Actress, singer and songwriter, Annette O’Toole has been wowing audiences since she was two years old. Once a student at her mother’s dance school in Houston, Annette caught the acting bug after moving to Los Angeles at age 13. She first gained recognition for her role as the spirited teenager Roberta in the 1975 film Smile and rose to fame through memorable roles from Lana Lang in Superman III (1983) to Beverly Marsh in the miniseries adaptation of Stephen King’s It (1990) to taking on the role of Superman’s adoptive mother on the hit series Smallville (2001–2011).
Beyond acting, Annette is also a talented songwriter. She and her husband, actor Michael McKean, received an Academy Award nomination for co-writing the song “A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow” for the 2003 film A Mighty Wind.
Today, fans know and love Annette as Hope McCrea on the hit Netflix hit series Virgin River, based on the novels of the same name by Robyn Carr. The sixth season premieres on December 19, so we sat down with Annette to talk about Virgin River, life with McKean and bringing up their new pup Barry.
FIRST for Women: You’ve had a varied and storied career for many decades. How has your early singing and dancing training helped you in your musical and acting careers?
Annette O’Toole: It gives you the basics for pretty much whatever you want to do in life, especially the dancing because it’s a certain kind of discipline, it’s very good for your body. I never thought I’d be as tall as I am except for dancing with all the stretching. I swear it helped me get an inch taller than I normally would have otherwise. Now I am a whopping 5’4! My mother was a dancing teacher and she had a school in Houston, so it was easy for me to go. I just showed up after school so I was very, very lucky.
I was also exposed to a lot of performing early on. My mom and her sister, who ran the school with her, were very good friends with a man who did a local kids TV show, Don Mahoney’s Kiddie Trooper Show. It was a western-themed show with us sitting on hay bales. We’d get up and do a song and dance, so that was my first TV appearance when I was 2 and sang “Happy Birthday” to my grandfather. My life is centered around all that early training and discipline, but it was also a lot of fun…maybe because my mom was the teacher. I had a unique upbringing in that way and I’m really grateful for it.
FFW: You have played so many diverse characters throughout your career. What do you personally bring to these roles?
AO: I guess my work ethic. It’s that early discipline and how I approach pretty much everything in my life. I’m having some people over for lunch today and I was looking around and thought, ‘Wow, I’ve got everything almost done.’ When I had kids in the house and working at the same time, you had to manage your time well, so I think I’m able to get things done in a quick amount of time and I concentrate really hard and plan ahead.
I really enjoy doing those things like cooking. I haven’t had many people over since COVID—I got out of the habit. But I’m just now starting to get together with friends. We are playing this card game called Kalooki, which I had never heard of before. It’s kind of a gin rummy type of game and this particular version is a South African version because the woman who taught it to everyone is from South Africa. But back to the question—I like attention to detail and I was lucky that I could sing and dance so I was able to do the Tammy Wynette role and that opened up a lot for me.
FFW: I read that you said you never wanted big stardom; you just wanted a good script. Do you have a favorite script that resonates with you?
AO: The first one that came to mind when you said that—I tend to think scripts are more about plays. I do a lot of theater. The last play I did before the pandemic was called The Good Book written by Denis O’Hare who is a fantastic actor and Lisa Peterson who is a terrific writer and director and collaborated on the script. It’s about the making of the Bible. It was a really complicated, interesting script that when you said that about your favorite script, that one makes people think, gives them something different to think about the Bible in a different way.
FFW: What is it about Hope McCrea on Virgin River that makes her such a fan favorite?
AO: She’s just a real person and even though she’s older, she still has a lot of flaws, a lot of wonderful qualities and she doesn’t suffer fools at all. She has a quality that I admire, which is she’s able to speak her mind. I wish I could do that more in my life. In my life, I tend to just hold things in and not share too much…I don’t want to hurt people’s feelings. I don’t want to give away too much; I’m more guarded than Hope. She has a zest for life, been through a lot of physical issues and dealt with them and found a way to live with them. She has a complicated relationship with her husband that I find interesting. Just ‘cause you’re older doesn’t mean you have all that figured out. You’ve lived a long time and you should know better, but sometimes you just don’t.
