TWO TIMES A GRANDMA
Megan Follows embraces changing roles
There is no delicate way to bring up the question with an actress: So, how do you feel about playing a grandma?
But when talking to Megan Follows these days, it is an unavoidable topic.
Yes, the actress adored by Canadian audiences as the perky and youthful Anne of Green Gables is playing a grandmother in not one but two Calgary-shot series.
In Heartland, the recurring character of Lily Borden became a grandmother when her son Ty (Graham Wardle) became a father at the end of Season 10. His wife, and the show’s protagonist, Amy Fleming (Amber Marshall) gave birth to Lyndy Marion BordenFleming, which has brought the once neglectful Lily back into their lives on a relatively happy note in the season premiere.
In the supernatural Space series Wynonna Earp, Follows has signed on to play the mysterious Michelle Earp, the estranged mother of our titular heroine (Melanie Scrofano) and her younger sister Waverly (Dominique Provost-Chalkley). Among the twists in Season 2 was Wynonna’s surprise pregnancy, which means Follows’ character will also be arriving on the scene as a new grandma of a baby girl.
The prospect of our Anne Shirley playing grandmothers will no doubt make an entire generation of TV viewers feel rather old. But Follows prefers to see Lily and Michelle’s relatively early entry into grandmotherhood as insight into their characters.
“It speaks to me being very wild in my early days,” says the actress with a laugh, in an interview during a break from shooting Wynonna Earp in Calgary. “I was a young mama. That is the way it’s rolling.”
If that is truly an insight into Michelle Earp, or Mama Earp as she has become known to fans, it’s one of a very few that have come to light so far. There has been much speculation amid the series’ passionate fan base about the elder Earp since the Wynonna seasonfinale revelation that she has been in contact with Mama over the years, unbeknownst to Waverly. All we know is that Michelle seems to hold secrets about the family curse that has pitted Wynonna and past generations dating back to greatgreat-granddad Wyatt against vengeful demons.
“She has been absent from her children’s lives for some time and perceived as one thing, but there’s a mystery to the reasons why she has kept away and she stayed away,” Follows says.
“It’s so funny working on this show, I’m not allowed to say anything,” she adds with a laugh. “I’m talking in code now. I hear myself and it’s like ‘What am I saying?’ But I’ll get in trouble otherwise. It’s a lot of fun. She’s fiery, we can say that.”
Follows has plenty of experience with shows with passionate fans, starting with her starring role in the 1985 CBC miniseries Anne of Green Gables. A few years after she made her first appearance as Lily Borden in Heartland, she signed on to play the wily and murderous Catherine de’ Medici in the steamy CW period drama Reign.
That show ended in 2017, but fan interest doesn’t seem to have waned. At the end of April, Follows will be making her first appearance at The Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo as part of a “Reign Queens” panel that will also feature co-stars Adelaide Kane and Rachel Skartsten.
For those who still see Follows as Anne, watching her play the ruthless Queen Catherine may have seemed a significantly against-type turn. Follows, however, doesn’t really see it that way.
“The beautiful thing about Catherine is that she is multilayered and very complex and there is an element to her that is setup as the underdog,” she says. “She’s the underdog with a fiery temper. Well, that could certainly apply to my portrayal at times of Anne. Strong-willed, just circumstantially obviously very different. It’s very different stakes when you’re playing a queen and countries are potentially at war and literally your head is on the chopping block because the stability of your position is tenuous, is precarious.”
Besides, anyone who has followed Follows’ post-Anne career knows she has rarely played to type. She has built an impressive career as an actress in film, TV and theatre; playing everything from Shakespeare’s Juliet on the Stratford stage to Shania Twain’s troubled mother in a 2005 TV movie, to a woman charged with murdering her disabled son in an episode of Law& Order. From earlyon, she also knew she wanted to be a director. She recently directed a trailer for a potential series based on Held, the YA novel by Edeet Ravel as part of the Independent Production Fund. Next January, she will be directing a production of Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad at the Grand Theatre in London, Ont., a play she acted in back in 2013.
She has also directed episodes of Murdoch Mysteries, Reign and, most recently, Heartland. She directed Sunday’s Season 11 finale of the series. The tone of the CBC staple, now the longest-running, hour-long series in Canadian history, is obviously very different than the steamy treachery found on Reign.
But the Alberta-shot series cer- tainly has its own challenges.
“As soon as you’re dealing with animals and babies and the beautiful weather of Calgary, which can change four times in a day, it’s a really exciting challenge,” Follows says.
“Every show has its own tone and the challenge, in the best sense, is honouring the story for me,” she says. “What’s really beautiful about what (showrunner) Heather Conkie has created with Heartland is it’s very authentic to its characters.”
Heartland, Wynnona Earp and Reign all have female showrunners. Follows says she worked with more female directors while shooting Reign than she has in the last three decades of acting.
She was one of many female directors hired for Heartland in the past few years, partially due to a mandate the CBC made in 2016 to boost the number of women directing scripted series.
“You’re not going to change systems that have been in place, for decades in terms of our industry, just based on good intentions,” she says. “Sometimes you need to structure things in and make the motivation mandated. And that’s OK.”
The season finale of Heartland airs Sunday on CBC. The Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo runs from April 26 to 29 at Stampede Park. Season 3 of Wynonna Earp airs this summer on Space.