00:01This is Meg, Amy, Beth, and Jo.
00:04My girls have a way of getting into mischief.
00:07Ow, Jo!
00:10I'm working on a novel.
00:11Make it spicy.
00:12And if the main character is a girl, make sure she's married by the end.
00:15Excuse me?
00:18Congratulations on this movie.
00:19My God, it's amazing.
00:21Seriously, I love Little Women like every other millennial girl that grew up with it.
00:25So I trust you, obviously, because Lady Bird is fantastic.
00:28But you're always just like, please don't ruin the thing that I love.
00:30Now you'll travel with me to any country.
00:34But one of the things that I really loved, and I was so happy that you addressed,
00:38was obviously Jo's ending.
00:40Yes, yes.
00:40Because that's the biggest thing in my mind where it's just like,
00:42you watch the old movies, you read the book, you're like,
00:44she just spends the literal entire time saying she doesn't want to get married.
00:48Yes.
00:48So I'm kind of curious about your decision to not play it straight
00:52and do this like meta version of it.
00:55Well, like you, I had this feeling of when in the book, Jo says,
01:03and then Jo stopped up her inkstand, didn't write again.
01:06I'm like, what?
01:07And got married and opened the school and had babies.
01:11I was like, no, no, I'm pretending that didn't happen.
01:15And then as I was an adult and I wanted to make this movie and I discovered that Louisa May
01:21Alcott never got married
01:22and she never had kids and that she never wanted Jo to get married and have kids.
01:27She wanted Jo to be, as she said, a literary spinster with books for children.
01:31And I thought, well, maybe there's a way to do that now.
01:37If she couldn't do it then or she felt like she couldn't do it then, maybe we could do it
01:41now.
01:41And it's finding that distance between life and fiction that I find intellectually exciting and also very emotional.
01:53If you decide to end your delightful book with your heroine a spinster, no one will buy it.
01:59It won't be worth printing.
02:02I suppose marriage has always been an economic proposition, even in fiction.
02:06Just end it that way, will you?
02:08Saoirse and Laura, I'm curious to get your guys' opinion on Greta's new ending for Jo,
02:13because obvious reasons you play Jo, but I think that Marmee is very much Jo grown up in a way.
02:18Yeah, I was so excited about it. I love when filmmakers do that anyway.
02:22I love when it's sort of like, hold on a minute, what's happening?
02:26What I really love about it from an audience's perspective is that she's acknowledging that we're there.
02:32She's acknowledging that we're watching what's happening and we know what the real life story is.
02:37And this was our opportunity and Greta's opportunity to give Louisa the ending that she probably would have wanted
02:45and that she wouldn't have changed if, you know, it was 2019.
02:49So it was very, very exciting to get to do that.
02:52And also, watching someone fight for themselves.
02:57I never knew the narrative of her keeping her copyright.
03:02And that the idea of why this is the classic American novel written by a woman,
03:08why she was the one writer who had this staying power is because she fought for herself.
03:14And not in some disingenuous, ambitious way, she was trying to feed her family.
03:20Yeah.
03:21And that's what's so incredible.
03:22Yeah.
03:23To see Greta's longing to make ambition this, like, gorgeous right.
03:30And in Amy's character, too, to, like, allow ambition to be fiery and gorgeous and not like,
03:36oh, you know, the thing we've seen in a lot of films with female characters.
03:41Because ambition in male characters is always, you know, honored.
03:46So that's very cool.
03:47I intend to make my own way in the world.
03:49No one makes their own way.
03:51At least of all, a woman.
03:52You'll need to marry well.
03:54You are not married, Aunt March.
03:55Well, that's because I'm rich.
03:57Meryl Streep, to me, was the perfect Aunt March.
03:59I mean, my god.
04:00Every time she was on screen, I was curious what it was like working with her in filming scenes.
04:04Was she kind of staying in that Aunt March mode in between takes?
04:07Kind of.
04:08It's very powerful, though, being in a room with her.
04:10Anything she gives to you in a scene, you instantly feel like you're safe and you're saved.
04:15And that's really amazing when you work with someone and you feel like you're sharing that moment with them.
04:23And, yeah, I've been in love with her since I was tiny.
04:26So, a mega woman.
04:27I also like...
04:28Sorry.
04:29No, no, no.
04:29I was just going to say, I also like how she is when she's on set.
04:34She's just, you know, obviously she's like Meryl and she's a legend.
04:38But when she comes on set, she's an actor and she doesn't sort of draw attention to herself by any
04:43means.
04:43She's quite a quiet woman.
04:44And, you know, the one scene that I had with her, we blocked it and we rehearsed it.
04:51And then the camera department were going to come in and set it up and light it and everything.
04:55And Meryl just stayed there.
04:57And she didn't get in anyone's way and she didn't want to make it about her.
05:00But she just wanted to be on set and I, what I, what I think is always lovely when you
05:05work with someone who's, who everyone looks up to so much is when you're with them and they just want
05:11to act and they want to work with you.
