Virginia Gay grateful for paths that led to Savage River

She’s played nurses, businesswomen and even truck drivers, but in ABC’s new whodunnit series, Virginia Gay undertakes her first role as a detective.

“I was very excited, I have to say. Once I slipped that gun harness on, I was like, ‘This is a great look!'” she tells TV Tonight.

Her body of work, particularly in two long-running Seven dramas in All Saints and Winners & Losers, has helped bring Gay to reap the rewards of roles in Savage River, Nine’s After the Verdict and an upcoming SBS project, Safe Home (screening in 2023).

Gay had three years on All Saints and five on Winners & Losers.

“I wouldn’t have a career without All Saints,” she acknowledges.

“I learnt how to be in front of a camera on All Saints, and I am forever grateful for that extraordinary training ground, that sense of the swiftness that television moves… how it trains you like a muscle, how you get so good at hitting your mark.

”I’m eternally grateful for both of those shows.”

On Savage River she plays Det. Sgt. Rachel Kennedy who returns home to the small town from her city beat, to solve a murder. Key suspect in the crime is recently-paroled Miki (Katherine Langford) who was put inside for the manslaugter of her best friend.

“I got these scripts, and I cancelled everything for the next two days, I was like, ‘I’m really, really going to to immerse myself in these from the get-go’. The script was so good. Because it was a Whodunnit and because obviously the character I’m playing is the detective, I thought, ‘I’ve gotta have my wits about me from the very beginning.’ Every piece of the print is important, every glance is loaded and I just found that so attractive,” she explains.

“Everybody in that town has allegiances”

“It just reminded me so much of Broadchurch. The gothic nature of the landscape, and also a sense that these are people living in a community reliant on each other. That means that all of their motives, all of their alibis are intertwined.

“Rachel already has allegiances and has made mistakes. Everybody in that town has allegiances, and has terrible secrets. How do you solve a murder from within a network that you’re tightly knit into?”

The 6 part series created by Belinda Bradley, Franz Docherty and Giula Sandler features a formidable ensemble including Jacqueline McKenzie, Cooper Van Grootel, Nadine Garner, Daniel Henshall, James Mackay, Mark Coles Smith, Osamah Sami, Bernard Curry and Robert Grubb as the weary town cop with whom Gay’s character was once a
protégé.

“That’s a very exciting dynamic: to come back to a small town as a woman who has become a detective sergeant and has to work with the person who trained her. But that person is older, stuck in their ways, maybe a bit slipshod. There’s so many moments as the series progresses where her big-city training comes up against small town apathy, particularly from Robert Grubbs’ character,” she continues.

“The tension between somebody who used to be a teacher and is now a subordinate was very exciting to play.”

“Leadership is a really important thing when you’re when you’re number one on the call sheet.”

Gay is highly complimentary of her co-stars, including Langford, the Australian who featured in Netflix drama 13 Reasons Why. In Savage River she undertakes the lead role of Miki.

“What an absolute talent that woman is. She’s a Golden Globe nominee, and rightly so. She is so good, and was an absolute dream to work with. She’s in nearly every scene and over a three month shoot that’s an enormous toll on your body and your psyche. She just came so prepared every single day, ready to lead us by just knowing what she was doing, asking smart questions,” Gay recalls.

“Leadership is a really important thing when you’re number one on the call sheet. The way that she led us was really inspiring, and really beautiful. I hope she gets to lead many more things, because she was glorious.

“Miki and Rachel, my character, form a very uneasy alliance. But we trust each other more than we can trust, for example, Robert Grubb’s character, or anybody else in the town.

“There’s also a sense of women saving women. We weren’t waiting for men to run in and fix everything.”

She also notes the work of newcomer Hattie Hook, seasoned star Nadine Garner and the enigmatic Daniel Henshall who plays meatworks manager, Kevin Pattinson.

“Working with Dan Henshell and Katherine Langford has made me a better actor”

“This man has made his entire career playing psychopaths, and he is one of the nicest human beings you will ever meet. He is so kind, generous, playful and funny. Working with Dan Henshell and Katherine Langford has made me a better actor. Dan is so electric in scenes and asks such honesty of you ….something real was happening in a scene. Each take was different. It just meant you were totally on your toes all all the time,” she insists.

“I nearly burst into tears after the scene had finished.”

“I remember walking out of a scene with the door closing behind me. I nearly burst into tears. It’s extraordinary that being in a scene with Dan Henshell felt so real that I nearly burst into tears after the scene had finished.”

Directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse, production took place in Victorian regional towns Bright, Myrtleford and Warburton earlier this year. They all help create an aesthetic of Savage River, a picturesque town ground down by years of mismanagement.

Yet as with most small town murders it will take perseverance to uncover long-buried secrets.

“Everything’s done with a look. Everything’s done with something which reveals a hidden truth. It really asks the audience to pay attention, to be a part of the crime-solving.”

Savage River screens 8:30pm Sunday on ABC.