Megan Follows, right, pictured with Schuyler Grant, left, is best known for her portrayal of Anne Shirley in Anne of Green Gables.
Like most child actors, Megan Follows missed out on the unique character-building pleasures of waiting tables or folding T-shirts for minimum wage. Luckily, the beloved Canadian – who recently directed an Anne audiobook for audible.ca just in time for the 150th anniversary of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s birth – learned the familiar lesson of humility just the same. And while birthing an alien baby on The X-Files.
My first summer job was when I was 11 years old on a show called Matt and Jenny. I played Jenny, one of a pair of orphans whose parents died on the ship on their way to Canada, so one of the leads. A lot of old-timey actors, some very big names from the sixties and seventies, came up north to appear in this show.
Even the biggest names were very good-natured on this small, little production. They didn’t even provide us lunch; they had a food truck, but you had to buy your lunch yourself. I came from a family of working actors, but my father had extricated himself by this point, so we were on our own and money was tight. I’d have lunch on a good day if I had any cash. I ate a lot of tomato soup from a can and Mentos mints.
This is often an industry of feast or famine. Even actors who have seen tremendous moments of success have moments in between where they don’t know what’s next or where they’re going. I saw this lived and modelled by my parents, who instilled in me that it’s a blessing to be able to sustain your life through acting, whatever role you’re playing at the time.
Especially in the United States, I took a number of jobs over the years just so I could make enough money to qualify for health insurance through SAG-AFTRA. I’m so thankful to be Canadian and I’m a big proponent of socialized medicine. I’m also a single mother who needs to pay her bills. Sometimes, I got to do great stuff and other times, I didn’t. It’s not an easy or fair business, and it’s very subjective.
Follows arrives at the Canadian Screen Awards in Toronto, March 12, 2017.Mark Blinch/Reuters
When I was in my late 20s, I was back in L.A. I’d been there at 14, long before Anne of Green Gables, which made me recognizable everywhere I went in Canada. But was I famous there? Maybe, who knows? It doesn’t matter. L.A.’s a fickle mistress; let’s just leave it at that.
The X-Files was a huge show at the time; it was kinda cool and had a ton of cachet. There are times when you take work that’s not about the money and instead, choose roles that are interesting or challenging or risqué. This wasn’t that; I did The X-Files for the money. And the health care.
I had to audition, probably a few times, as did half of Los Angeles at the time, I bet. I don’t remember my character’s backstory or anything, what crop circle she stumbled into after a late-night party at a bar, but next thing you know, I birthed an alien baby.
I already had kids, so I didn’t have to go to Lamaze class or anything for research. I could channel the true experience, so that helped. The scene was just me and masked doctors. My character didn’t know her baby was an alien, so naturally she was shocked. I played confusion and I went full on. I gave it my all and I think I did it very well. I birthed the baby, realized it’s extraterrestrial, and then I, too, was exterminated. They wrapped it all up quite nicely by the end, I’m told.
I don’t know if I ever watched the episode. I might rewatch something I’ve been in, depending on what it is. I was in a hotel room once and stumbled on myself on a CSI-like show and rewatched it just for fun. As a female actor, if you’re anywhere around late 20s or early 30s, you’re usually playing a mother in some motherhood-based trauma. Maybe you murdered your children, or they were murdered, or they were kidnapped and you’re hiding that you participated in the kidnapping. So the alien was fun just because it was a new one.
Somewhere out there is a Polaroid of me holding the alien baby with all the other actors – the doctors, the guy who murdered me – smiling like we’re happy new parents. You’ve gotta find humour in these moments because success isn’t linear. You’re not always the lead, and even though there can still be a lot of ego at work, it’s not about ego. It’s about getting to continue to do the work in an industry you love, and it’s about feeling fortunate enough to still be in the game.
As told to Rosemary Counter
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