In 1956, Anna received a long-deferred chance to play a role she lost out on in 1940s Hollywood. Playing the Asian blackmailer in W. Somerset Maugham's "The Letter" on television, the director of the series was none other than William Wyler, who had originally nixed the idea of her playing the role in Bette Davis's classic film version of De brief (1940). The role instead went to non-Asian Gale Sondergaard.