More than 150 years have passed since the writer Louisa May Alcott published her “Little Women”, a drama of four sisters during the American Civil War.
The story of the March family girls has been adapted numerous times for theater, TV, opera and even Japanese animation. Director and screenwriter Greta Gerwig (“Lady Bird”) knew that an eighth film adaptation would need to be special.
“Reading the book again, I loved to realize how many points of interest there were for me because it’s about art, women, and money. How these things go together”, explained Gerwig, after the first screening of her “Little Women” in Hollywood, back in October. “I found inspiration in the life of Louisa May Alcott during the time when she wrote ‘Little Women’.”
The film, chosen to open The Rio Film Festival, and scheduled to open nationwide on January 9th, is a faithful adaptation of Alcott’s text on the social situation of women at the end of the 19th century. But now the plot receives an update to adapt to the new feminist movements.
Jo March (Saoirse Ronan, perhaps the most talented young actress working today) is not happy to give up her writing career. On the contrary. As a fictional 19th century Taylor Swift, she faces her editor (Tracy Letts) and demands financial rights by publishing yet another literary success at a time when few women were able to do so.
“In real life, Alcott never married or had children, but kept the copyright to his work. She made a lot of money and supported her whole family, which has always been poor,” the director explained to “Variety”. “I felt that, in being able to deliver the destiny that Alcott really wanted for Jo, we may have arrived somewhere.”
No one better than Gerwig to promote a reinterpretation of a classic about female independence and artistic resistance. Last year, with “Lady Bird,” she was the first-ever female filmmaker nominated in the best director category with a debut film –and only the fifth female nominee for the category in 90 years.
But “Little Women” was already in her life before the Academy recognized her talent. “The book has been important to me since before I thought about making movies. It is so close that it feels part of my biography”, the filmmaker said at the screening. “When I started writing the script, I realized how my emotions about the book were still immaculate.”
Despite all the passion for the material, Gerwig was not Sony’s first choice to tackle the $ 42 million production. The name of Sarah Polley (“Away From Her”) was in the mind of producer Amy Pascal when the project started to take shape.
But Greta Gerwig, who already had the award-winning “Frances Ha” script (2012) on her resume and several roles as an actress, pursued Pascal until she got the job. “It was before directing ‘Lady Bird’. I wasn’t at the top of anyone’s list, but I was sure I needed to make this movie. I don’t usually show up at people’s offices by surprise to say they should hire me”, she jokes.
In a way, it was in the same bold vein that Saoirse Ronan, a 25-year-old actress with three Oscar nominations on her back, got the lead. “When we were doing the promotion for ‘Lady Bird’, I heard Greta was going to adapt ‘Little Women’. I never ask for roles directly, because I don’t think the director wants me. But with this project, I said to Greta: ‘Shouldn’t I play Jo? Here’s the hint, go think about it’. It was so arrogant that it shocked me,” Ronan laughs beside the director.
It worked. Two weeks after showing her desire to play the protagonist of “Little Women”, she received an email from the director accepting her suggestions. “It just said ‘Okay, you can be Jo’,” recalled the actress. “I was in London and I started reading everything again, revisiting the original material. I read the description of the character to a friend and she said: ‘She is you’. It was amazing.”
For the role of the talented and spoiled Amy March, who forms a love triangle with Jo and the charming Laurie (Timothée Chalamet), Greta Gerwig went after Florence Pugh, another rising star.
Initially, the first meeting went smoothly, but Pugh was committed to shooting “Midsommar”, which would require four months in Budapest.
“I didn’t think it would work out,” she said during the same screening in Hollywood. “But Greta ended our first meeting by saying how excited she was to make this film with me. It wasn’t supposed to work out, but everyone made an effort.”
The effort was also from Pugh herself. While filming horror scenes as a character sunk in mourning, she called the “Little Women” team to prepare for a character full of life. “I’d finish a scene running and shouting through a field and sent a message saying that I would see everyone in two weeks. Playing Amy was the best therapy after setting boyfriends on fire,” the actress joked.
“Little Women” is completed with Emma Watson as Meg March, the oldest and most traditional of the sisters; Laura Dern as matriarch Marmee, who waits for her husband to return from the war; and Meryl Streep playing the role of wealthy Aunt March.
“I wrote two versions before even directing ‘Lady Bird’ and found out that Meryl is a fan of ‘Little Women’. At lunch, she started giving me several suggestions and I stole several for the film,” Gerwig explained. “Meryl said she would play the old lady, the March family ax. She marked her territory and I just accepted it. Meryl Streep can play anything.”
