Lauren Hammersley, a long-time member of the core Virgin River cast, has shared some exciting facts about her history with the hit Netflix series. Hammersley famously plays the Virgin River character of Charmaine Roberts – Jack Sheridan’s (Martin Henderson) ex-girlfriend. But it turns out that wasn’t her first choice role or the one she originally auditioned for.
In an interview with the YouTube channel Chatting with B, Hammersley admitted that she originally auditioned for the part of Mel Monroe in the drama series, which ultimately went to Alexandra Breckenridge instead.
“I got a phone call about Virgin River, and I was like ‘Oh my gosh,’ but I auditioned for Mel,” she said. “When they said there was another character named Charmaine, I looked through the book, and she’s like ten years older than Jack. You can tell that she used to be pretty, but she had a couple of kids, and I was like ‘oh.'”
Luckily, details about the character and on-screen differences between Robyn Carr’s novels of the same name, were cleared up before Hammersley could read too much into her casting for Virgin River. “Then finally one of the producers went, ‘We rewrote the roles to be something else,’ and I’m like, ‘Oh, good’,” the actor explained. “This industry has a way of making your confidence go up and down.”
While Mel may be the main character in the TV series, Charmaine is certainly a character that has plenty of screen time. And if the bombshell of season 4 that she delivered is anything to go by, we will all be seeing plenty more of Hammersley come Virgin River season 5.
Warning spoilers ahead! At the end of Virgin River season 4, fans learnt that Jack was not the father of Charmaine’s twins. That’s right; she has been lying to him this whole time (gasp). Speaking with TVLine, showrunner Patrick Sean Smith teased what this revelation will mean for Hammersley’s character going forward.
“When I got to that ending, I was gasping. Where do we go? What do we do? What does this mean?” Smith said. “We’ll look at Jack’s investment in what the twins meant to him, as well as how Charmaine challenged him for so long in that relationship. ”
Fans can now watch Virgin River season 4 on the streaming service Netflix. For more binge-worthy picks, here is our guide to the best fantasy series of all time.