FILM 2134: LITTLE WOMEN (2019)

TRIVIA: Florence Pugh had just finished filming Midsommar (2019), a few days prior to when she started shooting this film. She said that getting to play Amy after making such a stressful and anxiety-inducing film was her version of therapy.

After finding out that the adaptation was in the works, Saoirse Ronan reached out to Greta Gerwig and told her she decided she was going to play Jo March. Gerwig was initially hesitant to cast Ronan after having just worked with her on Lady Bird (2017), but after realizing that more or less casting herself was a very Jo thing to do, Gerwig sent Ronan an email that said "Yes, you're Jo."

Amy's speech about marriage was not in the initial script, but was suggested by Meryl Streep. After working and talking with director Greta Gerwig, Streep asserted that there needed to be a moment in the film that gave modern audiences the opportunity to understand the true powerlessness of women in that period; not only could they not vote or work, but through marriage they would lose ownership of their money, property, and children. The speech was written shortly before shooting the scene.

Costume designer Jacqueline Durran made several duplicate costume pieces for Jo and Laurie to make it seem like the characters share clothes.

Director Greta Gerwig was 6 months pregnant with her first child by the time filming ended and went into labor 48 hours after turning in her rough edit. She succeeded in keeping her pregnancy under wraps so well that nobody on set knew she was expecting.

Emma Watson took over the role of Meg March from Emma Stone, who became unavailable due to scheduling conflicts with promoting The Favourite (2018). Coincidentally, Stone previously took over the role of Mia in La La Land (2016) after Watson dropped out of the project due to the commitment of her role as Belle in the Disney live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast (2017).

Although they portray heroines of American literature, none of the four leading ladies are American. Emma Watson and Florence Pugh are English, Saoirse Ronan is Irish, and Eliza Scanlen is Australian. Note that Saoirse Ronan was raised in Ireland, but was born in The Bronx, New York and Emma Watson was born in Paris, France but raised in Oxfordshire, England.

Greta Gerwig worked extensively to have her version of Little Women mirror the story of Alcott, who drew from her own life for her work. Gerwig said that she saw Jo as the heroine of her youth, and Louisa May Alcott as the heroine of her adulthood: "What she did, that she wrote all this down. She made the lives of girls and women a best-seller. And that was extraordinary."

The 2019 version received three of the exact same Academy Award nominations with the 1994 version: Best Actress, Best Costume Design, and Best Original Score; at the same time, it also received same Academy Award nominations with the 1933 version: Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Picture. In addition, Thomas Newman, the composer for the 1994 version, is competing for an Academy Award for 1917 (2019) against Alexandre Desplat, who scored the 2019 version.

Laura Dern not only co-stars in this 2019 film written & directed by Greta Gerwig but also co-starred in 2019's award-winning Marriage Story (2019), written & directed by Noah Baumbach, Gerwig's life partner & the father of their newborn son. In addition, both of these films are nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture.

This is the seventh film adaptation of the 1868 novel of the same name by Louisa May Alcott.

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