National Post - March 2, 2000

"Another helping of Green Gables: Megan Follows returns as the irrepressible Anne"
Stephen Cole

Megan Follows began reading Anne of Green Gables to her own children, a boy and girl aged eight and six, in their Los Angeles home last week.

Yes, our Anne is now a mom. A divorced mom even. And it is apparent that motherhood and three decades of living, not to mention a recently filmed third instalment of the Anne of Green Gables saga, to be telecast this Sunday and Monday on the CBC, has given the actress a richer perspective on the character Mark Twain once hailed as "the dearest and most lovable child in fiction since the immortal Alice."

Commenting on the Anne phenomenon over the phone from her L.A. home, Follows says she disagrees with conventional explanations for the success of Canada's richest TV franchise. (The first and second instalments of the saga remain the highest-rated Canadian series and miniseries of all time, while a theatrical film version of Anne ran for five years in Japan.)

"Some people suggest that our audience, particularly girls, are drawn by the romance of the period and setting," TV's Anne says. "But I don't buy that. Anne's is a cold, hard world, despite all the lace doilies and raspberry socials."

What modern audiences respond to, the actress believes, is the indomitable spirit of Lucy Maud Montgomery's heroine. "I think we grow up as girls having to deal with a lot of oppressive beauty myths," she argues. "And Anne is a girl who fails by all standards of what is acceptable and beautiful. She's not pretty. She's not rich. She has no parents. But through sheer exercise of will she makes the world understand how beautiful she is. It's her specialness, her ability to transform how people perceive her, that audiences, particularly girls, want to believe in."

That same specialness, however, makes Anne hard to play. "She's obviously not a modern character," Follows says. "Anne has about her a wonderful naivete, an optimism in the face of insurmountable odds. She sees irony in things, but it's not a modern irony because it's not tainted by cynicism."

Natural laws also dictate that Anne's trademark spunk and zeal excite pendulum mood swings in the other direction. "Yeah, she's also neurotic," Follows agrees. "Anne can be obsessive and stubborn."

Making the character a more difficult acting challenge still for Anne's latest small screen incarnation, screenwriters Kevin Sullivan and Laurie Pearson have ventured beyond Montgomery's novels to construct an up-and-down storyline that might silhouette every one of the Rocky Mountains. At different points in Sunday's show, Anne is forced to fight fires of hearth and loin. In the latter instance, a Bolshie author lures Anne into his hotel room, then -- shades of John Barrymore! -- leaves his silk bathrobe parted as he throws open the door.

Later, after getting married, Anne is blown by fate overseas, where she is forced to crawl through the death ditches of 1918 France, ducking mortars and dialogue like "the Germans will eat humble pie for sinking the Lusitania now that the Yanks have signed up!" as she searches for her dashing, lost hero, Gilbert Blythe.

Follows says she found it difficult to consistently relocate the emotional pitch of Anne's frantic adventures this, the third time out. "It was a long shoot, three and a half, four months," she says, "and yeah, the material is melodramatic. I guess the main problem there is that I've never been able to fake emotion very well. I have to feel it, or it doesn't work. So I found it hard to keep Anne's world alive between takes."

The part that came easily 12 and 14 years ago now required gruelling bouts of concentration. Follows also watched dailies to ensure that her Anne remained recognizable to the estimated eight million Canadians who own Anne of Green Gable books.

Which is not to suggest Follows found that there was no play in playing Anne at age 31. "I love Anne," she says. "And it was wonderful being with many of the actors again. Schuyler Grant, who plays [the show-offy] Diana Barry, has become a close friend. And I always enjoy working with Jonathan Crombie [Gilbert Blythe]. He's such a funny man ... Their coming back convinced me that doing Anne again was the right thing." Follows didn't, however, enjoy an equally sunny reunion with the corporate head of Anne of Green Gables, screenwriter and executive producer Kevin Sullivan. "He didn't speak to me through the entire shooting of the story," she reports. "I don't understand how Kevin works, just that he does. He never stops."

The actress makes it clear that her obligation is only to Anne. "Anne's a wonderful, inspirational character," she says. "I respect the role because I know how hard it is to play. I'm proud of my involvement in the series, and know what I've accomplished. I'll always be grateful for the acting opportunities that Anne has allowed me." (Currently, the actress is playing Nina in a San Diego production of Chekhov's The Seagull.) Follows says she's enjoying reading Anne to her children, but wants to wait until she's finished the six-book series before showing them her TV Anne. "I think they'll be ready to understand it by then," she says, adding, "not that Anne poses any particular problems for family viewing. Not like Austin Powers, for instance. Geez, try explaining to an eight-year-old why the name Alotta Fagina is funny."

Source: National Post