Graham McTavish is no stranger to intense onscreen combat, having portrayed Scottish war chief Dougal MacKenzie in the first two seasons of Outlander and taken part in epic battles across Middle-earth in Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy. Still, his preparation for the role of Korris in Spartacus: House of Ashur proved to be the most demanding challenge of his career so far. Speaking to TV Insider, McTavish admits that the boot camp for the Starz spinoff was “by far the hardest,” giving him a newfound appreciation for what his close friend Sam Heughan endured while filming Outlander Season 1.
In Spartacus: House of Ashur, McTavish plays Korris, a retired gladiator who has earned his freedom and now trains fighters in Ashur’s (Nick E. Tarabay) ludus. For the first time in the franchise’s history, that group includes a woman alongside the men preparing to battle for glory in the arenas of Ancient Rome. Although Korris no longer competes professionally, he still finds himself fighting on the streets of Capua, and his body count continues to rise. One of the most striking elements of his role is the use of an authentic bullwhip while training gladiators, adding another layer of danger and realism to the already brutal drama.
“The training was very tough. It doesn’t get any easier,” McTavish says. “I did what they call boot camp. I did it for The Hobbit. I did it for Outlander, and now for this. This is by far the hardest one because you just have to have a level of fitness and agility that is believable, really. And certainly for the guys in the ludus, they really, really, really had to be on top form because they were fighting quite literally every day in one form or another. It was great. I like those challenges.”
While McTavish embraced the physical demands of the role, he admits he underestimated how difficult it would be to master the whip. “I’ve got to be honest, the whip was quite tricky. I wish I could just say, ‘Hey, the whip was nothing.’ No, the swords were fine. That was fine. No problem with the swords. The whip, it’s so much technique,” he explains. Although he managed one particular style with confidence, the more elaborate movements required far more practice. “There was one style that I could do pretty well, but then there were other more fancy styles. They were pretty tricky, but we got there. We got there in the end.”
Unlike swords, which can be dulled or fitted with fake blades for safety, a whip leaves no room for shortcuts. “There was a real crack, and when you did it, terrifying,” McTavish says, describing the unnerving realism of the weapon. He went on to explain the precise mechanics required to handle it safely and effectively. “It’s how you move it over your head. If you can go up and down, you do a swirling action, you do a whip across, and with those whips, you have to make absolutely sure that they never hit you because it really hurts,” he says. “It really, really, really hurts. So it gives me newfound respect for Sam being brutally whipped all through Outlander.”
That respect stems from Heughan’s harrowing scenes as Jamie Fraser in Outlander, where the character is repeatedly whipped by Captain Jack Randall, played by Tobias Menzies. One of those scenes leaves Jamie with horrific scars across his back that never fully fade. Although Heughan did not actually endure real lashings, McTavish now better understands how exhausting and precisely choreographed those moments must have been to film, as well as the level of care required to keep an actor safe while making the violence look brutally real on screen.
