Virgin River actress Annette O’Toole has been speaking to the Inside of You podcast about working with Christopher Reeve on Superman III. O’Toole would of course return to the world of Supes when she played Martha Kent in Smallville.
Of Reeve, O’Toole says; “he was fantastic, he was so kind. I think they were really angry with Margot Kidder (Lois Lane) because she was causing them some grief, I don’t know how or why. They wrote this part of Lana because they didn’t have Lois. I flew over there and was immediately taken to wardrobe, it was just a whirlwind, it happened really fast.”
It turns out that O’Toole was something of a Superman superfan; “But Chris Reeve invited me to his home and took me to see Simon & Garfunkel at Wembley Stadium. He couldn’t have been more generous and sweet. I worked with him mostly as Clark, for weeks, we did all the Clark stuff. I was a Superman comic fanatic as a kid, I would trade the comics, I loved Superman. I knew I was going to work with (Reeve) as Superman, I’d seen him on screen as Superman.”
O’Toole continues; “But we’re going to set and the stage is really dark and hear this (deep) voice say ‘Hello Annette’ and I look to my right, and it was like looking up a mountain. And I’m not kidding, I started stuttering and got chills. There was Superman. Talking about it now, I get chills, thinking about it. It was amazing because it was a thing from my childhood, and watching the movies, then from knowing him.”
If you watch Reeve in the date scene with Lois in the first Superman, you can see him transform from Clark to Supes and back again in-camera. Subtly changing his posture and voice could make him seem like someone totally different. O’Toole says; “It was the first time I really felt like…I don’t know who that is. He wasn’t Chris Reeve. He was talking a different way, he had a totally different energy about him.”
If you’re a fan of all things Supes, check out our guide to the DC extended universe movies in order.