The two actors portray a couple on the  Netflix drama, but their history dates more than four decades back.

For the last five seasons, Virgin River fans adore seeing the evolving love story between longtime couple Vernon “Doc” Mullins and small-town mayor Hope McCrea. And it turns out, the actors who portray them have an equally long history together, too.

Back in November 2022, actress Annette O’Toole spoke with Good Housekeeping about season 5 of the Netflix show, and what fans could expect from Hope in the new installment of episodes. While chatting about what it’s like to work with her cast mates, she opened up about her incredible friendship with Tim Matheson.

“We’ve known each other over 40 years,” she share

d at the time. “He did a movie with my then-boyfriend Bruno Kirby called Almost Summer. I met him and thought he was … I’d always seen him in the movies and I thought he was fantastic.”

But that wasn’t the only time Annette and Tim’s paths crossed. The two would later star alongside each other in a string of projects throughout the 1970s and ’80s, including What Really Happened to the Class of ’65? and The Best Legs in the Eighth Grade. Eventually, they lost touch and didn’t see each other until they both were in the airport, on their way to film Virgin River in Vancouver, Canada.

“I saw him at the airport, and we were all going up,” she added. “I came up to him and I said, ‘Oh my god, it’s so wonderful that we’re going to do this together.’ Because it felt like, having known somebody for so long, all that history is there even if you haven’t seen each other much.”

virgin river season 5 part 2 annette otoole tim matheson friendship

When discussing what filming has been like over the past few years, Annette admitted that the two work really hard together to make the scenes come to life.

“We always go over [the scenes] and talk about where we’re coming from — it’s very helpful. I love working with Tim because he’s great and we have a great time.”

Luckily, there’s more of Doc and Hope in our future! Virgin River season 5 part 2 will see them working together in many different ways (including teaming up for the town’s annual tree lighting competition), and we just can’t wait.