LIFE
Annette O’Toole savors ‘Virgin River’ role as real, freeing
LOS ANGELES — Annette O’Toole is reveling in her “Virgin River” role as the unpredictable mayor of a small town whose woodsy, peaceful setting belies its residents’ roller-coaster lives.
Her character is older but not always wiser, including in love. That goes against Hollywood’s tendency to view midlife-plus as past the sell-by date for nuanced storytelling, and O’Toole counts herself fortunate to play Hope McCrea.
Make that doubly lucky. When the actor chose to stay with her 97-year-old mom during the worst of the pandemic, that meant Hope was largely absent last season. The fourth and current season is a comeback for both, thanks to series creator Sue Tenney.
“She called me and said, ’You’re in the hospital. You had a terrible car crash,” Tenney said of Hope’s in-limbo status. When O’Toole asked if Hope lives, Tenney let the actor decide: Did she want to return to the series, which stars Alexandra Breckenridge and is based on Robyn Carr’s novels?
“Are you kidding?” O’Toole replied. Such eagerness is characteristic, as proven by her resume that includes few gaps and some 100 film and TV credits (“Superman III,” “Nash Bridges” and “Smallville” among them). She earned an Emmy nomination for playing Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy in the 1990 miniseries “The Kennedys of Massachusetts,” a role she took on shortly after the birth of her second daughter.
She’s also emphasized theater work and, with husband Michael McKean, is a songwriter: several of their tunes were in “A Mighty Wind” — the film by McKean’s longtime friend and collaborator Christopher Guest — including the Oscar-nominated ballad “A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow.” Then there’s her Spinal Tap back-up singer bragging rights, most notably at a London benefit concert including actor-writer McKean, Guest and others in the faux band of satiric movie fame.
O’Toole, 70, was breezily good-natured in a phone interview with The Associated Press during season-five filming in Vancouver, which stands in for Northern California on “Virgin River.” There’s more “emotionally at stake” than ever and the town is “really going to be unified,” she said of next season.
There were no spoilers dropped, but O’Toole candidly discussed how her character is portrayed, Hope’s relationship with Doc Mullins, played by Tim Matheson, and the luck in finding the right partner in McKean, her second husband. Remarks were edited for clarity and brevity.
—-
‘Virgin River’ isn’t sci-fi or fantasy, it’s simply human drama. Was that the appeal?
O’TOOLE: Exactly that. It’s about people and their issues and in a beautiful community. And Sue Tenney was so generous because this character is not really in the books very much, so we kind of had a blank slate to draw this person together. You don’t do it (a project) because you want it to be a big success. The chances of that happening are so slim. You do it because you want to, and you like the people. And at this point in my career it’s doing something that I haven’t quite done before. That’s why this character was attractive, because I could help form her into something a little more real than than a lot of the stuff I read for characters my age, grandmothers and the sweet kind of homebody. That’s boring, I’ve done that.
What did you want to see in Hope instead?
O’TOOLE: I just wanted her to be complicated, a woman who even at her age doesn’t have the answers. She doesn’t have, at the beginning, a relationship that is steady. It’s very rocky. That’s interesting to me, somebody who has gone through most of her life and hasn’t figured it out yet. She’s impulsive and headstrong, and also very generous and can be very kind and loving. She’s just a person. I just wanted a full person.
It’s a screen rarity for older characters to be shown other than in a long and loving marriage or widowed. Hope and Doc’s story isn’t the show’s central relationship, but it’s a focus.
O’TOOLE: How interesting that he was unfaithful early in their marriage and she cannot let him go. She never divorced him. She never said, well, that’s it. Tim is fantastic and we’ve come up with a whole full life that they’ve had together. It’s not been a normal marriage at all. The way we look at marriage, I love that marriage can be whatever you want it to be or not be.
Hope is an attractive woman who doesn’t bother to hide her age behind hair dye or heavy makeup. Given the demands on women to be eternally youthful, how is to play a character who says, ‘Here I am world, an older woman?’
