Vulnerability, Love & Community: Virgin River Finally Cracked Kaia Open — And Kandyse McClure Loves It

Community. Love. Evolution. These are just a few words that come to mind when you think about Virgin River.

Warm, generous, passionate, funny, and engaging. Those are a few words to come to mind when speaking about Kandyse McClure, whom we had the absolute privilege of speaking to about the latest season.

With the series greenlit for an eighth season, Virgin River becomes the longest-running scripted Netflix original, and you need only tune into it to understand the universal appeal that draws people in.

It’s an allure that translates well, in large part, because of a talented, passionate cast who care about the show and its characters as much as viewers do.

And chatting with the vibrant Kandyse McClure further reiterates that point. So much warmth, laughter, and a familiarity that feels more like catching up with an old friend than anything else.

We had the chance to speak about Kaia’s vulnerabilities, finding her home and belonging in Virgin River, and the beauty, security, inspiration, and importance of Kaia and Preacher’s love story onscreen.

So, dive into our interview below!

First, congratulations! Virgin River has been picked up for another season. It’s one of the longest-running shows on Netflix! What do you think makes the series resonate so much with fans?

Isn’t that incredible? The longest-running show on Netflix. Listen, we all need some nervous system regulation. Ain’t that right?

[Laughs]

There’s so much going on in the world. It’s all so crazy. We all just want to be in a place where things make sense. You know? Like, yes, relationships get tested. Yes.

Not everything goes right all the time. But there’s community. There are people who show up for each other. And you can resolve things through conversation. People rally behind each other. People come together.

You can find yourself on different paths. You can go in different directions. But you will find your way back to each other.

And I really think that’s something that people crave so much in this age of disconnection. We’re all just kind of sitting alone. And I think, ultimately, people really like to be around each other.

We feel so much better in community with each other. I think the show really represents that.

It does. It’s such a comfort show and great escapism!

OK, so Kaia has had such a strong arc this past season. How has she evolved compared to when we first met her?

I would say that Kaia is continuing to find her depth. I felt like—not that she was a shallow person—but I think she was really kind of living life quite contained when we first met her.

You know, “This is my life. I run into fires. Everything else sort of doesn’t matter. The past is the past. I’m just moving forward.” And maybe that was out of a bit of fear.

She seemed like somebody who’s really brave about running into fires or jumping out of planes. But when it comes to relationships or love or that tender underbelly of life, that’s the thing that really freaks her out.

Now she is with somebody who is so grounded, has so much depth, and requires that of her. She got a little freaked out about it.

I loved it. She was so vulnerable this season in a way that we hadn’t initially seen before. And it was just really kind of exciting to get those layers out of her. And you did so well capturing them.

She’s a great opportunity for me to kind of exercise my own emotional life in a lot of ways. She’s a great gift that way.

That was actually what I was going to ask you about. I was curious if it was easier to tap into that aspect of her and those layers. There was more content to work with there.

Yeah. That’s one of the things that’s really lovely about acting for me. And, I mean, it’s a bit selfish, I think.

I think it’s the thing that makes it relatable to everybody else and makes it quite universal.

We all go through these things. And that is kind of my job: to go through this roller coaster of emotions and feel these things so that you can feel them, too, while you’re sitting in the comfort of your couch, drinking your tea, or your glass of wine, or whatever it may be.

But I think I was also sort of seeking that kind of emotional depth. I’ve really been — not wrestling with — but thinking about this idea of meeting struggle in your life and what that means.

I have found it to be such a great opportunity to be an archaeologist in your own life and in your own psyche, to meet yourself when you’re feeling really challenged. And Kaia gave me that opportunity again this season to really find out what she was made of and what I was made of.

What do you do when you meet yourself in these situations? What kind of person are you? What decisions do you make when it’s about integrity and courage and friendship and love?

I find that endlessly exciting. I’m always very curious about how people behave when they’re really in it.

I love that. As a side note, I had the privilege of speaking with Tim Matheson as well, and I love that you both are true artists who speak passionately about the craft and the deep dissection of the characters. That’s similar, as you said, to the archaeological approach to character exploration.

