Tom Brittney On Lt. Foster’s Surprise ‘Outlander’ Return

Tom Brittney made a surprise return to
“Outlander” last Saturday night on Starz.

The British actor returned as Lt. Jeremy
Foster, a fan favorite character from Season 1 who came face-to-face with
MacKenzie war chief Dougal MacKenzie on the battlefield in the
“Prestonpans” episode.

Lt. Foster’s reunion with Dougal was
filmed in the same location as the “Prestonpans” battle scenes —
inside a tent on a field in Scotland.

PHOTOS: ‘Outlander’: Scenes From Season 2, Episode 10 — ‘Prestonpans’

“When I was woke up to go to filming, I was being driven quite a far way out of Glasgow. Well, that’s what it felt like — and it was in the middle of nowhere in this big field and the actual field that the tent was in looked exactly like what was inside the tent,” Tom explained, when Access Hollywood spoke with him earlier this week about filming “Prestonpans.” “The field was covered in mist. I said, ‘Oh, are they going to film it here?’ And they went, ‘No.’ They just recreated it in a tent, but it looked exactly the same on the inside and out. You could’ve probably done it outside, but it was this huge, huge tent and it was just filled with smoke and soldiers.”

Jamie, Dougal, Rupert, Angus, Murtagh and Fergus were all featured in the battle scenes, but when Access asked if Tom had to shoot any battle scenes that didn’t make air, or if he was just covered in fake blood and sweat for what became Lt. Foster’s return and exit, the actor said it was the latter.

READ: ‘Outlander’: Graham McTavish & Andrew Gower Talk ‘Prestonpans’

“It was pretty much come in, chuck on my old uniform, mess up my wig, cover me in a bit of muck and mud and blood and [set] me down, and you could see that my character, Lt. Foster, has injured his leg, so he’s obviously done a bit of battling. But, no I didn’t film any battle scenes. It was just straight to the death,” Tom said.

Although his character asked to be taken to the infirmary, Dougal ended up killing him after Lt. Foster told him that the uprising would not be successful against the British.

“I like to think that he was someone who did his job, but wasn’t a soldier by complete nature,” Tom said of Foster.

“He doesn’t look at Dougal as just being an enemy,” the actor continued. “He looks at him as another human being and unfortunately, his warning, which in a way — although it didn’t come across to Dougal — that was an almost friendly warning of saying, ‘Look, you cannot defeat the British army.’ It’s saying, ‘It’s not about you being weak or anything like that, in a sense… it’s not possible.’ And he was – he was right. Little did he know.”

WATCH: ‘Outlander’: Sam Heughan On Dougal’s Return

While his return was brief, Tom enjoyed being back on “Outlander” and credited the show’s fans for helping pave the way to Foster’s “Prestonpans” reappearance.

“When I originally auditioned for it, it was two episodes and like I said when I first spoke to you, I never imagined the reaction that I would get from those first two episodes. And then for them to bring me back — and it’s all thanks to the fans, that’s all thanks to the fact that it somehow… created such a reaction in the fans that [the producers] felt that they could bring me back — to kill me,” Tom laughed.

He also enjoyed seeing the reactions from fans to the episode.

“The reaction from my death was worth it I think. And in terms of the episode as a whole, I think it served the whole of the battle. And the tragedy of losing Angus, and stuff like that — obviously that’s far more important than Foster, but in terms of the pure brutality of that 15 minute battle — no one was safe,” he said.

When Access spoke with Tom during “Outlander’s” first season, he was filming “UnREAL” Season 1, playing Roger Lockwood, the best friend of Freddie Stroma’s Suitor, Adam Cromwell. Tom’s character was part of one of the first dark and shocking twists on what became a critically acclaimed show.

“That was a lot of fun,” he said when Access asked about filming “UnREAL” Season 1, which recently came out on DVD . “Obviously a very horrible storyline — very different from Foster. But yeah… it was a lot of fun to film it. It was in this beautiful place, this beautiful mansion outside of Vancouver. And it’s such a great show. Everyone knew that there was something special about ‘UnREAL’ in the fact that what it shun a light on that no one had done before [was] about this reality TV thing and what happens behind the scenes.”

“Outlander” Season 2 continues Saturdays at 9 PM ET/PT on Starz. 

— Jolie Lash