O’TOOLE: It’s wonderful. It’s the most fun I’ve ever had because when I started out, I was really young and I was sort of the ingenue, and then I was the leading lady in some things, and then you start to age. Now I just find it so freeing. I don’t worry about it, and that’s in life, too. So Hope and I feel the same way about it. It’s like, who are we trying to kid? Especially an actress, they can look you up (online) and see how old you are, see all the things you’ve done, look at all your pictures.
You and Michael have been married for more than two decades, impressive for any couple and considered especially so in the entertainment industry.
O’TOOLE: We’re really good buddies. He just left, he’s been over in London doing another Netflix series, ‘The Diplomat.’ COVID was so terrible, but we were very lucky because it was the most consecutive days we had ever been together in our marriage. I realize we’re always saying goodbye. It was very hard because we’d been together so much, and we talked about the first time we said goodbye, and we talked about luck. We both really lucked out finding one another. I cannot imagine what my life without him, and he says the same thing about me.
Drew Barrymore is stepping down as host of this year’s MTV Movie & Music Awards, due to be held on Sunday, in solidarity with the ongoing strike by the Writers Guild of America (WGA). The actress has agreed to host the ceremony next year instead, Variety reported.
Although the MTV awards are set to go ahead without a host, Variety said that arrangements for the show are in constant flux as producers are unsure which of the presenters, nominees, and guests will be willing to appear.
Organizers have already scrapped the red carpet as well as interviews that were supposed to take place before the ceremony.
In a statement quoted by Variety, Barrymore said she had “listened to the writers, and in order to truly respect them, I will pivot from hosting the MTV Movie & TV Awards live in solidarity with the strike.”
The actress added that “everything we celebrate and honor about movies and television is born out of their [writers’] creation,” and revealed that she is “choosing to wait” until a solution is reached on fairly compensating writers for their craft.
Although Barrymore will not be present at the live event in Santa Monica, California on Sunday, she is likely to appear in several pre-recorded short films created for the telecast.
Unions representing writers working in Hollywood and beyond officially began a strike on Tuesday. The move comes amid a dispute with major studios such as Paramount and Universal over working conditions and the shift brought about by the rise of streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon.
Hollywood writers go on strike
The WGA has complained that its members are being “devalued” and have received reduced pay despite significantly more movies and TV shows being in production than ever before thanks to streaming.
Aside from increased pay, the WGA has issued a list of demands to the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which represents Hollywood’s major studios. Among them is a request for guarantees that scripts would not be generated using Artificial Intelligence, and that writers would not be asked to edit or rewrite screenplays generated by such technology.
The current strike is the first work stoppage in the US entertainment industry in 15 years. The previous writers’ strike in 2007 lasted for 100 days and ultimately cost Hollywood an estimated $2.1 billion.
You can share this story on social media:
PLEASANT MUSIC FOR YOUR CAFE, BAR, RESTAURANT, SWEET SHOP, HOME
SUITABLE MUSIC FOR YOGA LOVERS
Israeli president comments on Lebanon pager attacks
German central bank issues warning on economy
China is raising its retirement age, now among the youngest in the world’s major economies
Gold price soars to all-time high
Russia warns NATO of ‘direct war’ over Ukraine
In Spotify, music listens to you: streaming platform wins patent to surveil users’ emotions to recommend music
How much YouTube pays for 1 million views, according to creators
Pentagon well aware of Ukraine’s corruption problem
Most Americans want to move on from Biden and Trump – poll
Finland officially joins NATO
Turkish minister escapes fire blast (VIDEO)
Trump savages pop star’s Super Bowl performance
Alec Baldwin sued by Ukrainian family of slain cinematographer
Duran Duran stumbles, Dolly Parton rolls into Rock Hall
Sweden probes possible plot behind Russian pipeline leaks
-
NEWS2 months agoChina makes its move in Africa. Should the West be worried?
-
NEWS2 months agoChina is raising its retirement age, now among the youngest in the world’s major economies
-
NEWS2 months agoRussia warns NATO of ‘direct war’ over Ukraine
-
INVESTMENTS2 months agoGold price soars to all-time high
-
FINANCE2 months agoThousands of EU automotive jobs at risk
-
FINANCE2 months agoGerman central bank issues warning on economy
-
WAR2 months agoIsraeli president comments on Lebanon pager attacks