Oh, well, I take that as a great compliment! But I would also say that I think that’s such a through line amongst all my cast members. I mean, we have conversations about our relationships, our characters.

We run up against them. You know what I mean? We work with the lines.

We’re always looking for the thing. I actually love that about the on-set culture on Virgin River.

It’s a group of actors who are always looking for the depth and for the angle and for the meaning and for the humanity in what they’re doing. It makes it such an exciting place to work because you really do get to live in the scenes.

You don’t know what’s going to happen. You know the lines, but you don’t know what this person is going to do because they’re living so fully, inhabiting so fully the people that they are. And we take it; we really do take it to heart.

It really is an exceptional group of artists. I mean, I can watch Alexandra [Breckenridge]… I think part of the reason the show is so successful is that she is so watchable.

I will watch her watch paint dry, honestly. Amazing. Zibby [Allen] both brings me to tears, laughing and crying, simultaneously, all the time.

She’s got such depth and pathos in her work. Ben’s a pain in my ass, but he’s great! No, I’m kidding. [Laughs] I spend a lot of time just getting on Ben’s nerves, but it’s great.

It’s character work, Jasmine. It’s character work.

Of course! This season was probably a really fun one for you because Kaia is more immersed in the community and is fully becoming part of Virgin River.

So what was your favorite non-romantic dynamic to explore this season?

I do love that. I do love that she’s more part of the community, and we see her kind of interacting. I really loved the friendship with Brady and Kaia this season.

I know people were like, ” Oh, is something going to happen there?” And I was like, “Oh no, he’s like my brother. Get out of here!” I couldn’t imagine anything worse. I mean, yeah, he’s a good-looking guy, but weird!

I love that they meet each other on a really even playing field. They both have a past. They both kind of messed up. But they don’t know that about each other except what they tell each other. They are the same kind of person in a lot of ways.

And he was a great friend to me, you know. He really showed up for Kaia in the previous season, and in this one. And I really appreciated that representation—our actual friendship.

That has become one of my favorite dynamics as well. I really do love Brady and Kaia. They were both outsiders for a bit, but they formed a nice, platonic bond, and it’s refreshing to see those as well because they do exist!

They exist!

And then I got to hang out with The Sewing Circle. Which, by the way, you don’t know how funny those women are!

Like, in between takes, and just sitting with them. The people that they are, the actors that they are, and just listening to the lives that they’ve lived. And the places that they’ve been. And the things that they’ve done.

They all have such different senses of humor. But just so specific, and so hilarious. I loved spending more time with the sewing circle.

And then there was this really sweet callback [this season, during the fire].

I wanted to hear Preacher’s voice, and I was so happy to hear him again, and I wanted to see him again. And understand that that’s where my heart was. And there is a reason. That somebody is waiting for me.

But what the writers gave me was The Sewing Circle, you know—listening to the fire alarm. And just the chorus of them going, “We miss you, Kaia. Come home.” I thought that was such a beautiful turn by the writers.

I really loved that, too. I love the Sewing Circle and how vital they are to Virgin River. Their agency, these worldly women who embrace all the younger women in the show. It’s a really beautiful thing to depict.

I loved how they embraced Kaia, and she had this little bubble of feminine energy to protect her.

I was really grateful for that part of it. And how, like, they’ve got her back. They’re looking out for her. They’re, like, problem-solving her life between them.

They’re the meddling aunties!

I love it. [Laughs] Yes, the meddling aunties. Yes, we all need them.

Kaia and Preacher have been great this season. They had little bumps, but their romance feels so secure and stable, and you can see Kaia really, finally settling into it a bit.

Can you talk a bit about that dynamic and how you hope it will get explored further?

I think she resisted it so much because it felt so scary. As I said, her bravery is more about fighting fires than letting anybody see the softness in her or allowing that vulnerability. And we can all relate to that.

You get hurt, want to protect yourself, and become this hyper-vigilant, super-independent person. But if you can trust anybody, you can trust Preacher, and just the steadiness of him. And I loved that.

Well, one of the things that I really love about the relationships on Virgin River is that they also give the men vulnerability.

