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Netflix’s Little House on the Prairie Season 1 introduced a new generation to the beloved Ingalls family, bringing Laura Ingalls Wilder‘s timeless frontier stories to millions of new viewers while honoring a family that has meant so much to audiences for decades.
Australian actor Luke Bracey has stepped into the formidable shoes of Charles “Pa” Ingalls, taking on one of television’s most beloved father figures. While making the iconic role his own, Bracey has helped usher the Ingalls family into a new era.
Bracey, who recently partnered with Mermaid Gin, the award-winning British craft spirits brand that has now launched in the U.S., spoke with TV Insider about the legacy of Little House on the Prairie, the responsibility of playing Charles Ingalls, and what fans can expect from the already-renewed second season.
Did you realize right away just how beloved this franchise? Or did you always know?
Luke Bracey: I found out when I started making it. I was pretty unaware of just how big it was. I didn’t have any connection to it. I heard the title, maybe, but I didn’t know what it was. And then I started making it and was telling a few people, “I’ve been making the show called Little House on the Prairie,” and I was really struck by the range of people that loved it, and from different parts of the world, different ages, different generations… I was just really struck by how many people from many different walks of life loved the show and loved the books and loved the story, and that kind of struck me. I’ll tell you what, I’m pretty happy I didn’t know before I started filming it. Otherwise, I might have been a bit too terrified.
Why do you think audiences, 50 years later, are still drawn to the Ingalls family?
I think these stories kind of show that life has always got challenges, but there’s a way of facing these challenges, and that it’s about trying to be a good person, trying to be a good member of your family, and trying to be a good member of your community. Things are going to go wrong, but if you keep getting up and moving forward, that’s the honorable thing. And if you keep doing that in an honorable way, there’s something that people connect with there.
They’re great role models. They’re not perfect. They’re not perfect people, but they try their best to be good people. I think it’s really easy in this day and age to sit there and go, “Oh, it’s so much easier back then, and if we only didn’t have phones, and they’d be all great.” And I think another thing that people want to see is that life has always had its challenges, and maybe like the Ingalls and their story brings the simplicity back to life, but not in the way of life being easy, but in the simple things of what actually matters: family, friends, community.
I think that’s what people connect to: good people that try to make a good community. It’s something that everyone wants to be a part of, no matter where they’re from in the world, no matter what time they live.
Michael Landon‘s Charles Ingalls is one of the most iconic fathers in television history. Did you make a conscious effort to create your own version of Charles? Did you try to pay homage to him in some way?
No, I would say I was pretty conscious of making my own part. The scripts that Rebecca Sonnenshine, the showrunner, had written were just brilliant, really. There’s no way for anyone to be perfect, and Pa isn’t a perfect man. He’s a good man, and I just wanted to try and make try make him as human as possible.
I think in the books Laurie Ingalls Wilder wrote, Pa was this somewhat flawless figure, and that’s because it’s through the recollection of a 10-year-old girl. But I just thought for a show today, I wanted him to be as real as possible while still holding those great attributes that everyone loves about him. The fact that he is a good man, the fact that he does want to be a great husband and a great father and a great member of his community, the wonderful attributes that I wanted him to keep, but I also wanted him to be able to make mistakes and learn from them.
I think if he’s not making mistakes, he’s never got the chance to learn. And anyone in life should be looking to learn. And if you’re not making mistakes, it’s hard to learn. There were those elements that I wanted him to have, but I still wanted him to be a figure that people looked up to and a figure that people admired.
Season 2 moves the Ingalls family to Walnut Grove. Can you preview how that changes life for the Ingalls family?
It’s a bigger town. It’s a little bit more of a domestic situation. They’re not as isolated. They’ve got more interactions with people and finding their place in a bigger group, and that goes for Laura and Mary as well. They’re going to school, and there are other kids around, and they’re growing as young people, and same with Charles and with Caroline (Crosby Fitzgerald).
They’ve got a bigger town to be a part of and a bigger community to be a part of. I think that’s a nice element of season two. We get off the rough and tumble of the frontier, and it’s still a bit rough and tumble. Don’t worry, the Ingalls still have their challenges, every one of them. But I think we just get to see a little bit more of what life, maybe everyday life, can be like sometimes, and the challenges that life throws up.
So that’s the shift we had in Season 2. But there’s certainly plenty of twists and turns, and plenty of ups and downs, and the Ingalls are still trying to be loving members of the family. So it’s got all the great elements that we love. It’s just a little different in the stories that we get to tell in the second season; I think that’s the exciting thing about it. We’re not telling the same story as Season 1.
Is there another side of Charles that we’ll get to see in Season 2?
I think, with Charles, he does grow up a little bit. He, as I said, is in a bigger town, and there is a bit more responsibility. He finds himself at the center of a community in a way that he didn’t expect. There’s a character that sees the potential in Charles as a leader, and it’s not something that Charles would ever think of for himself. He’s a modest man, a humble man, and so it takes this other character to kind of see the magic in Charles and his ability to lead people and help them out.
I’ve really enjoyed that kind of part of Charles. It’s been nice to see him discover. We’re only a couple of episodes in, so there’s a long way to go. But it’s been nice to see him find a voice and lose a little bit of this naivety. I think he’s learnt a lot over the past, from last season to this one, and he’s a little bit more clued in to the possibilities that people might not be all that they seem, but he wants to be a good leader of people and help people have better lives. That’s an exciting part of the season that I’m enjoying with Charles.
Millions of viewers have never read the books or seen the original series. What do you hope their first impression of Little House on the Prairie is?
I hope they leave with a sense that life has always got its challenges, and that it’s easy to look back on other times and think that it was simpler and everything was great. But the reality is that life’s always got its challenges, and there’s different ways to approach those challenges. And I think the best way to approach them is to try and be good people. When you get knocked down, get back up again, and be honest and good members of your family. Be good husbands. Be good wives. Be good daughters. Be good sons. Be good brothers. Be good members of your community. I think that’s what I want people to take from it.
This is not so different from where we live now. It’s just the choices you make when faced with difficulties that are really the difference between the times. How are you going to approach your life and the things that you face in it, and will you be able to say that you face them with humility and with strength and with honor? I think there are nice things that people can take from the show. It’s all right to make mistakes, but learn from those mistakes and try and be better next time.
Little House on the Prairie, Season 1, Streaming Now, Netflix
Little House on the Prairie, Season 2, 2027, Netflix
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