Megan Follows likes to mix it up. Follows has had acting roles in family friendly series such as The Facts of Life, The Littlest Hobo and of course playing red-haired Anne Shirley in CBC-TV’s 1985 Anne of Green Gables. It was the most watched Canadian TV drama series of all time which catapulted her acting career.
Today Follows is a queen. Queen Catherine in fact, in the CW Network historical drama Reign, now in its 4th and final season (airs also on CTV Two). Follows didn’t rest on her Anne of Green Gables laurels. She has since appeared in numerous TV series in the U.S. and Canada including Law and Order, CSI Miami, Robson Arms, ER, The X-Files, Longmire, Cold Case and many films including Pirate’s Passage, Inherit the Wind, Under the Piano, etc.
FAMILY TIES
Acting was always a family affair. Her parents, theatre actor/director Ted Follows and actress Dawn Greenhalgh and Follows’ three siblings are all involved in the acting and television industry. Only briefly when she was in elementary school did Follows have a fleeting interest in another career as an archaeologist.
Speaking with Follows you get a sense she prefers to be one of the “boys” instead of a diva sitting in her trailer with a coterie of assistants. The best thing Follows remembers about playing Anne Shirley in the Anne of Green Cables series was Colleen Dewhurst (now deceased) who played the adoptive parent Marilla Cuthbert.
“Colleen Dewhurst was a great ‘broad’ of the theatre,” Follows remembers fondly. "She just had such a wonderful amount of joy and playfulness around her. We just had a lot of fun; she was a really wonderful woman. Very down to earth."
DIFFERENT ROLES, DIFFERENT PLACES
Now 49, Follows relishes another role – being a mother to her children Lyla (25) and Russell (22). Both recently moved back in with Follows in her Los Angeles home. She divides her time between L.A. and Canada depending on work locations. Follows has a home in Nova Scotia on the Bay of Fundy. “The Maritimes are special to me. When you’re on a body of water that has the highest tides in the world, that’s pretty spectacular.”
Despite going back and forth between the U.S. and Canada for work, her heart belongs to Canada.
Many Roles, Many Passions
By Chris Ryall
Megan Follows
photo credit - The CW Network