Crosby Fitzgerald Manifested Netflix's Ma Ingalls Role
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- Crosby Fitzgerald plays Caroline 'Ma' Ingalls in Netflix's 'Little House on the Prairie' reboot, telling Variety she 'manifested' the role after binge-watching 'American Primeval' on the streamer and receiving the audition email the next day.
- Fitzgerald says she spent the past 10 years 'primarily nannying' while continuously auditioning; her other credits include 'Palm Royale' and 'Crime 101.'
- The Netflix reboot, based on Laura Ingalls Wilder's novels, follows the Ingalls family from Wisconsin's 'Big Wood' to the Kansas frontier, with Fitzgerald describing the script's take as a 'marriage of equals' rather than 'some tropey story about the 1800s.'
- Fitzgerald says Caroline pushes back on Charles's risky decisions and even threatens to take the girls back to Wisconsin over financial honesty; the Season 1 finale features a catastrophic fire in Independence, Kansas, destroying their crops and prompting a move to Plum Creek.
- Season 2 is currently filming with Willa Dunn cast as the iconic villain Nellie Oleson, and Fitzgerald says the season adapts 'On the Banks of Plum Creek' with 'fun extra components' she thinks fans will love.
- Fitzgerald also reveals a lighter on-set perk: she 'gets to hang out with a baby cow every day' — and that's what she's 'laser focused on.'
Why it matters: The interview frames the Netflix reboot as a deliberate departure from the iconic '70s/'80s NBC original, recasting the Ingalls marriage as a partnership rather than a period-piece trope — Fitzgerald even says Caroline threatens to take the girls back to Wisconsin over Charles hiding finances. That relational dynamic, layered onto Season 2's move to the more recognizable Plum Creek setting with the arrival of Nellie Oleson, is where the show will be judged against its predecessor.
