Sarah Dugdale on Shaking Up ‘Virgin River’ [Interview]

It’s tough to be new in any town — but when you’re nineteen and the town you’ve moved to against your will is Virgin River — a “new start” can feel very much like captivity. 

I talked to Sarah Dugdale, the newest resident in the cast of Netflix’s hit show Virgin River about her character Lizzie’s life before she was sent to the quaint town, Lizzie’s tense relationship with her Aunt Connie (Nicola Cavendish), and of course, her relationship with Ricky. 

As resistant as she is to her new home at first, there are reasons why Virgin River is the right place for Lizzie to start anew.

“She’s from this privileged, rich upbringing but I think there was a lack of attention and a lack of hands-on parenting,” Dugdale said of Lizzie’s relationship with her parents, whom we have not met yet.

“Lizzie doesn’t really know how to exist on her own and doesn’t really know normalcy in a way. So, I feel like her getting sent to Virgin River and being with her Aunt Connie, who provides a lot more structure than she would have in L.A — I feel like it is the perfect setting for her to actually grow and figure out who she is without all of the distractions of L.A.” 

She grows in a quite surprising direction — toward Ricky (Grayson Maxwell Gurnsey) who is arguably the most wholesome young adult in Virgin River, which happens to be one of the most wholesome fictional towns to ever exist. 

Ricky works extra hours to help his grandmother pay bills and has to be coerced into every tiny act of rebellion that Lizzie comes up with. They’re an odd pair on paper but there is something exciting about the young, innocent energy between them that works well. 

Dugdale said she felt Lizzie might have been interested in him at first because he seems like he can be “easily manipulated” or that she might be able to “get something out of him.”

“I think that dynamic shifts for her as they get to know each other and as he brings her out of her shell and kind of thaws her to Virgin River, and really just allows her to be just a teenager again.” 

As full of life as she is, Dugdale believes that Lizzie puts on a facade that Ricky helps take down. 

“I feel like she is trying to project that she’s older and project that she knows more than she does. And Ricky really allows her to just be herself and be relaxed and actually start to enjoy Virgin River.” 

Of course, that they’re having sex probably contributes to her enjoyment, too. In one of the tensest scenes of the season, Aunt Connie confronts Lizzie, Ricky, and Ricky’s grandma Lydie (Christina Jastrzembska) about this fact — even though they are both consenting adults of legal age.

“That scene sticks out as one of my favorites to shoot, because, one, the four-person dynamic and just how different each of the characters in the scene are,” Dugdale explained. “Lizzie is very confident and very headstrong. And Ricky is being supportive of Lizzie but he doesn’t have the confidence that she has.”

He at least has a grandmother who supports his choices. As much as Lizzie needs the structure, traditionalism isn’t the same thing. Connie’s expectation that Lizzie adheres to antiquated values might damage their relationship. 

“I think [Lizzie] is at a breaking point at the end of Season 2 because she’s been forbidden to see Ricky who she’s developed this relationship with. And I think that it is a breaking point for her because Ricky is really her only friend at this point and the only person that she’s really related to in Virgin River,” Dugdale noted. 

“So, to have that pulled away from her is an issue for her. But Lizzie is really resourceful and creative and I don’t think she would let anybody tell her what to do.” 

Lizzie has issues with Aunt Connie, but she’s one of Dugdale’s favorite characters on Virgin River. “She has so many sides to her. She’s this gossipy busybody. But then she’s so lovely to Preacher and she does have a huge heart.”

Connie is just the annoying bee buzzing around Lizzie’s relationship with Ricky right now, but Dugdale hopes their dynamic will be explored in-depth in the future.

Dugdale told me that one of the things she enjoyed most about the Virgin River set is learning from seasoned actors like Cavendish and Annette O’Toole. Lizzie and O’Toole’s Mayor Hope McCrea have similar spirits, so Dugdale said it was fun to work with her in one of her scenes when Lizzie first arrives in town. 

Connie, on the other hand, has changed Lizzie’s relationship with Ricky for the foreseeable future — so they probably won’t be having girls’ nights any time soon. 

“[Ricky and Lizzie’s] relationship will be obviously different now because it needs to be a secret if they continue to be together,” said Dugdale. “Connie and her rules and her energy will linger in the relationship whether she knows about it or not.”

While we all eagerly await news of a Virgin River renewal to learn how close Ricky and Lizzie’s fate actually is to Romeo and Juliet’s, you’ll be able to see Dugdale on another project coming up soon. Dugdale will next star in the Netflix coming-of-age/horror flick There’s Someone Inside Your House based on the novel by Stephanie Perkins in 2021.

“It was one of my favorite experiences on set,” Dudale shared. “I love horror movies, and so getting to be a part of something like that, I was like a kid on the first day of school. I was just over the moon about it.” 

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Virgin River is available to stream on Netflix right now. 

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