Meet Sam Retford, the Australian-born actor making waves on both stage and screen. From his early theatre work in Manchester to memorable TV roles in Hollyoaks: Tom’s Life and Ackley Bridge, Sam has tackled complex characters with authenticity and heart. His recent projects include Coronation Street, the musical film White Wedding, and the highly anticipated Outlander prequel, Blood of My Blood, where he stars as Dougal MacKenzie. Beyond acting, Sam is an adventurer at heart, with a passion for travel, surfing, and motorcycles bringing the same curiosity and energy to life off-screen as he does to every role he plays.

Listen to the full interview on our new Spotify channel!

**Photographer:** *Dmi Vas* *master.it.london* *Photographed on Mamiya rz67 Pro ii / Kodak Pro Portra 400*
**Grooming:** *Laisum Fung* *@aisumfung*
**Assistant**: kaye_sl
**Style**: *Actors own*

-Dmi (Editor)

Hello, I’m Dima, and let’s start with this little interview we have. I’d like you to tell us who Sam is. Tell us about yourself. Who are you?

-Sam

- I’m Sam Retford. That’s the easy bit, I guess. And who am I? Right now, I’m having a wonderful time. I’m having a wonderful adventure at the minute. That’s who I am right now. I feel very lucky to have the opportunity to explore as much as I am doing at the moment, which is fantastic.

Many actors talk about the moment they knew they wanted to act. Was it a slow burner for you, or did you know from the start? What was the defining moment that lit the fuse?

-Sam

- I’d say I never really decided it was something I wanted to do. I wasn’t the most academic in school. I was very disruptive. But this memory came to me a few years ago. It was my head teacher at the school I was at. There was an incident where I got into a fight with another kid and rather than chastising me, he looked at me and said, there’s nothing here for you. But I can see how much you light up when you perform, how much you enjoy that. I want to help you with that.

He worked with the school and helped to sponsor me to go to acting classes in Manchester, which was huge. That gave me a vocation, somewhere to channel myself. Even then, I never thought it would be a career. It felt unrealistic.

But people kept being silly enough to invite me onto a set and do some acting. On my first job I actually asked the first AD who I should pay for the class. He told me, no, this is a job, you’re being paid to do this now. And that was it.

I kept going, and I’m still waiting for it to end really. I’m still waiting for someone to realize they’ve made a terrible mistake. But it means you wake up every day and you have the best day of your life. It’s phenomenal. What a privilege to still be a kid, to play dress-up, to fight with swords with your friends.

**Photographer:** *Dmi Vas* *master.it.london* *Photographed on Mamiya rz67 Pro ii / Kodak Pro Portra 100*
**Assistant**: kaye_sl
**Grooming:** *Laisum Fung* *@aisumfung*
**Stylist:** *Andrew Burling* *@andrewburling*
**Coat & Jumper** - Sandro @sandroparis
**Trousers** - Salt + West @saltandwest
**Boots** - Dr Martens@drmartensofficial

And getting paid to do that as well. I used to do LARP, live-action role-playing. We had villages, 40 or 50 people, mages, orcs, elves, and we’d spend two or three days camping in this fantasy world. We had scripts and roles, and it was a lot of fun.

-Sam

- A hundred percent. I mean, the privilege you have with that is that no one says cut. You know what I mean? You get to keep playing in that world and you find it sometimes and you get so invigorated and so lost in this world and there's horses and you've got your swords and you're pumped full of blood and adrenaline and it's just the most wonderful thing. And then someone says cut and it all stops and you go back to real life and suddenly you've got your lunch and you're eating with a knife and fork and you're like, I don't really know how to adjust to this. I kind of really like just like eating chicken wings with my hand or eating pig's eyes as they had me do a few times this year.

You stepped into the role of Dougal MacKenzie in Outlander: Blood of My Blood. How did you mentally and physically prepare to take on a character so rooted in history and legacy?

- It was interesting. Character work for me often comes from a technical point of view because my passion is cinema, filmmaking, cameras, storytelling behind the camera. I’ve run film companies with good friends and developed stories that way. So when I act, I often think technically. I approach it a bit like an accent. If you do enough groundwork, it comes naturally the more you do it. With characters, embedding foundations works the same way. And every so often a character comes along that has just enough ties to your core self.

I’m not too closely related to Dougal, but I could connect to his passion for identity, belonging, internal fire and energy. That was fun to tap into. Physically, it was simple: eat a lot, go to the gym every day, put on weight, grow a beard, and train with swords. I wanted my physicality to be practical. Dougal is a heavy-set man with presence. Graham McTavish, who played him originally, is a giant of a man.

At my first costume fitting I tried on his plaid and felt dwarfed. I thought, I need to eat more. That was the start of the transformation. Then I found they wanted me sprinting a lot, so the role became very physical, which was amazing fun.

Speaking of Graham, did you reach out to him or watch his performance to shape your own version, or did you want to keep it completely fresh?

- I deliberately didn’t watch too much of his Dougal, because I didn’t want to mimic him. He is phenomenal, and he created such an iconic character. But my Dougal is younger, he’s fiery, a bit reckless, still finding himself. I wanted to bring that raw energy, the sense that he’s still working out his place in the world. Later, when I watched Graham’s version again, I thought, okay, I can see the throughline. That was a relief.

**The series has such a dedicated fan base. Did that feel like extra pressure stepping into a role with such an established legacy?**

-Sam

- Yes and no. Of course you’re aware of how much people care. Outlander fans are amazing. But on set, you’re just with your castmates, your crew, in that world, trying to tell the truth of the story. That’s all you can really do. If you start thinking about millions of people watching, you’ll freeze up. I tried to focus on the relationships, the world, the humanity of the character. Then, hopefully, the rest takes care of itself.

**What draws you to a character? What makes you say yes to a role?**

-Sam

- It’s always about the story. Does it excite me? Does it say something about people, about the world? Sometimes it’s also just about fun. Dougal was fun. I get to run around in mud, swing swords, live in a world hundreds of years ago. But often, it’s when a character scares me a bit. When I think, can I do this? That’s usually a good sign. It means I’ll grow.

So what do you think travel teaches you about people? Because you were saying you travel with your friends, with your pals.

It's interesting because quite a lot of the time I spend outdoors is very much on my own. So I'd say I've definitely learned more about myself than I have about other people traveling. Because when I feel like I travel and have those experiences with other people, then it's less about the activity. It's less about what you're doing. It's more about the experience. It's more about the joy. A friend of ours, who we met while we were in South America last year, he had this beautiful quote. And he said that you can feel joy, but happiness is joy shared. So joy is something you can feel internally.

But that feeling of happiness is only achievable and only tangible when you're sharing it. And I really, really find that, especially when I'm out on my own and you see something, you experience something, you find your head turning to see who to look to share it with. And as much as I find some beautiful times in the solitude, I always treasure coming back and being able to have shared experiences with people.

That's something I realized last year, traveling, is that people are so important.

Outside of acting, how do you recharge? What grounds you?

- I love nature. I love hiking, being outside. I love cooking. And I have a very close group of friends who keep me sane. It’s important to have people around you who knew you before all this, who keep you grounded.

**What advice would you give to young actors just starting out?**

-Sam

- Don’t wait for permission. Create. Write your own stories, film them with your friends, put things out into the world. And don’t be afraid to fail. Most of this job is failing. The fun is in keeping going, in surprising yourself.

Sam Retford on Outlander, Adventures, and Living with an Open Palm

Listen to the full interview on our new Spotify channel!

BTS