PASADENA, Calif. -- There's a reason Mad Men's Christina Hendricks has striking red hair.

And that reason, honest to God, is Anne of Green Gables.

Specifically, Canadian actress Megan Follows' legendary portrayal of Anne of Green Gables.

"Megan, if you hear this, thank you for my red hair," Hendricks told Sun Media during a reception with the cast of Mad Men at the Television Critics Association Tour.

Hendricks, an American actress who plays Joan Holloway in AMC's Emmy Award-winning Mad Men, is a natural blond. But Hendricks began dying her hair red when she was very young because she became mesmerized by Anne of Green Gables.

"It was the Canadian series with Megan Follows, absolutely her, I love her," said Hendricks, 34.

"I can't remember how I found it. I don't remember if it was a teacher who played it for us, or if it was on PBS and so my parents let me watch it. But I became very fascinated and read almost all the books. I have the box set at home."

Follows now lives in the Los Angeles area and has appeared in episodes of various high-profile TV series in recent years, from Brothers and Sisters to Lie to Me.

"I have never come across her, but I IMDb'd her (looked up Follows' page on the International Movie Database website) just a couple of weeks ago, because I was wondering what she was up to," Hendricks said.

"So I looked her up, and I thought, 'Oh my gosh, I've probably seen her in a bunch of these things.' I probably just didn't realize it was her because she wasn't dressed in early 1900s school clothes."

True, Follows has not kept up the Anne of Green Gables look in her adult years.

"I don't know why anyone wouldn't, it's gorgeous, she looked beautiful and she was wonderful in it," Hendricks said. "I'm a big fan of hers."

To be fair, Hendricks -- who lived in Toronto for a year while she was working on the UPN series Kevin Hill -- admitted when she was a kid there were some other redheads in her life, so to speak.

"Ann-Margret, absolutely," Hendricks said. "And Lucille Ball. Ginger on Gilligan's Island.

"But I was around 10 years old when I first started watching Anne of Green Gables. I didn't (dye my hair red) permanently at that age, but that's where it started. Anne of Green Gables was someone I was passionate about when I was little."

Sounds like Hendricks still is.

Mad Men returns for its third season on Sunday, Aug. 16.

Most Canadian cable and satellite providers carry AMC, so enthusiasts will be able to keep up with Mad Men there, even though at this point no Canadian network has purchased the new season.

The series -- which won the Emmy Award for best drama last year -- is set in the early 1960s and centres on a New York ad firm called Sterling Cooper. Hendricks' character is the head of the secretarial pool, and as the third season begins, she faces new challenges to her authority, since Sterling Cooper has been purchased by a British firm.

So when Hendricks first was hired to play Joan, was there ever any talk about what hair colour she should have?

"No, I was red, they hired me as a redhead, and I'm still a redhead," Hendricks said.

Amazingly, Megan Follows can take some credit for that.