Batman Live roadies. I’m sure his @mentions are blowing up with all kinds of nonsense. But he’s sweet and replying to people, so I do insane stuff like @ reply to him and talk about hookers and unicorns. I DON’T KNOW. I JUST WANT HIM TO ACKNOWLEDGE ME.

So, Sam: I’m @bethorne on twitter, and I’m awesome. I heard from a reliable inside source that casting you as Jamie was a “no-brainer.” So my question is, “How’d you get to be so awesome?”

SO, to make sure you’ve read this post all the way to the bottom, here are some of the best pics I’ve found of our Jamie Fraser.

 

 

 

 

 

Look at this man with a horse, y’all. Tell me you wouldn’t “let him ride you anywhere.”

 

Have an official production portrait.

And my personal favorite (which may or may not be my iphone wallpaper right now):

 

I’m basically dead you guys.

It does no good that I’m completely obsessed with this all over again. I started reading these books four years ago, and I still haven’t read them all. All of a sudden, I can’t put the books down, and I get pissed when I walk into my living room and realize I can’t turn on some JAMMF right now.

I might have gotten choked up tonight because I was little overwhelmed that my most favorite character ever has gotten such a great representation in Sam Heughan. I’m not happy that I cried, but I did it, and I felt you guys would appreciate the transparency.

 

Good news is: I found out that thanks to my industrious movie-watching husband, we already have Starz, so that’s one battle I don’t have to fight come 2014. I watched all day yesterday and somehow they aren’t running COMING TO STARZ: SAM HEUGHAN IN A KILT OR MOSTLY NAKED 2014 advertisements. Someone get on that, Starz. Preferably not the ex-social media intern who just burnt your coffee.

 

So: what do you guys think of Sam? Go say hi to him on twitter! If he replies to you (and not me) just know I will never speak to you again.