Outlander: Is Jocasta actress blind in real life? Details, explored

No, Maria Doyle Kennedy, who plays Jocasta Cameron in Outlander, is not blind in real life. She admitted in an interview with Metro.co.uk that the most challenging part of playing Aunt Jocasta is that she is someone who cannot see. She threw some light on the challenges she faced being a nonblind person. Maria finds it difficult to not look into other characters' eyes while delivering the dialogue. However, the 54-year-old actress also described Aunt Jocasta as a "fiercely intelligent woman" in the historical drama.

Outlander follows Claire Randall, a World War II nurse who has traveled back to 18th-century Scotland, and meets Jamie, a highland warrior. Maria Doyle Kennedy plays Jamie's wealthy aunt, who is the only blood relative living in northern California. Jocasta is introduced in Season 4 and is blind due to glaucoma.

Read on to know more about what the actor said about her character in Outlander.

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Outlander: Is Jocasta actress blind in real life?

Maria spoke about the challenges of playing a character who is sightless. She emphasized how during shooting or in real life as a non-blind person, we get the sense of when to speak by looking into the eyes of another actor. That is the energy actors exchange through the eyes, especially while acting on screen. Therefore the most challenging part for Maria was to act and get those cues right without eye contact.

"The greatest challenge being that I can’t make eye contact with any of the other actors in a scene. In life as well as acting, we give and receive so many of our cues through eye contact. Not having that at my disposal made me lonely… until I figured out Jocasta’s inner power!" said Maria.

She added that Jocasta has "tender and manipulative qualities" at the same time. This has been a result of his life experiences and journey so far. Maria admitted that she found this blend extremely interesting.

She also spoke about Jocasta's accent which is Scottish but also influenced by American English after years of living in the colonies. This poses another physical challenge for Maria while playing the role.

"Her blindness introduces a physical challenge that is new for me, the addition of an accent is always fun and emotionally she is complicated and compelling. She’s ifiercely intelligent woman in a world where women struggled to exert any power," Maria explained.

Further, she recalled how she needed to adjust her entire body language around one single characteristic. No matter how much she researched the behavioral patterns of blind people, there is always something new when she does it practically on set.

In Outlander, Jocasta is portrayed as a bold, strong-willed woman who has married three times and is widowed while also witnessing the death of three of her daughters.

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The Outlander prequel series, titled "Outlander: Blood of My Blood," is set to premiere in the summer of 2025 on Starz and follows the love story of Jamie's parents Ellen and Brian. In January Starz shared the teaser and confirmed that the show will consist of 10 episodes.

According to reports, it will feature Sadhbh Malin as a young Jocasta MacKenzie.