For Kandyse McClure, coming into such a successful show as Virgin River was both a challenge and an opportunity. The actress plays Kaia, the Fire Chief and Preacher’s love interest. But above all, she plays a very good character in her own right. And when Fangirlish interviewed her, we spoke about finding her way in the show, Virgin River Season 6, and building a romance with Colin Lawrence’s Preacher.
“The show is so successful, and people are so committed to the book. We want to honor that. But my character was this kind of new direction and new entity. And it was kind of a big chance we were all taking. But I think it worked out,” she told us. And not that we’re biased in favor of Kaia, our favorite new character, but we kind of agree.
For McClure, it’s easy to understand why people loved Virgin River. “It’s all those human emotions, its relationship things, it’s comfortable, its companionship. There’s a little bit of drama and a little bit of spice. And you get that rush of adrenaline, but you really get the opportunity to kind of relate and see yourself in different characters. I love that there are such age ranges, there are so many kinds of contrasting people on the show, that everybody gets to find a little bit of themselves.”
MORE: What did we think of Virgin River Season 5? Here’s our review!
The Power of Virgin River
Not just that, McClure shared a funny anecdote that kind of illustrates the power of Virgin River. “My first year I came on, I was surprised because I kept being stopped by men in their mid-30s, because they’d be like, oh, you’re on that show, right? And I was like, yeah, do you, do you watch Virgin River? Good to know. And they do! I think it was this kind of phenomenon of their wives got them into it. Or their girlfriends, or their mom, or their aunt. And they didn’t want to watch it at first! But then they, you know when they keep walking by the screen they are like sorry, what’s happening? And then they were hooked.”
But that also just speaks to the great male characters on Virgin River. To that, McClure said, “I really believe in modeling behavior. Television and entertainment are such a great vehicle and platforms for that. The show is very female-focused, I mean, it is a woman’s show, I call it the feminist dream,” she told us.
“The show is very female-focused, I mean, it is a woman’s show, I call it the feminist dream.”
She went on to add: “I think it’s important to see on TV women be believed and supported and listened to. Not just that, but to see a place where their opinions are valid, where the things that they are, and they say are taken as true and real and felt, and where the men on the show seek to empathize or if they don’t understand they find a way, or argue respectfully. Because it’s true that not all men are toxic, and there are great examples of friendship and loyalty and steadfastness and vulnerability and modeling being able to communicate with each other, you know, talking not being just for girls.”
McClure had to balance all of that with just finding the character of Kaia, who was the kind of character who went from “this kind of freewheeling only care about myself, just going to kind of be out there in the world to really letting her guard down and allowing herself to be affected by the people in that place.” This is a really big adjustment for someone and something she “struggles with in the beginning.”
Kaia and Preacher
This struggle is particularly true in regards to Preacher’s situation because “there’s nothing she can do about it and she’s so used to being able to like come in the moment of disaster and do something about things, but this is so out of her hands and all she can do is follow the lead of the people around her and see Preacher for who he really is, flawed and vulnerable and let him know, we’re all here for you.”
MORE: Talking to Annette O’Toole is a joy, trust us.
For McClure, sharing a screen with Colin Lawrence’s Preacher, has been one of the best parts of Virgin River. “I love working with Colin,” she told us. “He’s a great scene partner. The minute we get scripts, we call each other. We talk about it. We meet outside the set. We’re always kind of bouncing ideas off each other. And the thing is, Colin’s natural instinct as a person is very much the instinct of Preacher. That’s just kind of the human being that he is in the world. He is just the most honorable, upstanding kind of noble person,” McClure shared.
“And I don’t even mean that to sound trite, because he’s also goofy and funny. And we ran off set one day to go hunt down donuts because he always brings sweet treats home for his wife. But you know in talking about all those scenes he was just like yeah, no there’s no other way.”
Thankfully, Preacher does have the best lawyer in town.
Love & Being Strong Women
With Brie, there’s one type of quote-on-quote strong woman, just as Mel is a different type and so is Kaia. And that’s another thing Virgin River does very well. Showcase women in all their strength, vulnerability, and differences. And for McClure, that was important, because the show is very good at showing that “being strong as a woman doesn’t mean being like a man.”
MORE: Read our interview with Benjamin Hollingsworth as he talks about Brady.
Instead, “there are different ways of displaying strength,” and sometimes that is “about community.” For Kaia in Season 6, she got to “embed herself in the town and find a place for herself that wasn’t defined by Preacher.”
“I think that was fun because I think what we saw from her before was that she wanted that love. And as a woman, I think we all understand, [that] we want that sort of romance, but we don’t want to feel like the romance defines us. It’s not all we are. And that is one of the things that really attracted me to the role of Kaia when I first read this, was that I found a really important representation of the personhood of women. That we are not defined by our past relationships that we got ourselves into and got ourselves out of. We are only defined by how we choose to be in the world. But that doesn’t mean that we have to forego all the things that every human wants.”
“[…] as a woman, I think we all understand, [that] we want that sort of romance, but we don’t want to feel like the romance defines us.”
This is especially important for McClure and for Kaia, as a Black woman. Because the representation of women of color in romance is still not what we would want it to be. McClure is conscious of the space she occupies and of what that representation means. “It’s been said over and over again. And we have to keep saying it because we’re still not there, but representation really does matter. And I guess the quiet part out loud for Colin and I was that we take very seriously the representation of our love on camera and the flaws and the fights and the misunderstandings and the full spectrum of everything. But we really do want to be that for Virgin River, that it is, you know, for everyone… that you can find yourself there. I hope there’s more of it in the future.”
We really hope so too.
Virgin River Season 6 is now available to stream on Netflix.
