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Hi Kandyse, welcome to VENTS! How have you been?
Thank you so much for having me! I’ve been really good. It’s a busy time, Season 7 is airing and we’re in the thick of the press tour, which is always exciting and a little bit overwhelming in the best way. I’m also deep in spring garden planning, seed starting, getting the soil ready. That’s my decompression time. But mostly I’m keen for people to finally see what we’ve been working on. It’s a special season.
The Kaia and Preacher fandom has really rallied behind their relationship. What has it meant to you to see viewers so invested in their love story?
It means everything. Kaia was a new character entering an already beloved world, and there’s always a part of you that wonders whether the audience will make room. But the way fans root for Kaia and Preacher, the way they hold them, it’s been humbling. People respond to what’s real in a relationship, even a fictional one. Kaia and Preacher aren’t perfect. They’re two people with histories and wounds and very different ways of moving through the world, but they chose each other. And I think fans see themselves in that choice. That’s a lovely thing to be part of.
By the end of Season 6, fans are rooting hard for them to finally have some peace. Do you think Season 7 gives them that fairytale stability, or is this Virgin River, after all?
I mean… it IS Virgin River! Peace is never a permanent state in this town, is it? But I will say that Season 7 deepens their relationship in ways that feel really earned. They’re not starting from scratch, they’ve built something together. The question this season is less about whether they’ll survive external drama and more about whether they can navigate the internal stuff. The doubts, the fears, the things you bring into a relationship from your past. That’s more interesting to me than a fairytale, actually. Fairytales are nice, but they’re not where the real love stories happen.
Kaia and Preacher have undeniable chemistry. How did you and Colin build that romantic tension so naturally on screen?
Colin and I have known each other for years before this show, so there was already a deep trust and comfort between us. That’s the foundation. You can’t manufacture chemistry, you can only create the conditions for it, and trust is the biggest one.
What I love about working with Colin is that we’ve built a creative shorthand over the seasons that allows us to take bigger risks with each other. By Season 7, we don’t have to negotiate the trust anymore, it’s just there. So we can go to more vulnerable places on camera because we know the other person will meet us there. When you’ve done the work of building a real partnership, the chemistry stops being something you create and is more so something you inhabit. I think the audience feels that evolution too. Kaia and Preacher in Season 7 have a different weight to them than they did when they first got together.
What do you personally admire most about Kaia, and has playing her changed the way you see relationships or resilience?
I admire her honesty with herself. Kaia doesn’t perform a version of who she thinks she should be, she’s direct, she’s clear about her values, and when she’s struggling, she doesn’t hide it. That takes real courage, especially for a woman who came from a world where being tough and self-reliant was survival.
Playing her has absolutely changed how I think about resilience. I used to equate resilience with endurance, just powering through. Kaia has taught me that resilience can also look like softening. Like choosing to stay open when every instinct says protect yourself. Letting someone in after you’ve been hurt, that’s its own kind of bravery.
Kaia is strong and independent, but we’ve also seen her vulnerability. What do you think is her greatest strength – and her biggest fear?
Her greatest strength is her clarity. When Kaia knows something, she acts on it. She doesn’t second-guess, she doesn’t people-please, she doesn’t wait for permission. That’s what makes her a great fire chief and a compelling partner, you always know where you stand with her.
Her biggest fear, I think, is losing herself, or who she thought she was. Kaia built her whole identity around motion, the next adventure, the next adrenaline rush, the next place. Now she’s chosen love, chosen this small town, chosen peace. But there’s a voice in her that whispers: what if this isn’t who you really are? That fear is very human, and Season 7 doesn’t shy away from it.
If fans could expect one defining moment for Kaia and Preacher next season, a grand gesture, a major test, a life-changing decision, what kind of territory would you love to see them explore, especially now we know she will not be going anywhere?
What I love about where the writers take them this season is that it’s not about a single grand gesture. It’s about the way two people negotiate what “home” means when they come from very different histories. Preacher has dreams Kaia is only just learning about, and Kaia has old patterns that surface when she least expects them. There’s a moment early on where she realizes someone else might know him better in some ways, and that catches her completely off guard. It’s funny and very human and fans will recognize that feeling instantly.
But the bigger territory is the question of whether love is enough to keep someone who was built for motion in one place. Kaia is fearless about fire, but not about love. She needs to feel needed, and when the opportunity comes to step back into her element, to be the person who runs toward the danger, that pull is real. What I’d love fans to watch for is how she navigates that pull. The answer isn’t simple, but I think that’s what makes it romantic.
What part of Kaia’s backstory do you think still has more to reveal in Season 7?
We finally get to see Kaia in her natural element this season, and that changes everything. Up until now, we’ve known she was adventurous, that she lived a big life before Virgin River, that her first marriage shaped her views on commitment. But we’ve been told about that woman. This season, we see her. We see who she was before she chose to stay in Virgin River and I think fans will understand her restlessness so much better once they do.
There’s also more tenderness in her history than people might expect. The writers gave her backstory real complexity, it’s not as simple as “tough woman with walls up.” She wasn’t feeling like herself in Virgin River, and this season forces her to figure out why. When she comes face to face with her old life, she has to make a real decision, a clear one.
Season 6 put their relationship under pressure. Do you think that struggle ultimately made their bond stronger heading into Season 7?
I do. And what’s beautiful about Season 7 is that it’s not just the relationship that’s stronger, it’s the community around them. The sewing circle has Kaia’s back in a way that really moved me. And her friendship with Brady is one of my favorite things this season, she’s counselling him, she’s straight with him, and it shows how deeply woven she’s become into the fabric of this town. She didn’t just find a partner in Virgin River. She found a whole ecosystem of care.
For Kaia and Preacher specifically, the pressure in Season 6 forced them to stop assuming and start communicating. Going into Season 7, they know each other’s rough edges. They’ve been tested. And they’re still here. That’s sturdier than butterflies. Not always prettier, but sturdier.
Should fans feel confident boarding Kaia both personally and the Kaia-and-Preacher endgame train, or are there still emotional waves ahead in Season 7?
Board the train. [Laughs] There will absolutely be waves. There will be moments where you’re yelling at your screen, I was. Here’s what I can tell you: Kaia has something to lose this season, and she knows it. She’s outgrown the person she was. Virgin River changed her, the community, the care, the love. And she finally feels connected to that. She becomes a part of this place in a way that she wasn’t before.
The waves are there because Kaia had to lose a version of herself to know what she really wants. She had to face her old life to choose her new one. Real love moves you, it challenges, it asks things of you. And watching someone choose home, truly choose it, is so much more rewarding than watching them never question it. And the journey, is worth it.
Photography
Print: Charles Zuckermann
Social: @czuckermann
Makeup & Hair
Print: Molly Etherington
Social: @makeupbymolly
Fashion Stylist
Print: Sarah D’Arcey
Social: @sarahdarceystyle
