‘Virgin River’ Star Alexandra Breckenridge on a “Very Draining” Season 5, Mel’s Miscarriage and the Difficulty of Birthing Scenes
Along with navigating the heavy moments, the star of the Netflix series also opens up to The Hollywood Reporter about the storyline she felt was “kind of goofy” and her hopes for Jack (Martin Henderson) and Mel’s relationship.
Following a dramatic and intense season five of Netflix‘s Virgin River, Alexandra Breckenridge was more than excited to take on the light-hearted holiday episodes that close out the two-part season.
This 12-episode season — which released its first 10 episodes on Sept. 7 — saw new relationships forming for several characters, Brady (Benjamin Hollingsworth) and Brie’s (Zibby Allen) shocking breakup, a wildfire that threatened the entire town, Brie’s difficult court trial for her sexual assault case and Jack (Martin Henderson) finding out his business is at the center of an illegal drug business.
But Breckenridge’s character Mel faced her own battles, including the emotional toll of suffering a miscarriage, which she says was “really difficult” and “very draining” to film.
Then, to add to the drama, Mel finds out in the part one finale that her biological father lives in Virgin River, of all places. Breckenridge recalled talking to showrunner Sean Smith about the storyline and saying, “’It is a little goofy, right?’ … And I remember when they were coming up with the storyline and being like, ‘Is it too much?’ I said, ‘Nah, it’s Virgin River.’”
Fortunately, during the season’s final two episodes that are now streaming, viewers get to see Mel and Jack embark on a merry scavenger hunt in search of her father, as the town prepares for another beloved seasonal event: the Christmas tree decorating contest.
Following these highly-anticipated holiday episodes, many unanswered questions still remain for the townspeople of Virgin River. But that’s something fans can look forward to in season six, including Breckenridge, who says she’s also excited to see what’s in store for Mel and Jack: “I feel that they have good days ahead of them, and they’ll just continue to become a stronger couple as we move ahead and move forward.”
Breckenridge talks with The Hollywood Reporter more below about her favorite, powerful episodes this season, using personal experiences to help prepare for the emotional scenes surrounding Mel’s miscarriage, and her hopes for Mel and Jack’s relationship.
It was just as I had anticipated. It was really cute, very small town, just a Christmas bonanza. Everything was decorated, and I was secretly in the corner on my phone buying Christmas ornaments (laughs). I think we were shooting at the end of October; I was so inspired by our Christmas. We had been talking about it for years, how it made sense to do a Virgin River Christmas. However, the problem always became how slowly the show moves, and so unless we were going to jump ahead at some point, it just wasn’t feasible to do. But, here it was.
After everything that happened this season, do you have a favorite episode or scene you filmed?
You know, as hard as mid-season was for me, I loved those episodes. I love when Brie’s character takes the stand. I thought that was extremely powerful, and what she says on the stand was incredibly powerful. It felt like something we hadn’t done before on the show. So I was really proud the writers chose to go there, and I cried when I read the script and I cried when I watched it. The fire — I think it was episodes five, six and seven. They were hard, but I thought it was some of our best work.
One of the big storylines was Mel’s miscarriage. How did you prepare emotionally to take on those scenes?
It was really difficult. It was very draining. You know, if you look back at season one, coming into Virgin River, Mel was very deeply in loss and trauma, and as an actress that was something I was looking forward to getting out of. Because when I do that kind of work, it takes me there personally. So I really wasn’t looking forward to it, to be honest with you, because it takes me through the trauma. I have my own trauma, just as everybody does, and for me, it felt close to home and something that I can relate to as a mother. And so I just used my own experience in that area, and I’m not going to lie to you, there was a weekend where I was just a total disaster on the couch after filming all of that. Those episodes were really hard. I was just watching TV all day and I had to call Martin [Henderson], and I was texting with him and he was like, “Are you OK?” And I was like, “I don’t think so (crying voice).” But he was extremely kind and talked me down from my heightened emotional state.
It’s hard. As much as we want to say, “I can go into this character and come out of it on the other side,” I think you always bring a piece of you in and you take a piece of them away with you, and your body, your cells remember that. And then you do the scene over and over again, and so you’re just basically living trauma just constantly. I remember watching actresses when I was younger play these roles where the entire movie, they’d just be crying. I don’t know what it was, [but] there was some Naomi Watts film that I was watching, and she was just sobbing the whole time. I was like, “Gosh, how does she do that?” But I felt ultimately that it was such an incredibly important story to tell for women who had infertility and have not been able to conceive themselves, but look forward to having a family just the same.
