The Globe and Mail - January 6, 1996

"What Follows? A decade after her breakthrough role, Megan Follows has another chance to become a true star. Will she take it?"
Trevor Cole

Megan Follows, you may remember, became a cultural icon at the age of 17. Her Genie-award-winning performance as Anne in Anne of Green Gables, the Kevin Sullivan-produced TV mini-series, was a landmark paring of actor and role. Few could imagine anyone else doing it, let alone doing it better. At the time, she was arguably Canada's favourite actress. She could, conceivably, have done anything.

A decade later - only a few months ago - you could see Follows, in her prime, in an absurd, forgettable appearance on Murder, She Wrote, the tacky elephant's graveyard of network TV. By any measure, that's a strange trajectory. Just what was she doing there?

The 10 years between the sublime and the ridiculous featured memorable roles, to be sure - Anna May in the movie Stacking, with Frederic Forrest and Christine Lahti; Shakespeare's Juliet twice, in Stratford and then with the L.A. Shakespeare Festival; Micheline in Termini Station; and leads in five American movies of the week, including the Emmy-winning Inherit the Wind - not to mention her bid for a regular spot on U.S. prime time in the short-lived CBS series Second Chances. But as hard as Megan Follows has worked - splitting her time between Toronto and Los Angeles - the sum of these roles is hard to determine. Recently a TV viewer who noticed a picture of Follows was heard to remark, "What ever happened to her?"

Looking for progression in Follows' career may be unfair. Certainly we can't apply the American model of stardom - small roles lead to bigger roles lead to regular appearances on Letterman - in Canada. As Follows herself says, "Americans have a different attitude about achievement and the level of success one can have." But it's not unreasonable to think that an actress of Follows' ability and stature should, at 27, have a more substantial hold on our attention.

This week, Follows returns in a role that could firm the grip. In Under the Piano, a new Sullivan-made TV movie based on a true story, she stars beside Amanda Plummer and opera singer Teresa Stratas as Rosetta, an autistic woman growing up cloistered and misunderstood in the 1930s, '40s and '50s. It's a courageous performance. Follows tackles the restrictive, often wordless, necessarily repetitive role in the face of two great challenges: automatic comparisons with Dustin Hoffman's Oscar-winning turn as the autistic savant in Rain Man, and her own actor's tendency toward dramatic flourish. The result should win Follows new admirers (her use of the word "absolutely" could become a cultural touchstone). In fact, someone looking for signs of professional strategizing might even consider it a canny career move. But - and here's a clue to Follows' missing momentum - she doesn't seem to think that way.

"I just jumped at the opportunity to play a really interesting role," she says. "So I don't think it's any more calculated than that. And if that means that people see that I'm capable of doing something that they didn't feel I was capable of doing before, then great." Follows, bundled in two sweaters, with a bright red scarf coiled loosely around her neck, is in the midst of a quick turkey sandwich before heading off to rehearsals of Seven Lears, opening January 17th at Harbourfront's du Maurier Theatre Centre. Despite her patience and good humour, it's clear that talk of career direction is about as enjoyable for her as getting stuck in the gums with a toothpick.

"In all honesty, having two children under the age of four, I take things in very small increments," she says between mouthfuls. "In terms of projecting anything in the future - that doesn't seem to work very well for me."

In an earlier interview, immediately after filming Under the Piano, Follows had hinted that her future in Hollywood looked uncertain. To the question, Is there a place for you in L.A.? she answered, "That's something I'm trying to figure out myself." Now, mid-sandwich, the question is simpler: What is her ultimate goal?

"I'm not going to tell you." She laughs. I prod her a bit more.

Why not?

"'Cause I'm still defining it for myself. 'Cause anything I answer would be false. So I'm not going to answer you falsely."

But, I say, you must have a goal, someplace you're heading.

"Yeah," she says. It occurs to me that perhaps the goal, however unfocused, is too personal to reveal. Maybe she's embarrassed.

"No," she says defiantly. "I'm not embarrassed by it - I'm still defining it." She fixes me with a slight glare. "That's how I will answer."

Follows explains her uncertainty partly by referring to her actor parents, Ted Follows and Dawn Greenhalgh. "I know, from growing up in a theatrical family, that nothing is permanent in this business," she says. "You may be popular one minute and you may not be the next. It's so fickle. It's so incredibly fickle."

Thanks to her performance as Rosetta, Follows will again have popularity in her grasp. One wonders if she'll know what to do with it.

Source: The Globe and Mail