The thing about Virginia Chance is that she shouldn't have worked. On paper, a chain-smoking, teenage-grandmother living in a house with three generations of dysfunction sounds like a caricature you'd find in a failed 90s sitcom. But when you talk about the actress from Raising Hope, you're really talking about Martha Plimpton—a woman who basically took that "white trash" trope and turned it into one of the most empathetic, hilarious, and sharp-witted characters to ever grace network television.
Honestly, it’s wild how many people just know her as "the mom" from that show.
She's so much more.
Plimpton didn't just show up to read lines. She built a career out of being the smartest person in the room while often playing characters who were struggling to pay the electric bill. If you grew up in the 80s, she was Stef in The Goonies. If you’re a Broadway nerd, she’s a three-time Tony nominee. But for a huge chunk of the TV-watching public, she is, and always will be, the beating heart of Natesville.
The Raw Energy Martha Plimpton Brought to Virginia Chance
Most sitcom moms are either the "nag" or the "voice of reason." Virginia Chance was neither. She was a chaotic force of nature. What made Plimpton’s performance as the lead actress from Raising Hope so magnetic was the lack of vanity. Most actors want to look good. Martha didn't care. She leaned into the stained t-shirts, the messy hair, and that specific brand of "I haven't slept since 1994" exhaustion.
Greg Garcia, the creator of the show (who also did My Name Is Earl), has talked before about how the chemistry between Plimpton and Garret Dillahunt (Burt) was the real secret sauce. They weren't just a TV couple; they felt like a couple that actually liked each other. They had sex. They fought. They conspired.
It was messy.
It was real.
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Think about the physical comedy. Plimpton has this background in theater that allows her to use her entire body for a joke. Whether she was trying to wrangle a screaming toddler or accidentally smoking a cigarette that turned out to be something else, her timing was surgical. You can't teach that. You're either born with that kind of rhythmic internal clock or you aren't. She is.
Beyond the Chance House: A Career of Staying Power
It’s easy to pigeonhole an actor based on their most famous sitcom role. But if you look at the trajectory of the actress from Raising Hope, the sheer variety is kind of staggering. She started as a model, then became the "it girl" of gritty 80s indies like The Mosquito Coast and Running on Empty.
She was dating River Phoenix. She was the cool, edgy alternative to the Brat Pack.
Then she just... kept working.
She didn't flame out. She didn't become a "where are they now" statistic. Instead, she pivoted to the stage. She did Shakespeare. She did Stoppard. She showed up on The Good Wife as Patti Nyholm—a lawyer who used her own pregnancy/baby as a weapon in litigation—and she was so good she won an Emmy for it.
That’s the range.
- 1985: The Goonies (Cult Classic)
- 1988: Running on Empty (Academy Award-winning territory)
- 2010-2014: Raising Hope (The Sitcom Peak)
- 2021: Mass (One of the most intense dramas in recent memory)
If you haven't seen Mass, you need to prepare yourself. It’s a film about the aftermath of a school shooting, consisting mostly of four people talking in a room. Plimpton plays a grieving mother. It is the polar opposite of Virginia Chance. There are no jokes. There is only raw, vibrating grief. It proves that the same woman who could make you laugh about "smush-shmortion" can also break your heart into a thousand pieces with a single look.
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Why Raising Hope Still Hits Different in 2026
We’re living in an era where everyone is nostalgic for "comfort TV." But a lot of comfort TV is fake. It's too shiny. Raising Hope was comfortable because it acknowledged that life is mostly a series of minor disasters punctuated by the occasional win.
The actress from Raising Hope understood that the show wasn't about being poor; it was about being resilient.
There's this specific episode where the family realizes they've been "lower class" for so long they don't know how to act in a nice hotel. It could have been punching down. It could have been mean-spirited. But Plimpton plays it with this fierce pride. She makes Virginia a hero for just keeping the lights on.
People often compare the show to Roseanne, and there are parallels for sure. But Raising Hope had a surrealist edge. It was weirder. It had musical numbers. It had a grandmother (Cloris Leachman) who was frequently topless or convinced she was in a different decade. To anchor that kind of madness, you need a lead who is grounded. Martha Plimpton was the anchor.
Dealing With the "Kid Actor" Stigma
Most child stars have a rough transition. Martha Plimpton basically skipped the "awkward phase" by just being a better actor than most of the adults on set. She’s spoken in interviews about how she never really felt like a "star," just a working actor.
That mindset is probably why she survived the industry.
She’s also incredibly vocal about her personal beliefs, particularly reproductive rights. She doesn't do the PR-friendly, neutral celebrity thing. She’s loud. She’s opinionated. She’s exactly who you’d expect the daughter of Keith Carradine and Shelley Plimpton to be. Acting is in her DNA, but so is a certain level of New York cynicism and grit.
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What You Might Have Missed
If you only know her as the actress from Raising Hope, you're missing out on some deep cuts.
Take The Real O'Neals. It only lasted two seasons, but she played a strict Catholic mother in the middle of a divorce whose son comes out of the closet. Again, she took a character that could have been a villain and made her deeply human. She has this way of finding the "why" behind a character’s flaws.
And then there's her voice work. She’s been in Frozen II. She’s done countless narrations. Her voice has this husky, lived-in quality that feels like a warm blanket—if that blanket had a few cigarette burns in it.
Actionable Ways to Appreciate Her Work Today
If you’re looking to dive deeper into the filmography of the actress from Raising Hope, don't just stick to the reruns on Hulu or Freevee.
- Watch "Mass" (2021): It’s a masterclass. It’s hard to watch, but it’s the definitive proof of her elite status.
- Revisit "The Goonies": Watch it through the lens of Stef being the only person who actually knows what’s going on. Her chemistry with Corey Feldman is still hilarious.
- Find her Broadway clips: Look for her performances in The Coast of Utopia. It explains why she has such presence on screen.
- Listen to her interviews: Specifically, her "Off Camera with Sam Jones" episode. She talks about the reality of being a woman in Hollywood as she ages and the freedom that comes with not being a "leading lady" ingenue anymore.
The reality is that Martha Plimpton is a survivor in an industry that usually chews people up by age 25. Whether she’s Virginia Chance or a grieving mother or a cutthroat lawyer, she brings a level of authenticity that’s rare. She’s not just an actress from a sitcom. She’s a reminder that character acting is a high art form.
Next time you catch an episode of Raising Hope, watch her face when she’s not talking. The reactions, the subtle eye rolls, the way she holds a grocery bag—that’s where the magic is. She didn't just play Virginia; she lived in her. And that’s why, even years after the show ended, we’re still talking about her.
To truly understand her impact, look at the shows that followed. You can see the DNA of Virginia Chance in dozens of working-class comedies that have tried to replicate that specific blend of heart and humor. Most fail because they don't have Martha. They have people playing poor. Martha Plimpton played a person who happened to be poor, and that difference is everything.
If you want to support her current projects, keep an eye on HBO and independent film circuits. She tends to gravitate toward projects that challenge the audience rather than just soothe them. That’s the mark of an artist who values the work over the fame.