The questions loomed: Would Hope be back? Would Hope and Doc Mullins (Tim Matheson) have another chance to connect in their unusual relationship? How would the town—and her many close friends and neighbors—do without their favorite outspoken, yet kind-hearted resident? You will be pleased to hear after the pandemic kept O’Toole away from town, she is back, but Hope is recovering from a traumatic head injury as a result of her car crash. Hope and Doc’s storyline is the source of major drama in Virgin River Season 4. The other source of both romance and drama is the roller coaster romance between nurse practitioner Melinda “Mel” Monroe (Alexandra Breckenridge) and restaurant owner Jack Sheridan (Martin Henderson). Best known for her TV roles on Smallville, Nash Bridges and the epic horror miniseries It, O’Toole has shown us her range with her range of roles: Her first TV appearance was in 1967 on The Danny Kaye Show, followed by guest-starring roles in My Three Sons, Hawaii Five-0, The Partridge Family, and Gunsmoke. She played Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy in the 1990 Kennedy’s of Massachusetts miniseries and Lana Lang in Superman III. She is also an accomplished songwriter, whose song “A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow” was nominated for an Oscar. (She co-wrote the tune with her husband Michael McKean, famous for playing Lenny on Laverne & Shirley, David St. Hubbins in This Is Spinal Tap and Chuck McGill on Better Call Saul.) What makes her work with Virgin River different? “I think what’s so wonderful about Virgin River is that it is an example of that community connection we all seem to want,” O’Toole exclusively tells Parade.com. “It’s about a way to live your life, wherever you are and whatever you do. To care about your fellow man, be open to them, and be tolerant and loving is never a mistake. I believe it is never wrong to be on the side of love.” Read on for more of how O’Toole approaches Hope’s traumatic brain injury, how she and Hope are both alike and dissimilar and what she loves about the cozy small-town charm of Virgin River.
You have an extremely impressive career.
Annett O’Toole: Well, it’s been a long one. I’ve been very lucky. I’m lucky that I am still doing it and people still hire me to do it. I really feel like I fell into a pot of jam with Virgin River.
How do you feel that you and Hope are similar and different?
Both of us have a lot of energy. We both are independent. I think we’re both only children. Neither of us takes criticism well, although I’m much better at accepting it than she is. How we are not is I think she much more articulate—not now because of her brain injury, but hopefully, she’ll get some of that back. She’s able to express herself and weep. I admire her for being able to say things and kind of have very strong opinions about things are not feel reticent about expressing them. I admire that a lot. I’m still loving what I do more than ever. I am filled with gratitude.
Did you do any research on brain injury victims or any of the symptoms that you have in Season 4 following the car accident?
Yes, I did research online about it. The interesting thing about it is there are general things that happen but each case seems to be so different and people’s recovery rates seem to be different. I didn’t feel like it was wrong to have her be able to be OK in some areas and not others, because it just doesn’t seem like there’s one way to do it. This is freeing and also a little complicated because you want to do it right, you don’t want it ever to seem wrong. So she has issues with terrible headaches, she has issues with balance, issues focusing and [trouble with her] motor skills. I think there’s a scene where she’s trying to shuffle cards, I don’t know if that made it into the actual end of the show.
How is Hope handling her recovery in Virgin River Season 4?
The best that she can. She’s trying to knit and gets frustrated that she can’t do things. I remember that early on Hope couldn’t crochet the way she wanted to. She’s using that as an exercise to try to get better with her motor skills, but it’s frustrating because she can’t do it. In one of the later episodes, she’s knitting without looking. In little ways, I was trying to say she’s getting better in this regard. Netflix
When you do a scene with Tara (Stacey Farber) and you’re talking about the loss of her mother and your best friend, Lilly, do you draw on personal losses? I recently lost my mom, and when I watch Hope grieving for Lilly I can identify with my own loss.
You gave me chills when you said that because as an actor that’s just always your hope, that you can connect with people. That’s why I do it, I want it to be real, I want people to be able to relate to it, especially on this show. If that made you feel somehow closer or it was comforting or whatever it was for you, that really touches me. I’m hoping that’s what a lot of people will feel because it’s genuine. I lost my dad in 2016 and he was very much a part of my preparation for that scene. It’s the thing that unites us all. We’re all going to go through it, either ourselves or we’re going to lose people and it’ll be us eventually, that we leave the people we love. It’s always a journey.
What is it like working with Tim Matheson, who plays Doc, Hope’s husband and life partner? How has the chemistry evolved over the four seasons?
Tim and I have known each other for over 40 years. We’ve worked together twice before this. We did a show called What Ever Happened to the Class of ’65. I’m not sure what year it was, but I can kind of pinpoint it because while we were doing it, I said, “What are you going to do next, Tim?” He said, “I’m going to Oregon. I’m going to do this movie called Animal House,” which came out in 1978. He said, “I don’t think much is going to happen with it.” Netflix It was great because I’ve known Tim so long and Hope and Doc have known each other a long time, even though their marriage has been certainly not conventional. So, it was great, it felt right. There wasn’t a lot we had to work on to be comfortable with one another; it was just right there.
What was it like not being physically on the set for Season 3 and dropping in by video chat a few times?
