If you want to play one of the world’s most famous fictional girls, you’d better keep it real.
That’s the advice from the writer behind Anne, a new CBC TV series based on the beloved 1908 Anne of Green Gables novel by Prince Edward Island author Lucy Maud Montgomery.
“You have to think of Anne as a real girl, a real girl just like you,” said writer/executive producer Moira Walley-Beckett. “Be as natural and conversational as possible.”
Screenwriter Moira Walley-Beckett
Walley-Beckett, who is writing all eight episodes of the show, will be at Vancouver’s Shoreline Studios on May 14 and 15 for an opening casting call for girls aged 11 to 14 to play the character of Anne. (More details at theannesearch.com.)
“Anne’s intellect and imagination are so pivotal to her character that, whoever I cast, I want to be able to read it on her face — how quickly her mind is moving and how big her intellect is,” said Walley-Beckett, a Vancouver native who won an Emmy Award for her writing on Breaking Bad.
Anne, which begins shooting later this summer in Ontario and P.E.I., will honour the novel’s iconic moments as it recounts the adventures of Anne Shirley, an orphan who ends up on a Prince Edward Island farm in the 1900s.
That novel has sold more than 50 million copies and been translated into 20 languages. It has also been adapted for film, TV, radio and theatre, and Anne’s house has even shown up as an attraction at a Japanese theme park.
For Walley-Beckett, the idea of revisiting Anne made sense, as issues such as prejudice, bullying and feminism have endured since the curious, clever and mercurial character first landed on the page more than 100 years ago.
“Anne is more relevant today than she was back then,” said Walley-Beckett, who first read the novel as a pre-teen. “She was always a ground-breaker. But her issues are always topical issues.
“Because Anne was an early accidental feminist, there were no restrictions on what she thought her capabilities could be and were,” added Walley-Beckett. “She’s a great role model for our time.
“She’s complicated. She’s relatable. There’s a reason why she endured and is so beloved.”
While Anne is a character who holds a mirror up to the awkward teen years, the new Anne is not going to pander to the pubescent set. Walley-Beckett said she wants a “co-viewing experience,” and to turn a new audience on to the plucky girl from P.E.I.
“This is not your grandmother’s Anne. I’m sure there will be people that only want Anne to be the way it was, and that’s OK because everything in the world changes. Now is the time for a new Anne for a new generation.”
