The first acting gig for Virgin River’s Kandyse McClure was one of those sure, I’ll-give-it-a-try moments.
“There was nothing about my background that suggested acting. I didn’t know it was a career,” said McClure, a South Africa native who comes from a family of academics.
McClure’s entrance into acting was back in 1997, when a friend of her mother’s was putting on the coming-of-age play Valley Song by renowned South African playwright Athol Fugard and needed a 17-year-old girl who could do a South African accent.
McClure got the role, and she has been acting ever since.
Now, almost three decades later, McClure, who calls New Westminster home, has a robust acting resume that includes Da Vinci’s Inquest, Private Eyes, Charmed, Battlestar Galactica and, most recently, the hit Vancouver area-shot Netflix series Virgin River, which returns for its seventh season on March 12.
Virgin River, which is expected to begin shooting Season 8 later this spring, focuses on Mel Monroe (Alexandra Breckenridge), a nurse practitioner who moves from Los Angeles to a remote Northern California town for a fresh start after the death of her husband. There, she finds new friends, plenty of drama, and love after falling for local bar owner Jack Sheriden (Martin Henderson). Season 6 ended with the pair overcoming many bumps on the road to finally making it to the altar to say, “I do.”
McClure, who joined the show in the fifth season, plays the tough-willed firefighter Kaia Bryant.
“I was immediately drawn to her,” said McClure when asked about the character. “I loved her so much because she has so much volition. She’s a little messy, but she’s got this can-do, will-try sort of attitude. She sort of stumbles over herself, but she kind of bounces up, because she has this great resilience.”
McClure said Kaia, with her “spark and moxie,” unfiltered, and adrenalin-seeking approach to life, came along at a good point in her career.
“I said to my agents, no more drowning, no more crying, no more dying. I want a woman who’s independent, who carries herself in the world and has this more positive kind of energy about her,” said McClure. “So, Kaia really just met me at a really perfect time.”
The gig started out as a recurring role but has since attained series-regular status. With that, her story has expanded.
“She’s grown in responsibility. She’s got more friends. She was a lone wolf, sort of rolling into town in Season 5, but she has since formed friendships and, of course, a relationship with (Vancouver actor) Colin Lawrence’s character Preacher,” said McClure.
As for this new season, McClure can’t spill specific beans, but she can give fans a little taste of where Kaia’s head is at and explains her character’s journey is one of self-discovery and more responsibilities, which McClure said she “loved.”
“Is she being lost in Virgin River and in this relationship and in this man?” said McClure. “She sort of rails against that and fights to find herself again this season, which I really enjoyed.”
When she was cast in the role, McClure admits she had some homework to do before she stepped onto the Virgin River set.
“I hadn’t watched it, which is a little embarrassing, I had to do a bunch of catching up,” said McClure.
McClure said joining the cast was a bit nerve-racking, but the vibe on set quickly quelled her nerves.
“It’s such a lovely set. It really runs like a well-oiled machine,” said McClure. “This is a group of very professional, very dedicated actors, but who also have a lot of lightness and a lot of levity in what they do, which I really appreciated.”
And she was quickly reminded why she is happy to get on a set and get to work.
“I love the collaborative nature of it. You just kind of find your place along the rope and you start pulling. That’s what I love,” said McClure. “It’s the collaborative problem solving, kind of boundary pushing environment and that’s been great.”
When asked why she thinks the show has been so popular, she returns to her earlier theory of it being an excellent escape from life’s daily pressures.
“It’s part of that sort of nervous system reset. That’s the feedback that I get from a lot of the fans,” said McClure. “(They say) this is my happy place. This is my safe place. This is the thing that I love to go to at the end of a long day.”
For McClure, though, the allure of Virgin River runs a bit deeper than a place to reset after a tough day.
“I kind of say it’s a feminist sort of dream, because, you know, all the women in this show are very strong,” said McClure. “They all have their own lives and trajectory. It is a relationship-based show, but the men are these amazing examples of masculinity in that they listen, they are supportive. They (the writers) allow space for (them to) reveal their feelings.
“It’s like we’re representing these kinds of conversations, these types of relationship dynamics that (show) ways to work through conflict or to be in community. I find the show really models those types of things secretly under a bit of drama and some heavy petting.”
McClure’s career is a great example of an actor building the foundation of a strong working life in the place they call home. But that isn’t to say that she hasn’t felt pressure in the past to go to the States.
“What’s the adage? Canadians with ambitions move south,” said McClure. “I’ve always really resisted that … You used to get a fair bit of pushback about that when you were in Los Angeles, like, ‘Oh, you’ve got this resume, how come we don’t know who you are? Oh, you’re Canadian.’ I have seen that change quite considerably, obviously, over time, over the 30 years. We’re in a new space now, which is very exciting, where it’s actually quite cool to be Canadian.”
And, McClure adds, over her long tenure, the industry here has become top-notch and offers plenty of opportunities for those in the TV and film business.
“It’s lovely to be able to be here now and see the growth in the industry,” said McClure. “We’ve got these award-winning, critically acclaimed shows that are coming to shoot here. We have more and more people choosing Vancouver, and greater respect for our talent pool, which I think is the major thing to me. That we are a talent pool that is capable of carrying shows. We are just as capable as any of our partners.”