Before being chosen to play Jamie Fraser, the main character in Outlander, Sam Heughan struggled as an actor for many years.
Sam Heughan went from audition to audition after graduating from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (previously the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama) in 2007, and he primarily earned small roles in TV series and made-for-TV films.
Simultaneously, a classmate who achieved success before him turned him down.
Sam Heughan disclosed on the Happy Sad Confused podcast that he was informed he was a "bad actor" when he first enrolled in theater school.
Sam Heughan recounted, "After my first term in drama school, my acting coach pulled me aside and told me, 'You can't act,' and I thought, 'I'll just continue then.'"
He didn't begin to consider the potential of a lucrative acting career until his sophomore year of college. That was the year he played Romeo in Romeo and Juliet, he said to Square Mile.
"I recall thinking to myself one day in rehearsal before we went on stage, 'Ah, f** I can do this.'" said Heughan.
Heughan did have some success at the Royal Conservatoire in the end.