The death of Mel’s mother has always hung over Virgin River’s central character (played by Alexandra Breckenridge). However, season 6 of the Netflix series gives fans a long-awaited look at her mother Sarah’s life via flashbacks to the 1970s. Jessica Rothe steps into the role, playing the “free-spirited, witty activist from the big city who is trying to avoid a traditional life.”
The flashbacks examine Sarah’s fateful romance with Mel’s biological father Everett (played by Callum Kerr). The relationship was something Rothe found relatable. “We all have that person that was our first love that we never stopped thinking about, that you just are drawn back to time and time again,” Rothe told TV Insider. “I love that Sarah’s practical, but she’s also an optimist. She knew she and Everett were going to find each other again, and she has faith in the world in those ways.”
Rothe has been slowly building up a strong resume across multiple genres, and fans will get to know her better as she becomes a staple in the Virgin River universe. (Her character may even get a prequel treatment alongside her love interest!) Below, find out what to know about the latest addition to the Virgin River cast.
Jessica Rothe always wanted to be an actress, but didn’t consider pursuing it professionally until high school.
Growing up as the daughter of a doctor and elementary school teacher in Denver, Colorado, Rothe was allowed to do extracurriculars like theater and choir—but only if she got good grades. “It was like, ‘if you get an A on your science test, you can go to rehearsal,’” the 37-year-old recalled to Popsugar in a 2017 interview. A high school teacher recognized her talent and encouraged her to pursue the path. She attended Boston University and moved to New York to do theater (“never TV or film,” she jokingly remembered about her original aspirations).
Meryl Streep was her original inspiration due to her chameleonic performances. “She got to be the ingenue and the character actress because people weren’t looking for reality in the same way. They were looking for films to be an escape,” Rothe said.
Rothe was dubbed a “scream queen” for her work in 'Happy Death Day' and its sequel.
After a few smaller roles, including one opposite Emma Stone in La La Land, Rothe was cast in the 2017 horror film Happy Death Day where she played Theresa “Tree” Gelbman. Vulture credited “the force of Rothe’s undeniable charm” as the reason the time loop story works at all, and the Evening Standard and DuJour dubbed her a “scream queen” for her work in the film and its 2019 sequel.
Rothe was drawn to Tree because she saw her as a strong female character with a multifaceted personality. “The thing with Tree is she's such an unexpected scream queen. She’s this sassy, brassy, multi-dimensional human being who's flawed. She drinks and she has sex and she makes mistakes and sometimes she's really bitchy, but at the end of the day she has a new heart,” Rothe told Flaunt. “I got to be funny, scared, rageful, and heartfelt all in the same film, and it was something that I feel especially in this genre women don't get to do.”
But she’s not a stranger to romance.
Between the release of the Happy Death Day films, Rothe appeared in the 2018 romance film Forever My Girl. A few years later in 2020, she starred in the tearjerker All My Life and the jukebox musical Valley Girl. The Hollywood Reporter called her handling of the dramatic material “impressive,” so fans can expect she’ll handle the role of Sarah with care.
Rothe looks for strong female characters in all of her roles.
Even before her breakout role in the Happy Death Day franchise, she appeared in a short-lived 2016 MTV series Mary + Jane centered on a cannabis delivery business. “When I decided to do Mary + Jane, one of the things that I was most excited about was the demographic that we would predominantly be reaching out to, which is 12- to 25-year-old women,” she told Women’s Wear Daily. “We talk a lot on the show about female entrepreneurship and what it’s like when your best friend has something you want, and how you deal with jealousy in a healthy way and how to be competitive in a healthy way—things that I really wish I had seen on TV when I was a teenager.”
Her role in the 2023 film Boy Kills World pushed the idea of female empowerment even further. The actress learned 17 forms of martial arts for the action film, telling fans at ComicCon Cape Town in April 2024, “Women are strong and badass.” She’s a firm believer that there’s “enough space at the table for all powerful women,” and believes in closing the gender pay gap and a woman’s right to choose.