Not being able to be there for Season 3 [because of the COVID pandemic] caused us to have to figure out a way for me to be gone and then the accident and all that stuff. So, coming back the issue last year was how was Doc going to deal with it. It’s really a huge burden on him. Hope is just kind of in the middle of it trying to get better and make sense of it all and deal with a lot of physical stuff that’s very difficult for her. He’s on the outside of it trying to figure out do I let her do this or do I sit on her for that. And him being a doctor didn’t help, because he knew what he should be doing.
Have you really bonded with the cast and the crew?
We have bonded. It’s funny, yes, I guess but I haven’t ever really done that, even when I was on Smallville. There were people I loved, and John Glover especially, on that show. He and I bonded and we’re still very good friends. On this my storyline, especially last year, was so exclusive mainly to Tim and he and I already had that kind of bond. We’d go out to lunch and dinner, we had coffee together yesterday and talked about what we’re hoping for this coming season. He and I are pretty close friends. I really enjoy Teryl Rothery, who plays Muriel. We’ve gotten to be dear friends. Just yesterday she texted me saying, “I’m in Winnipeg working. Where are you?” I said, “When you get back call me.” We are really good friends who are also working colleagues.
One aspect of Virgin River fans appreciate is the annual picnic to raise money for people in need in the community. It just says so much about the kindness there.
Yes, and I believe that there are places like that. I lived in Ashland, Oregon, for 14 years and it’s very similar to what happens in Virgin River. In fact, it’s in the same kind of area. It’s very southern Oregon, it’s right over the border from California. The Oregon Shakespeare Festival is there and they do a big event every year to raise money for HIV/AIDS in the Rogue Valley. It’s called the Daedalus Project. I’m a big knitter and I have donated a lot of hats that have been sold and the money goes to that. Netflix I would say that those places exist and I think we all want to feel that, we want to feel a sense of community. I think when you are living in a city you sometimes don’t feel that. Although in New York—it’s funny, I feel that more in New York because you have your own little neighborhood and your own pocket of the people around you because you go to the store at a certain place. It’s just very a close community within this huge city. I find LA, because it’s so spread out and so big, I don’t have that sense there.
Are you planning to ever go back to theater and Broadway?
Yes, I would love to go back. I was supposed to do something in between seasons, a workshop of a play my husband and I are doing. But the schedule changed for Virgin River. Because I’m obligated to do that and I’m under contract to them I had to honor that, of course, and I couldn’t do this other thing. It’s kind of a juggling act. The stage thing is hard right now because theaters have to know a great deal in advance and I don’t know my schedule in advance. The way Virgin River works, they can choose—we can go right from one season to the other. They could have gone immediately into Season 5 if they had wanted to. That was kind of the idea earlier, but then they changed their minds. I just have to go with the flow. I’m so happy to have this job and to be part of this amazing show that speaks to people the way that it does, and to be with this cast and lovely crew up in a city that is in Canada away from a lot of horrible stuff that’s going on in our home. I can’t complain. My husband is going to be coming up soon and we get to hang out here.
When you have free time what kind of movies or books or streaming shows, are you watching?
I watch everything. I’ve been really taken with Gentleman Jack and I was so, so sad to see that HBO did not renew it, I hope they find another outlet for it. I think not only is it a beautiful show written by Sally Wainwright, who wrote Happy Valley, the Sarah Lancashire series, and she also created the series, Last Tango in Halifax, and is a brilliant writer. It’s about this real woman analyst, who was this businesswoman and a very modern woman for her time and had a relationship with a different woman. I just think it’s so well done. Suranne Jones is the star and I think she’s just amazing, just amazing work she’s doing. I really, really hope it continues.
How else do you spend your free time?
I walk every day. I have osteoporosis so I’m really being very good about my walking and I was able to kind of arrest it. I had a bone density test recently. I walk every day for at least half an hour every day, usually 45 minutes or an hour. I’ve been listening to a ton of audiobooks. When I’m doing that, I like to read big novels, so I just finished The Brothers Karamazov, which I had never read and I found was so amazing and a really great book for actors to read. It’s all about why people do things and how they come across and what they really mean. It’s fascinating and it goes into such depth. I just loved it. Netflix My husband and I watch shows together. We read to one another every night. That’s been hard when we’ve been separated, but we always have a book going. We do it together and separately. Right now, I’m reading Kitty Peck and the Music Hall Murders by Kate Griffin. It’s a really fun mystery that I got at the Vancouver library where I hang out a lot. I’m a big knitter, I knit constantly. I even enjoy knitting podcasts. And I like to cook. I like to joke that I’m sort of a housewife who also dabbles in acting.
What is your favorite thing to cook?
I love to bake. I’m gluten-free now because I realized three years ago that why I was having severe stomachaches and it was, “Well, can’t eat gluten.” But I’m not a big bread eater, anyway, so that’s not a hardship. I’ve been investigating a lot of gluten-free baking, so I have made my own blend and I bake scones and biscuits and cornbread and all kinds of things. I make chili and I make turkey meatloaf. Just kind of the basics, all the stuff that my kids like. I make a really good Mexican lasagna. Virgin River Seasons 1-3 is streaming on Netflix now. Virgin River Season 4 streams on Netflix starting Wednesday, July 20. Next, find out everything you need to know about Virgin River Season 4 before it drops.
