Outlander Laoghaire actress defends her character's hate for Claire: 'It's all for love' 

Nell Hudson didn’t know how to pronounce Laoghaire, either.

 Monday, Hudson admitted that she — like so many fans who watch the Starz drama — couldn’t pronounce her character’s name when she was first asked to audition for the role of a Highlander lass who falls

“I honestly had no idea,” the English actress tells EW Radio. “It was so funny. I was in Devon (in the U.K.) and I heard someone with a Scottish accent on the street and I literally ran up to him and said, ‘How would you say this?’ and shoved my phone into his face with the email… Maybe that’s what got me the job — I was the only actress who knew how to say it!”

That’s not the only thing that initially stumped Hudson about her new gig on

fans would want to hate her character. When preparing to play the role that’s first introduced in season 1 and then comes back as Jamie’s second wife, Hudson said it helped to initially see Laoghaire as an immature kid who was blinded by her affections.

“I was an idiot at 16, so for all of her actions, I chalked it up to her naivete,” Hudson says. “Also, to be fair to her, Jamie did lead her on. So I think the key I keep going back to when I’m trying to get back on her side, [is that] it’s for love. Everything she does, in a really twisted way, is for love.”

For more from Hudson about her crazy age makeup and what it was like to shoot that gun-toting scene, click the arrow below.

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