Greta Gerwig on her dream Little Women cast and writing Barbie movie
Greta Gerwig is far from the first person to adapt beloved classic Little Women, but she had an assist in assembling her A-list cast from an author who has been dead for 130 years
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Oscar-nominated director Greta Gerwig might never have an easier time casting a film than she did with Little Women.
American author Louisa May Alcott’s beloved coming-of-age novel about four sisters in Civil War-era America has been adapted many times for stage, screen and radio since it was published in 1868, so when the American actor-turned-director started to think about who might be in her latest version, she found that the a lot of the heavy lifting had already been done for her by a writer who has been dead for more than 130 years.
“The first person I got was Meryl Streep because she loves the novel,” says Gerwig, whose 2017 coming-of age drama Lady Bird was nominated for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay. “Louisa May Alcott got me that.”
She was further blessed by having Saoirse Ronan — already a three-time Oscar nominee at the age of 25 — basically demand to play the lead role of headstrong writer Jo March while they were working together on Lady Bird.
“She came up to me and tapped me on the shoulder and said, ‘I know you are going to make Little Women, and I am going to play Jo’,” recalls Gerwig with a laugh. “I think if I had thought about it for a couple of weeks I would have just come to her anyway but I actually very much liked that she told me she was going to play Jo because she had never done anything like that before and it made me feel like Jo was already talking through her.”
Given that Little Women is one of the most revered American novels, it might seem odd that none of actors cast to play the four March sisters are from that country. In addition to Irish actor Ronan, the other sisters are played by Brits Emma Watson (Meg) and Florence Pugh (Amy) and Australian former Home and Away star Eliza Scanlen (Beth). But that, says Gerwig, is testament to the universal appeal of a book that has been translated into 52 languages and has never been out of print in 150 years.
“I feel like it’s the world’s and all different kinds of women have connected to it as if it’s their story,” she says. “I was always just person by person casting the very best person for the film and it just so happened that the cast was a global cast And I feel very lucky, because I feel like it’s not just a book that belongs to America, it’s a book that belongs to so many different kinds of women in the world and it feels reflective of that.”
Gerwig, who says her films are often based on her own experiences, also has a deep connection to the book, which is regarded by many as a feminist classic, and particularly to its unconventional protagonist Jo.
“I have grown up with this story,” she says. “My mother and my father read me the book and I loved these girls. I loved all the sisters and Jo March was my heroine — she was my favourite woman. She was ambitious, she was funny, she was a tomboy, she wanted to be a writer, she had an anger problem — she was all the things I am and I related to. I just felt very connected to it and then I heard they were interested in making it and I just forced my way into the room and made them look at my ideas.”
Gerwig was also taken with just how relevant the book was for modern audiences. She pointedly added scenes of Jo demanding copyright
of her written works from her publisher, just as Alcott had done, and draws parallels with the current conversations around Taylor Swift fighting to regain control of her own master recordings, or actors such as Nicole Kidman moving into producing to create powerful, compelling content such as Big Little Lies for women rather than waiting to be cast.
“There is so much about the book that to me is just so stunningly modern when I was reading it,” says Gerwig. “And there were lines jumping off the page that could have been written yesterday. Lines like Marmee saying ‘I am angry almost every single day of my life’ or Amy saying ‘I want to be great, or nothing’ — these felt like the sentiments of a modern woman.”
With its messages of sisterly love, female empowerment, and decent people mostly doing good works for each other and the world, Little Women might seem like something of a throwback in 2019, but the optimistic Gerwig says that’s precisely what makes it fresh, surprising and appealing.
“I love people,” she says. “I know that they are complicated but I find there is just as much to celebrate about people as there is to feel horrified over. I wanted to celebrate these people who have so much goodness and so much love.”
In some ways it’s not cool because it’s not cynical – it’s completely sincere. But that’s why I found to be so fresh, in that it has something old fashioned and sincere about it and that makes it seem like ‘oh, we haven’t seen this in a while’ because we are so used to being ironic.”
Gerwig was pregnant with her first child with partner Noah Baumbach — director of Netflix hit Marriage Story — during the making of Little Women. She says that in addition to wearing a lot of big coats and eating for two on set, the experience was particularly joyous knowing that she was sharing it with her unborn child Harold, who came into the world in March.
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“It just felt very emotional and very meaningful that I was with this group of artists getting to do the thing I love while this little baby was getting cooked,” she says. “There is nowhere else I like to be more than on a film set working on a movie, or editing a movie and I got to do this while a new life was coming into the world. I hope all that joy got to that baby.”
Gerwig and Baumbach have also joined forces with Margot Robbie to write a Barbie movie, with the Aussie A-lister in the frame to portray an empowered, feminist version of the iconic but controversial doll in a live-action film. “We’re going to do it up right. Hopefully it will be loyal to what’s great and bringing in what’s new and funny. That’s the goal.”
“The reason Noah and I were really excited about writing Barbie was because Margot is so great,” says Gerwig.
“She is not only a great actress, she’s also a great producer and she’s really smart and really funny and really cool. We were excited to write the movie and also to spent time hanging out with Margot and getting to work with her. She’s one of the coolest ladies and she’s so creative and smart and she’s such a student of movies. We thought it would be the most fun we could have.
Little Women opens on New Year’s Day. Review, Page 6