Outlander and Victoria star Nell Hudson wants to go from Outland to La La Land

OUTLANDER star Nell Hudson hopes the Scots-filmed show could help her hit the heights in Hollywood.

Nell, who is back tonight in the new series of ITV smash, Victoria, has become famous as Laoghaire MacKenzie in the US-made historical time travel epic.

“I left drama school five years ago and got Outlander within seven months,” Nell told iN10.

“It was a real life-changing job to get. I was so lucky and I’ve been working pretty much steadily ever since.

“Los Angeles is where it’s all happening and obviously Outlander is an American series.

“If the right job came along I think it’d be really exciting to go and work out there and build on the base Outlander has given me in the States.”

Although Nell’s accent is distinctly cut-glass English, Scotland has been a huge part of her working life.

She made early Edinburgh Festival appearances and she’s got to know the country much better since her Outlander breakthrough.

“Scotland has become a real home from home for me,” she confides.

“It’s become so familiar. We film at an industrial estate in Cumbernauld but I stay in Glasgow, which I really love.

“It’s such a cool, buzzy city. I’ve had some great nights out and have spent a lot of time discovering the vintage shops and independent cafes in the west end.”

There’s was even more Scots work for Nell on Victoria as some scenes for this second series were filmed at Blair Castle in Perthshire.

When it launched last autumn it was up against Poldark and the thinking was that it might come off second best. But it was the BBC’s Cornish drama that lagged behind in the ratings as viewers took Victoria to their heart.

The story of the young Queen, played by Jenna Coleman, and dashing husband Albert (Tom Hughes) really gripped and Nell admits the cast came back with a spring in their steps.

“The mood was great because of how well the first series had done,” she admits. “Everyone was in really good spirits and excited to get going again.

“I think it’s filled the Downton-shaped hole in people’s lives. It’s the Sunday night period drama that’s a lovely world to escape to.”

Nell’s character, Eliza Skerritt, continues to hide the fact that she’s taken her cousin’s identity and is working at the Palace to support her and her baby.

“That continues to play on her mind, that she’s living a bit of a double life.

“But she’s moving up through the ranks and we see more of her interactions with the Queen.”

Working more alongside Jenna was an added delight for Nell who has nothing but good things to say about the former Doctor Who favourite.

“She’s basically helming the ship,” says Nell. “She’s in every day, working non-stop, and she’s taken on all these extra things to play the Queen, learning languages, riding lessons, playing the piano.

“Throughout it all she’s so warm and positive and that’s genuinely been so inspiring to see.”

The series has been such a smash that, like Downton Abbey, it’s getting its own Christmas special this year.

Nell admits she’s blessed to have two such massive shows on the go at the same time – and even more so that filming schedules happily dovetailed so she could be involved with both.

It’s an involvement that looks like it could continue even after the third series of Outlander which will soon hit our screens.

“Fans of the books will know that my character doesn’t appear in the books after that,” she adds.

“But the producers are bending the rules a little bit so we may see Laoghaire MacKenzie again.

“I think so but we’ll have to wait and see what they decide to do.

“I get recognised from both Outlander and Victoria and it’s heartening that people are enjoying the shows I’m a part of.

“I’m very aware you can go through spells where you’re not working and you have to have quite a thick skin. But things are going really well just now.”

Victoria, ITV, tonight, 9.05pm.