These Are The Virgin River Cast’s Actual Partners

“Virgin River” Season 4 saw the budding relationship between Colin Lawrence’s Preacher and his Aikido instructor Julia come to a halt when Paige reentered the picture. In real life, Lawrence is married to the actress who plays Julia, Lucia Walters. Acting was actually what brought the two together, as they met in acting school. They also shot a commercial together early on in their careers, Walters told “Survived the Shows.”

Since getting married in 1999, the couple has continued to do acting projects together. One project was “Fifty Shades Darker,” in which they played a couple who was dining at the same restaurant and taking an elevator with Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele. While Walters had read the books and “knew exactly what we were going in for,” she told Cosmopolitan that Lawrence “didn’t have a clue. He’s like, ‘Two days with you with no kids? Yes.’”

Walters said she and Lawrence enjoy getting to play characters who are nothing like their real selves. One of her favorite roles of Walters’ was on a show called “The 4400.” Lawrence had to play a “mean kind of husband — shutting me down and all that,” Walters told “Survived the Shows.” She continued, saying, “So fun, because that doesn’t happen in real life so we get to play.”

As “it’s all about the kids, all the time” for the couple at home, Walters said that getting to take a break from their two daughters to work together feels “almost like a date.” Whether or not she can continue to enjoy that experience in Season 5 of “Virgin River” is up in the air, but showrunner Patrick Sean Smith has teased that Julia is “kind of waiting in the wings” for Preacher (via TVLine).