Kevin said that he had always been a great admirer of Colleen’s work and that as plans for the filming of Anne were starting to form, he had a constant image of Colleen in the role of Marilla.  So he contacted her agent and before Colleen had even had a chance to read the script, she signed on.  “She really really wants to do this”, Kevin recalled her agent saying.

Colleen was very familiar with the novel Anne of Green Gables, as it had been one of the books her mother used to read to her as a child.  “It always held a very special place in her heart,” Kevin wrote.  “While I knew of Colleen’s Canadian roots, I didn’t know, when I offered her the role, that she also had spent a great deal of time on Prince Edward Island, where the author Lucy Maud Montgomery lived and the books are set.  I was simply looking for an actress of stature who would be able to carry such a pivotal role.  Of course, as Colleen’s personal history with the story was much deeper than I expected, what she brought to the project professionally was profoundly more than I ever could have wanted.”

Kevin recalled that he was nervous when first meeting the experienced actress, but that his nerves were soon dispelled by laughter. “Fortunately for both of us, humor gave us great and immediate common ground,” he writes.  “We would both laugh uproariously at anything ridiculous that happened on the set.  Although she is usually first thought of as a great dramatic actress, Colleen was also a first-rate clown whose laughter was intoxicating.  It was not long before I discovered an outrageous, almost giddy schoolgirl underneath that woman of years.  Colleen bumbled around rehearsal, often keeping the cast and crew laughing to tears as she tried to remember where she was or what day it was.  In rehearsal, her lines would often escape her.  But as soon as the camera would roll, suddenly her presence was riveting.  The crew would become speechless at her ability to concentrate, let alone energize the character she was playing.”

Kevin describes the working relationship they developed as an “innate friendship”.  He remembers that on the second day of shooting, Colleen turn to him and said, “This is really quite wonderful.  This is not the way Hollywood or an American television network would tell this story.”

For both himself and Colleen, working on Anne of Green Gables was a very unique experience.  “But it was Colleen’s strong heart and soul that most affected me and I know is still reflected in how I continue to see life.  Still today, when I see her smile light up the screen, I am enchanted.”

Stay tuned for upcoming blogs about how Colleen viewed the character of Marilla, as well as more funny stories from the set!

Source:  Colleen Dewhurst: Her Autobiography