FFW: With Hope and Doc’s love story and boomers out there looking for love again, what would Hope say in terms of encouragement to find love again?
AO: You never know what’s around the corner. In my own life, my husband and I didn’t find each other until I was in my forties and he in his fifties. We both had first marriages—we weren’t miserable but we weren’t terribly happy. They were good people but our lives went in different directions. I was not looking for anyone. We met and became great friends and it was just apparent that we were meant to be together. We felt spiritually in love and we’ve been together, gosh, for 27 years. So anything can happen at any time.
FFW: I love Hope’s sassiness. How much of Annette O’Toole is in that sassiness?
AO: I guess a lot of it because I embody her. But I’m not terribly sassy in life. With the advantage of having all the lines written down, I can work on them and make them sassy or not depending on the occasion. Life is different. You hardly ever say the right thing in any moment—I find myself asking why did I say that?! I’m glad people picked up that she’s sassy, that’s great. She has a great sense of humor. Her humor is what I love most about her.
FFW: You and Tim Matheson seem to have a very easy rapport even when conflicts arise. Is this due to the writing or a familiarity because you’ve acted with him before?
AO: I’ve known Tim for many, many years and acted with him twice before. The scripts really tell you everything you need to know about a scene. We get together and go over the scenes and kind of fill in the blanks ourselves so it’s more like real life. He and I have always done that. We just have an ease together and the writers know how to write for us now. I hope this year there won’t be so many big issues, so many health things and certainly this year, it’s all about the wedding. We have conflicts this year too, but they’re not life-threatening or big ones.
FFW: Can you give me a brief few sentences on what the viewers might expect this upcoming season?
AO: I think they can expect a lot of joy, a lot of fulfillment of their hopes for Mel and Jack. You will see Virgin River come together in a really wonderful way. This season, I think, is all about love and fulfillment. It certainly brought us joy.
FFW: What would we find you doing away from Virgin River and other bright lights?
AO: Well my husband and I just adopted a dog in July, his name is Barry. A lot of our time is spent with Barry. He’s a rescue dog so he has a few issues. He doesn’t like other dogs and doesn’t trust people all that much so we’re training him. That’s been really wonderful having him in our lives. Our kids are doing well and we see them when they’re here. We have one daughter still here in town. My mom just turned 99 in September, so I’m very much tied here—Los Angeles—because of her. I’m an only child. My kids are so close to my mother and it’s a wonderful relationship.
FFW: Your dog, Barry—where does the name come from?
AO: My mother named him. We adopted him and the shelter had named him Cuervo—I have no connection to Cuervo at all. We don’t drink that. He had only been in the shelter 5 days so he didn’t even know that name. I went to see my mom and she was napping so she was a little bit out of it. I told her all about this dog and said I need to find a name for it. She kind of fell back to sleep and woke up and said, “Oh, this is Uncle Barry’s house, isn’t it?” And I said no. She said, “Well maybe it’s a good name for the dog,” and I said that’s a great name for the dog.
FFW: Your first date with Michael was at the 1997 UCLA concert with Bob Dylan, Van Morrison and Joni Mitchell. Has music influenced some of your career choices?
AO: It was a great concert. Gosh. That’s a great question. I’ve never been asked that. I don’t think it influences my career choices, but it certainly helps when I’m working on a part; I use music for different characters. I did a play called Hamlet in Bed in New York and there’s a Mark Knopfler song that helped me prepare for that role. Just writing music with Michael is something else we do and it’s something we do all the time but nothing tied to a role.
FFW: What music might influence you with Hope?
AO: There’s a song by Richard Thompson called “The Ghost of You Walks” and I used it when she and Doc were estranged but still very much tethered. Now it’s more stuff like rock n’ roll, good ole Beatles, Stones….all that good stuff.
FFW: We live in a very polarized time. What gives you hope?
AO: Just the fact that we have no choice but to keep going on. This life is all about how we deal with adversity, sadness and disappointment. The closeness of the women on Virgin River is wonderful and I’m finding that again in my life. The people coming over today are women and we’ll play cards together, talk about a lot of things, and eat.
