The Globe and Mail - December 15, 1984

"Work is all that counts for Follows"
Donald Martin

Megan Follows has had her share of rough 'n' tumble roles, from the series Matt and Jenny to last season's Academy Award-winner Boys and Girls.

Always portraying a tomboy who bucks the system, the talented young actress met her match when she was cast as the sole female hockey player on a boys' hockey team - opposite Rick Moranis - in the recent Canadian Film and Television Association award-winner Hockey Night (CBC, Sunday at 7:30 p.m.).

Never having sat through an entire hockey game in her life, and having not worn skates for eight years, she knew she had her work cut out for her. Now 16 and showing definite signs of leaving the tomboy stage, she says the filming of Hockey Night "was really challenging." "I had a bunch of bloodthirsty boys on the rink who were just waiting for me to do something wrong. They were real hockey players, and being the only girl on the team was a nerve- wracking experience. But it did give me a whole other point of view, as an actor. It showed me what I was capable of doing." As for bucking the system, Follows doesn't believe that all the "fighters" she portrays are necessarily extensions of herself. "Those characters have all had something turn against them, and they've gone out to do something specific," she says.

Megan Follows has mapped out a considerable career, beginning with a Bell commercial at 3 and on to such series as The Baxters, the film Jen's Place, and the short-lived CBS series Domestic Life, with Martin Mull.

She moved to Los Angeles with her mother more than a year ago to pursue her goal of becoming an "international" actress rather than a "Canadian" actress. "I didn't 'leave' Canada," she says. "I would like to go on working in both countries. I don't want to be 'American' or 'Canadian' in my work, I just want to work. What I am committed to doing is eventually becoming a director and writer, and having my own production company involving my family." Her family has been a major influence in her career. Her mother is actress Dawn Greenlaugh and her father is actor/director/producer Ted Follows. "Since I live with my mother most of the time," she says, "she has been a bigger influence. She's kind of my coach. And everyone says: 'You look so much like your mother.' I think I'm becoming my mother! Oh God, everybody's nightmare]" She breathes a sign of contentment when she relives the moment when Boys and Girls, in which she starred with Claire Coulter, picked up the Academy Award. "I wasn't surprised," she says, "I think it deserved it. The film was different and refreshing, especially for an American audience. They don't get those nice, simple stories there - a story that doesn't have to prove anything - a story that just 'is.' That's a Canadian specialty." So is Megan Follows.

Source: The Globe and Mail