SCAD TVfest honored actors Sophie Skelton and Noah Centineo with big awards over the weekend, highlighting both the end and the beginning of two television journeys.
Skelton received the Lumiere Award during a screening of the television series “Outlander,” based on the book series by Diana Gabaldon. Skelton plays Brianna on the time-traveling television romance, daughter of main characters Jamie and Claire Fraser. The latter half of season seven just finished airing in January, and season eight is set to be the series’ last.
In season seven, Brianna spends most of her time apart from the rest of the principal cast – her son Jemmy is kidnapped and her husband Roger (Richard Rankin) goes back in time to rescue him, leaving Brianna to fend for their daughter, Mandy.
Skelton made her first appearance as Brianna in 2016. The Brianna we see in season seven is a product of eight years of emotional growth and maturity, but she wasn’t a huge hit with fans at first. Skelton, who knew where Brianna would end up toward the end of her arc due to Gabaldon’s books, was excited to play her from the beginning.
“Knowing that Brianna goes to this strong, less stoic, more vulnerable, but got her sh*t together moment, and then having to play the 16-year-old version, was actually really fun, but also a challenge,” Skelton said. “Especially when some people maybe didn’t gel with the younger Brianna – I was like, no, just give her a second!”
Skelton credited the books with giving her a firm idea of where Brianna would end up, along with the ability to strip back from that ending point when it came to her character. She also said a few life changes over the years have given her a better understanding of what it means to be responsible for another being, as Brianna spends the majority of the seventh season worried sick about both of her children. Skelton doesn’t have children herself, but she is the proud owner of a Great Dane named Loka.
“It sounds so silly. I’ve had dogs my whole life, but I just got a dog myself,” she said. “Just to have that feeling of protection over something you’re so responsible for, I think that that is something that maybe I couldn’t have played six years ago
Season eight has already wrapped filming, so Skelton has been working on other projects and thinking about what comes next.
“I think it’s always quite terrifying, I suppose, when you’ve been in one character’s head for so long, to then do something else,” she said. “I’m just really conscious of making sure that it’s a clean difference from Brianna.”
Skelton might be ending her big “Outlander” journey, but another honoree’s television moment is just getting started. SCAD TVfest gave actor Noah Centineo the Distinguished Performance Award for his work on “The Recruit.” Centineo stars as CIA lawyer Owen Hendricks who becomes involved in increasingly dangerous international espionage plots as the show goes on. The second season premiered on Netflix on Jan. 30.
Centineo, who started his own production company Arkhum Productions in 2023, also serves as an executive producer on the show. He said he felt that role broadened the scope of his responsibility.
“I’d like to say that on ‘The Recruit’ in particular, the role of EP extends to making sure that the cast is taken care of,” he said. “The cast has everything they need to feel comfortable and safe and passionate and excited to show up to work every single day.”
Centineo said the group of other producers working on the show, which was created by Alexi Hawley, helped immensely.
“We have such an incredible team of physical producers,” he said. “Different supervising producers, line producers, coordination team, everything. It’s such a good team that they take care of all of it, and they do a really, really great job. So really, the only hat that I wear is showing up every day, doing my job and connecting with the cast.”
Netflix has yet to announce if “The Recruit” will be renewed for season three.