“I had thought that Anne of Green Gables would be a lovely children’s film. Shooting it had been a wonderful experience and I hated to leave it behind. I was doing Seagull at the Kennedy Center in Washington when Anne of Green Gables was first broadcast on television in Canada. David Staines, a friend who was teaching at Ottawa University, called to say that Part I had shown three nights before and Part II would be shown the next evening. David had a friend, who also taught at the university, who had agreed to watch a little just because David knew somebody in it. The next day, he told David that he had watched through to the end and would not miss Part II the next night. When David called me again, a couple of days later, he said the streets were literally empty during the broadcast of Part II. It seemed nearly everyone was watching. Later I was told that the only show that had ever received a better rating in Canada was the championship hockey play-offs. In Canada, you don’t do better than hockey.
Playing Marilla in Anne found a whole new audience for me. Children will now stand and stare at me as their mothers say, ‘Darling, this is Marilla’ as I sign my autograph, ‘Colleen Dewhurst, aka Marilla.’ Even today, I continue to receive mail from people across the world telling me how much they love the film, many assuming I am truly Marilla, asking me to come and visit their farm or ranch, as they have plenty of room. But most amazing is to walk on the streets of New York, with its great cross section of age, color and ethnic backgrounds, and hear someone shout, ‘Hey, Colleen, I loved you in that thing where you were the mother of that orphan kid.’ Many people who saw the show insist on identifying me as Anne’s mother. It is interesting that not only children, but grown men on the streets of New York will remember the relationship between Marilla and Anne as mother and daughter.”
How do you see the relationship between Marilla and Anne? Would you classify it as strictly "mother and daughter"? Marilla turns Anne down when she asks to call her “Aunt Marilla”. But she also exhibits many maternal qualities, even though it is hard for her to express her emotions. What do you think?
Source: Colleen Dewhurst: Her Autobiography
