The character of Sarah in Virgin River is played by actress Jessica Rothe. The death of Sarah, who happens to be Mel's mother, has been a determining incident for the latter on Virgin River and has been hanging on her emotional landscape ever since. Although the audiences aren't ever fully brought in contact with Sarah, her story figures out in flashbacks on the Virgin River before the character met her tragic end.
Sarah on Virgin River is portrayed as an independent and free-spirited soul from circa 1972. She was a big-town girl and wanted to live life on her own terms. Sarah was not up for the traditional lifestyle that would involve her staying at home and raising a family. Instead, she was fond of her activism and wanted a life filled with adventure at every turn.
When Sarah crossed paths with a young Everett, the two developed an instant connection. Everett himself was an aspiring singer-songwriter cruising through life in a VW van. Sarah soon exchanged vows with Everett before she eventually gave birth to Mel.
Jessica Rothe has previously appeared alongside Emma Stone in the Oscar-winning movie La La Land and the comedy Mary + Jane. Here's everything that we know about her.
Virgin River: Jessica Rothe's life and career explored in detail
Virgin River star and thirty-seven-year-old actress Jessica Rothe grew up in Denver, Colorado, where her father and mother worked as a doctor and an elementary school teacher, respectively. Jessica was allowed to partake in extracurricular activities such as choir singing and drama rehearsals but on the condition that she would score well in her academic tests. She mentioned this in an interview with PopSugar back in 2017:
"It was like, ‘if you get an A on your science test, you can go to rehearsal."
Recognition of Rothe's talent first came from one of her high school teachers who encouraged her to follow the path of acting. Rothe then went on to attend Boston University, and from there, she relocated to New York with an ambition of making it big in the theatre world. It hadn't yet crossed her mind then to have a career in either film or television.
Speaking about her acting inspiration in Marie Claire magazine, Rothe mentioned Merryl Streep as one of her prime sources of inspiration:
"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 has often been referred to as a 'scream queen' following her work on the 2017 horror film Happy Death Day, in which she portrayed the character of Theresa 'Tree' Gelbman. In Tree, Rothe saw an opportunity to play a decidedly strong female character who had a mind of her own.
How did Sarah and Everett meet in the Virgin River flashbacks?
Following intense pestering from his daughter Mel, Everett finally reveals in snippets the tale of how he first met his former wife and her mother Sarah back in circa 1972.
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Virgin River revealed in flashbacks that Everett was on his way to attend a The Stones concert in California when he picked up Sarah as a hitchhiker, as she, too, was on the way to attend a peace march. After their car broke down, the two of them ended up spending some time together and fell for each other.
Virgin River is available on Netflix.
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