Mary and Blake had the pleasure of speaking with Tara Bennett on Outlander Cast recently. You can find the audio interview here. But as we’ve done in the past, we wanted to bring you a completely separate post exploring 14 personal questions with Tara that were not included in the original interview. Click “read more” to find out more about Tara Bennett the person including her favorite show, guilty pleasure, celebrity crush, worst mistake of her career and much more.
Outlander Cast: Whats your favorite song from any of the Outlander soundtracks?
Tara Bennett: Oh you know, I do love “Faith.” Faith made me cry. That cue for that episode, it got me. When I was watching the episode at SONY, I got to see it and it was scored with an uncompleted episode. And I was sitting in the SONY offices blubbering by myself in a conference room and I was like, “damn it, Bear!” So he definitely got me.
OC: Have you ever had a “star struck” moment?
TB: Oh gosh, yeah. I mean I try to hold it together as much as possible, but you know when I get to talk to a guy like Mark Hamill the other day, which, for a nerd like me, who played with all of her Star Wars stuff as a kid was like, “get out!” When I met Joss Whedon, oh gosh… yeah, I’ve gotten to talk to and meet some of my greatest heroes and being able to do that – in the moment I try not come off like a complete moron. Afterwards, I might go shake in a bathroom for a couple of minutes and go, “OH MY GOD!” But I try to keep it together like a professional in the moment. But yeah I’ve had a quite a few moments when I’ve pinched myself and asked, “how the heck did that just happen?!”
Here’s a little inside tip on me: if I get super nervous, I have to go run to the bathroom (which is really rare for me because I can hold it like a camel). So if someone says, “oh I’m gonna go talk to so and so” and I say, “I gotta go to the bathroom!”, everybody knows that Tara’s losing her mind. That’s definitely the barometer of how nervous Tara is.
Here’s a little inside tip on me: if I get super nervous, I have to go run to the bathroom (which is really rare for me because I can hold it like a camel). So if someone says, “oh I’m gonna go talk to so and so” and I say, “I gotta go to the bathroom!”, everybody knows that Tara’s losing her mind. That’s definitely the barometer of how nervous Tara is.
OC: What’s your favorite part of Outlander or Dragonfly In Amber?
TB: I think in the first book, I really love the relationship building between Jamie and Claire. So, I think the whole leading in toward their relationship and seeing how that built sucked me in. I really like them as people and I like seeing how they found each other in the situation that Diana put them in. I really enjoyed that. And then Dragonfly really surprised me when I opened the book and was like, “wait, um, how, what, when are we starting with this?!?” I think I was really drawn in by how Diana completely flipped the lid on what my expectations were with where the story was going to start when I opened that book and I was really taken in by her structure and the unexpected telling of that story – which I thought was really, really cool.
OC: What book is on your nightstand right now?
TB; David Lynch – he has a book about things that will inspire you [Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity]. So I have that right now. It’s these little short, kind of daily, things to look at as a creative person to keep you going during a place where you don’t know where you need to go next creatively.
OC: Guilty pleasure?
TB: Ohhhh – well I will say television because I watch A LOT OF TELEVISION (laughs). And trying desperately to do that while I work and not have one take over the other. And I guess when I need a total downtime, I will crack out my iPad and play these stupid games, like Gummy Drop, or Cascade, or I’ll just sit there and play dumb things, like matching things, for an hour. For some reason, that’s the thing when I don’t have to think about anything – I’m just looking and swiping and that’s kind of my dumb space where I go when I need to decompress.
OC: What’s the one interesting fact that no one really knows about you?
TB: Oh gosh, that’s a really good one. What are my weird secret nerdisms? Well, people that know me really well will know this but most don’t. You know how people, when they are younger loved things, like Grease or specific famous movies? Well, I have this really life-long obsession with Xanadu, which starred Olivia Newton John, and had ELO’s soundtrack. And I actually used to – with my cousin who introduced me to Outlander – I’m totally going to out her right now! – we used to listen to that soundtrack every day and dress up and act it out like three times a day, like complete whackadoodles. So just know if anyone looks at me today, and asks, “what’s your issue?!” – just listen to that! (laughs)
OC: Last song played on CD or .mp3?
TB: Oh I was listening on my iPad, and I’m a huge Paul McCartney fan, so I was actually just listening to “Back To The Egg”… which is a totally weird album that I love, that a lot of people will go, “huh?” Which would also explain a lot of the weirdness from me too. (laughs)
OC: Favorite film of all time?
TB: Um..its…ok, Alien! Alien. I have three that I shift around, but honestly it’s always Alien. For me – I love Ripley, I love Sigourney Weaver, I loved the themes of that movie and as soon as I saw that character, it turned into me wanting to be Ripley when I grew up. Still trying to get there, but you know I think that’s a good thing to strive toward.
OC: Favorite food?
TB: Depending on the day – I am a chocoholic. But otherwise, um, yeah chocolate. I could probably go through life just being fine with that. Yeah. Chocolate.
OC: You’re on a desert island for the rest of your life, but you get to bring two famous people with you – who ya bringing?
TB: Oh that’s a good question (pauses)… I’ll go with – wow you got me! I should be bringing a chef and I should be bringing someone like Jeff Probst or something so I could get off of said island. I would say, the Dahli Lhama and, this is really weird, but James Cameron (laughs). Because there is a deep part of me and there’s just another part of me that would just wanna nerd out with someone like James Cameron and talk about all these movie things too. That would just be awesome.
OC: Celebrity Crush?
TB: Oh… hmm… I think Hugh Jackman. I still, yeah, I did get a chance to interview him and he is just a truly lovely person. Yeah, he lands it. He’s not one of those people who “be careful who you meet.” You know? He was awesome. He’s so gracious, and really nice. Good guy.
OC: I bet he’s perfect at anything he does. Like, if you wanted to play him in chess, he would smoke you because he’s just that good at life. The guy sings, he dances, he’s Wolverine…
TB: Right!? I know! Honestly, I tell you this – he smells amazing. I’m sure he just floats. There’s no walking, he just floats on a cloud of perfection and none of us can match that. It’s like, “don’t look at us, you! We’re not worthy!”
OC: Favorite TV show of all time?
TB; I’m gonna have to go back to Buffy: The Vampire Slayer. Because Buffy was the kind of show that, I think, it changed for me how I watched television, and how much I engaged with television, and it is also the show that kind of changed my career into something I could never have expected.
OC: Worst mistake you’ve ever made?
TB: Boy, oh boy – that’s a long list. (laughs). Let’s just say I’ve made relationship mistakes in my past and they have taught me much about the choices I have made and my future! Which, of course, leads to more chocolate. So there ya go.
This is an excerpt from the Outlander Cast interview with Tara D. Bennett that was recorded exclusively for Outlander Cast Blog readers.
To hear the rest of the interview, you can find the audio interview here.
To hear the rest of the interview, you can find the audio interview here.
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