Alexandra Breckenridge of Virgin River
Elvis Duran and the Morning Show ON DEMAND
Elvis Duran Podcast Network and iHeartPodcasts
4.7 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 2 December 2025
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week, Tommy is joined by actress Alexandra Breckenridge, known for her beloved role as Mel on the hit series Virgin River and Sophie from This Is Us. Now, she’s stepping into a surprising new character in her holiday film My Secret Santa. Alexandra opens up about what drew her to the unexpected challenge of playing Santa, the brutally cold shoot at a Canadian ski resort, and the joy of bringing festive magic to the screen. She also talks about the deep emotional parallels between her own life and Mel’s journey, the personal experiences that shaped her performance, and the ongoing challenge of keeping a long-running character fresh and grounded. Plus, Alexandra shares the holiday movies she can’t stop rewatching, the behind-the-scenes friendship that keeps Virgin River fun, and a childhood story she’s never told before involving bullying, dyslexia, and choreographing dance routines to Prince and Elton John. My Secret Santa premieres December 3rd on Netflix.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. |
| 0:04.9 | Hey guys, welcome to I've never said this before with me, Tommy Dodario. |
| 0:11.0 | Christmas movies are on repeat in my house because tis the season to feel some warm and fuzzy |
| 0:16.2 | festive magic in our lives. And my guest today, she is starring in what is sure to be a holiday |
| 0:21.7 | favorite. You know and love Alexandra Breckenridge from playing Mel in the Smash Het |
| 0:26.1 | Netflix series Virgin River. It is one of the longest running original series for the |
| 0:30.8 | streamer and for good reason. Both her and Martin Henderson, they deliver these multi-layered, |
| 0:36.3 | nuanced, and in many moments, such relatable performances. |
| 0:40.4 | And coming out on Wednesday, December 3rd is Alexandra's Christmas movie called My Secret Santa, |
| 0:44.8 | which is all about a single mom, living a very festive double life, we'll say, |
| 0:49.1 | one in which she disguises herself as a man to get the job of Santa. |
| 0:52.4 | So what can go wrong, right? |
| 0:55.9 | Oh, and something I know we all enjoy about the holidays is traveling to see our loved ones, but not when travel becomes |
| 1:00.7 | complete chaos. So my personal sponsor for today's episode is Travel Guard, and they want to make |
| 1:05.8 | sure we safely and peacefully say hello to our next destination this holiday season. They offer vacation insurance plans that will protect your trip investment with |
| 1:14.0 | coverages like trip interruption or cancellation, medical expenses and evacuation, |
| 1:18.6 | loss or delayed baggage, and so much more. |
| 1:21.7 | You guys have seen the news lately, traveling is bananas. |
| 1:24.6 | So visit travelguard.com to learn how you can protect your holiday travel plans and leave your headaches at home. |
| 1:32.9 | All right. |
| 1:33.6 | Let's see if today we can get Alexandra to say something that she has never said before. |
| 1:43.9 | Alexandra, how are you? It's so nice to see you. It's nice to see you too. I'm doing great. Doing great here at Santa's Village. Well, I'm very excited to be celebrating the holiday season with you, and we're going to get into all the fun things. But first, I am an Italian from Jersey who loves to cook. I know you love to cook, and I need to know what is a holiday dish that you are known for. Nice. I'm also Italian, but I'm also Irish. So it's like, I mean, we do a lot of cooking. |
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