It sounds like immersing yourself in those emotions for days, even weeks, for filming took a toll on you.
You shoot two episodes at once, about 14 to 15 days usually. So it was about 14 to 15 days of me just going in and living with this miscarriage, and fighting through these fires and trying to save Ava and the baby and all of that. It was just, it was wild.
Was Mel having a successful pregnancy considered at all ahead of this season?
Yes, before they even started writing, Sean and I had conversations about telling an alternative story and taking the characters in this direction. I have friends who have struggled through getting pregnant and they always tell me how they don’t feel like women who don’t get their miracle baby are not represented enough [on screen]. So that felt like a very real, very important piece. A story that we could tell with Mel’s past and through this character. This is a comfort show, however we do touch into very real and important storylines. And I think when we do delve into them, we try to be as honest and grounded as we can, even throughout the template of being a comfort show.
When you initially got the script and read that your biological dad was also living in Virgin River, what was going through your head?
I mean, it seems kind of goofy when you first think about it because you’re like, “Really, she has a dad in Virgin River?” I mean, of all the places, of all the towns and all the cities and all the world. It seemed odd and so we did put a little line in the beginning of the Christmas episode of Mel saying, “I don’t know, maybe I saw the postcard somewhere.” We tried to pepper a little bit of something in about that, because Sean and I had been talking about it and we’re like, “It is a little goofy, right?” … And I remember when they were coming up with the storyline and being like, “Is it too much?” I said, “Nah, it’s Virgin River. It’s all right, why not? It’s the Christmas episode. Sounds really cute.” Also, it would be nice for Mel to have family again. But the Christmas episodes are just so much lighter than the rest of the season and rightfully so, because it’s Christmas and we don’t want Debbie Downers during Christmas.
Jack and Mel have obviously been through a lot since the series began, not only together but also individually. What do you hope for the future of their relationship?
I think they’ve gotten to a really beautiful place in their relationship that is a very intimate friendship. They’re where I wanted them to be going in (laughs). They’re best friends and now at this point, they have been through so much together, and they’ve really weathered so many storms that it looks like they will be able to continue to weather storms because they have a very strong foundation. So moving ahead, with them starting a family and getting married, that’s also a lot. You’re like, “Oh, I want a baby,” and then you have one and you’re like, “Oh my gosh, this is so much work.” Everybody kind of told me, but then they didn’t really want to tell me and now I’m here and oh my goodness! So I feel that they have good days ahead of them and they’ll just continue to become a stronger couple as we move ahead and move forward. I’m excited to see their new house. The cabin was so cute, but really after five seasons of shooting there, I’m like, “OK, I’ve had enough (laughs).”
Five seasons in, what is your favorite thing about playing Mel?
Her strength. I think Mel is an extremely strong character. She’s very empathetic and she’s also very strong in her beliefs, and she won’t take a lot of crap (laughs). But I think her biggest superpower is being able to go into nurse mode in an emergency. And as we’ve seen this last season, she completely puts aside any of her personal things that she might be going through in order to help other people.
And hopefully, we’ll get to see more of that from Mel since she’s back working at the clinic.
She is back at the clinic and we’re starting a birthing center and I’m like, “How many little babies am I going to have to birth?” We’re going to see. It’s hard to do birthing scenes. They’re not easy. We get these little twins in, they’re covered in goop, some poor woman sitting here with her legs in stirrups, and you have to pretend to take the baby. Like it’s very weird (laughs). And whenever I see a birthing scene [in the script], I’m like, “Oh, no, another one (laughs).” But that’s her, she’s a midwife.
So would you say shooting Mel and Cameron’s [Mark Ghanimé] birthing scene with Kaia [Kandyse McClure] over FaceTime was easier?
No, actually, that was very difficult because we were acting with nobody. We were acting with no one and the director we had had, that was the first day we were working with him. And he was reading the other lines off camera and he was yelling them at us, and he was telling the cameraman to go to pull this way and pull back around this way, and it was all very chaotic. I was like, this is very intense. It was more intense than taking a poor little infant covered in jelly out.