And that was a really beautiful thing for him to express to her that he was uncertain about what he wanted to do, that all these things felt like other people’s ideas, and that he wasn’t really sure about what he wanted.

And if it was OK for him to want something for himself, I thought that was so beautiful. And to me, that was the moment that really put them together, unified them. It was her return, but for Preacher, it meant he had somebody to share these dreams and plans and insecurities with, and to work things out with.

And there’s no judgment there. Nobody’s pushing you to do anything, but somebody who just really believes in the person that he is.

It was lovely this season getting to really love him, you know? That representation of kind of Black love in a lot of ways, in this really positive light, this really loving place. I think that’s a really important thing.

But, of course, it’s Virgin River, so we got to throw a little jealousy in there. We got to throw another woman in there. Yeah, just a little bit.

I believe I composed a list, probably around Black History Month, about the embodiment of positive representation of Black Love on screen, and I believe they’re on it.

Because there are such limited depictions of Black Love onscreen now, it’s nice to have that, and it’s something beautiful to celebrate.

I love that. That means a lot to me, and to Colin [Lawrence] as well. It’s something that we talk about, and it is at the forefront for us as well. That there is such a limited depiction. Yes, it’s the story. And we’re always in service of the story. And, of course, there’s always going to be ups and downs and conflict.

But to really hold that relationship and integrity is really important to us.

What was your favorite scene to film this season? Because you had so many great ones.

Oh, my goodness. Oh, it’s tough. OK, there are so many.

When I confront Jamie and Preacher, when he’s feeding her the stuff in the kitchen, and I burst in there, and I’m like, ” What’s going on?” That moment when Hannah comes in, and just the fall of the way that scene is written. I loved that.

It felt awful. I was just like, “Oh, my God, I’m so sorry.” But it’s also so hilarious.

And then the stuff on the mountain. There was a lot of technical detail that went into a lot of that. We’re outside. We’re in the elements. You couldn’t tell, but it was like raining and the middle of the night and all kinds of stuff. And we had only one take for a lot of things.

We had to do things kind of perfectly. So we would practice a lot. I mean, Ben’s great for that. He’ll rehearse with you forever. I got to yell at him, which was super fun.

I really love that physical side of her. Yeah, just kind of getting to release the energy, and getting to be outside and contemplate.

It was such a philosophical turn in the season. We’re talking about our place in Virgin River and what things mean. The meaning of life, love, and everything on the side of a mountain swinging an axe. And that’s my jam, I got to say.

Covered in sweat. Yeah, the whole thing?

Yeah, I mean, that hat, it was like the season of ridiculous hats for me, though. And I am going to take that up. I was like, ” What is the size of that red giant thing they have on my head?”

OK, I know you’re clearly a nerd about all this stuff. What kinds of things do you want to explore with Kaia in the upcoming seasons? I’m sure you have some ideas or a plan you’re whispering in the writers’ ears.

I plan on it! I have a meeting next Sunday. [Laughs]

Well, I’m always curious about where people come from. I’m curious about what makes these women. What have you experienced in your life, in your family, or in the moment before that? What had you making these decisions about your life?

And I know she’s from Colorado. I know her family has a cabin. I fill things out. But I’m really curious to know if the writers have any bigger ideas about Kaia’s history.

Because she is such a unique person, I mean, there aren’t very many Wildland — there are absolutely women in the fire service, particularly in Northern California. There are actually quite a few women in the fire service, but it does take, for men or women, a specific kind of psychology to choose that.

They get paid minimum wage. You know that about Wildland Firefighters? They only get paid for the fire, and they basically get paid minimum wage. So it’s kind of a crazy job.

I know! It’s a passion, it seems. They’re in it for the love of the game.

But yeah, I do want to know more. And I think just deepening relationships in the community. How can she be of greater service? But I think that’s just me kind of going.

That’s part of me. That’s my kind of thing that I love. How can I be of service?

***This interview has been edited for length and clarity***

It was such a genuine pleasure to speak to McClure, and if you loved this interview, don’t forget to show some love!

You can stream Virgin River on Netflix!

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