It’s hard to believe thatAnnette O’Toolehas been a regular on our screens for over five decades.

“Hope in the books is hardly there.

She’s a very peripheral character,” O’Toole tells The List.

Annette O’Toole posing

It was all marked, and I was being true to what I thought was his vision.

She explains, “A TBI [traumatic brain injury]’s an interesting thing to play.

I don’t have very much personal experience with it, thank God.

Annette O’Toole as Hope McCrea, and Tim Matheson as Doc Mullins, in Virgin River

“She’s still Hope,” O’Toole says.

“She’s still very impulsive and controlling, but now she’s dealing with all these issues.

Why can’t I … That’s incredibly difficult for her and more so for Doc to have to deal with it.

It’s very stressful for him.

[It] makes a lot of drama.”

“Virgin River” Season 4is now streaming exclusively on Netflix.