05:13That is the best thing, so.
05:14She elevated everyone.
05:16Yeah, absolutely.
05:17Yes, there's definitely sometimes an expectation for actors to be like...
05:21Like, but...
05:23Or like, I'm a star.
05:24Yeah, she taught, yeah, she's totally...
05:27A worker.
05:28Yeah, she's a worker.
05:29She's a worker.
05:30She's a worker.
05:30And it's a craft.
05:30Thank you, Aunt Marge.
05:32Oh!
05:32Why?
05:33I should get the money.
05:34Well, I only sold what was my own.
05:36You're one beauty.
05:38Were there any moments from the book that you wanted to include but didn't end up in the final cut?
05:43Like a million things and I could quote them all to you right now.
05:45There's a million lines that I loved that I didn't have space for somehow.
05:49There's like a line that I kept trying to give to Amy but I just didn't have the space because
05:53Amy, who's a total unsung character, has so many amazing lines in the book.
05:58And one of them is The World is Hard on Ambitious Girls, which I was like, that's true still.
06:05And I don't pretend to be wise but I am observant.
06:09And I was like, oh my God.
06:10But there's amazing scenes.
06:11I mean, the development of the relationship between Laurie and Amy was really fun and a lot from the book
06:18that I just thought they were talking about whether or not they were great artists, whether or not they were
06:23going to keep pursuing what they were working on.
06:25They were talking about essentially mutually deciding to grow up, which is a very, it's both like something gained, something
06:33lost.
06:34And I mean, there's like a million things.
06:35I love the book.
06:37I could have made a whole different movie with different scenes.
06:41There's also this great scene where Joe tries to cook to show that she's good at housekeeping and stuff and
06:47she uses salt instead of sugar and then invites everyone over and they just, the food's disgusting.
06:53That's fun.
06:54That would have been really fun to see, especially with Laurie trying to pretend like, oh no, Joe, it's fine.
06:58Or genuinely understanding it to be excellent.
07:01Also, there was an entire subplot with Laurie is like, he buys so many neckties and then, and it's like
07:09his necktie collection is way too big and Joe's like, stop buying neckties.
07:13And he's like, but I love them.
07:14I couldn't help it.
07:15Anyway, lots of stuff like that.
07:17Have you ever considered casting yourself in something that you write and direct?
07:22I have acted in things that I've written, but I have no interest in acting in things I'm directing.
07:27Why?
07:29I think my brain would fracture into a million pieces.
07:32I think it's really hard.
07:34I love directing because I love watching actors do what they do and I love seeing it all and it
07:41would, A, deprive myself of that privilege and B, I think I would go, I would not, I would, you
07:50know, there's a reason Orson Welles became obese.
07:53You go crazy.
07:55You go crazy.
07:56Oh no.
07:56It's true.
07:58Or is it Paul Masson's wine from, no, have you seen that commercial?
08:02No.
08:04Ah, the French champagne.
08:08He's like doing a commercial in his late fifties or sixties.
08:10Oh no, I haven't.
08:11California champagne, you know what I'm talking about?
08:12I recommend it.
08:13I just do think it's a lot on the brain.
08:16I'm amazed at people who can do it.
08:17I was just talking to Olivia Wilde the other night and she's going to direct herself in her next picture,
08:22which I was like, oh my God, you've crossed into territory I will never do.
08:29But maybe if I wrote, if I wrote something then I could get Noah to direct it and then I
08:34could act with Timothy.
08:36What?
08:37I could play your old friend.
08:41You know what, I'm going to, I'll be back.
08:43No.
08:44Women, they have minds and they have souls as well as just hearts.
08:49I want to be great or nothing.
08:51And they've got ambition and they've got talent as well as just beauty.
08:55I'm so sick of people saying that love is just all a woman is fit for.
09:00I'm so sick of it.
09:07So who does she marry?
09:12Florence, I have one quick question that I want to slip in because we have a lot of Marvel fans
09:16on our site.
09:17So obviously going from something like Little Women, which you're not really like fighting people, not doing a ton of
09:22action, to Black Widow.
09:24Did you pick that because you just wanted something totally different or are there similarities between Amy and Yelena, for
09:30example?
09:30Oh, I don't know if there are some, I mean they're both stubborn women and, no, I think I love
09:37the script and I love Kate Shortland.
09:39And I think everything that they're trying to do with that film is make it as painful and as real
09:44and as gritty as possible.
09:47And it was exactly like that when we made it and that was a really nice thing to walk into.
09:53And of course I got to be with the Black Widow and watch her work, which was pretty amazing considering
09:59she's been the only female superhero for the past ten years.
10:02We're pretty excited but it isn't big enough for you guys
10:02Wow great thanks!
10:02We guys want to co-therize for Let's Go too
10:02We want to give up this video today.
10:02So let me know, have you guys?
10:03Oh my god good evening, there are some Ouch!
Comments