History Trivia / LittleWomen2019

* StarMakingRole: This combined with ''Film/{{Midsommar}}'' helped put Creator/FlorencePugh on the map, and even earned her an Oscar nomination.

* SeparatedAtBirthCasting: No trouble at all believing Saoirse Ronan playing the daughter of Laura Dern.

* PlayingAgainstType: Mildly for Creator/EmmaWatson. Best known for being slightly tomboyish and NotLikeOtherGirls heroines (as in closer to Jo), she plays the more traditionally feminine sister Meg.
** Creator/BobOdenkirk as well. He’s most famous for playing the sleazy [[Series/BreakingBad Saul]] [[Series/BetterCallSaul Goodman]], but here acts as the kind, selfless family patriarch.

* StarMakingRole: This combined with Film/{{Midsommar}} helped put Creator/FlorencePugh on the map, and even earned her an Oscar nomination.

* AdaptationalAttractiveness: [[DiscussedTrope Discussed]] by director Greta Gerwig [[https://www.92y.org/archives/greta-gerwig-little-women in this interview]] regarding Bhaer.
---> '''Greta Gerwig:''' I feel like for the history of cinema, guys have been putting glasses on hot women and saying that they’re awkward, so I was like, I can do whatever I want.

* TypeCasting: Emma Watson's role as Meg shares a few parallels with her role as Pauline in ''Literature/BalletShoes''; both are the eldest of a group of sisters, also the most feminine and considered the beauty of the family. Both get a scene where they angst over a new dress for a party, and both have a passion for acting. The difference is that Meg gives up acting to get married and start a family, while Pauline pursues a film career in Los Angeles.
** Saoirse Ronan started her film career playing a precocious writer whose journey ended with her writing a fictionalised account of her own experiences [[spoiler: and one in which the character changes the ending from the 'real' one]] in ''Film/{{Atonement}}''. Jo March isn't very similar to Briony Tallis, but the journey of a writer from authoring fanciful melodramas to writing fiction so authentic it's autobiographical, via the wisdom of experience and regret, is the same at its core.

* EnforcedMethodActing:
** As with ''Film/LadyBird'', which was set in the early 2000s before the smartphone boom, Creator/GretaGerwig prohibited the use of them on set.
** Florence Pugh told Saoirse Ronan to go ahead and slap her when Amy and Jo fight after the burned manuscript.

* PlayingAgainstType:
** Mildly for Creator/EmmaWatson. Best known for being slightly tomboyish and NotLikeOtherGirls heroines (as in closer to Jo), she plays the more traditionally feminine sister Meg.
** Florence Pugh likewise plays the ProperLady Amy in a radical departure from her PerkyGoth character in ''Film/FightingWithMyFamily''.

* ActorInspiredElement: Amy's speech about marriage was not in the initial script, but was suggested by Creator/MerylStreep. After working and talking with Creator/GretaGerwig, 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.

* PlayingWithCharacterType: Chris Cooper often plays {{Jerkass}}es or intimidating characters. Here he plays the Mr. Laurence, who initially appears to be a stern old man but is revealed to actually be very kind.

** Chris Cooper - often {{Jerkass}}es or intimidating characters - plays the kindly Mr Laurence.

* HideYourPregnancy: Creator/GretaGerwig 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.

** Saoirse Ronan started her film career playing a precocious writer whose journey ended with her writing a fictionalised account of her own experiences [[Spoiler: and one in which the character changes the ending from the 'real' one]] in ''Film/Atonement''. Jo March isn't very similar to Briony Tallis, but the journey of a writer from authoring fanciful melodramas to writing fiction so authentic it's autobiographical, via the wisdom of experience and regret, is the same at its core.

* ActorInspiredElement: Meryl Streep suggested Amy's speech about why she has to marry well. She felt it was important for a modern audience to understand a woman's powerlessness and lack of career options in that era.

* EnforcedMethodActing:
** As with ''Film/LadyBird'', which was set in the early 2000s before the smartphone boom, Creator/GretaGerwig prohibited the use of them on set.
** Florence Pugh told Saoirse Ronan to go ahead and slap her when Amy and Jo fight after the burned manuscript.

** Mildly for Emma Watson. Best known for being slightly tomboyish and NotLikeOtherGirls heroines (as in closer to Jo), she plays the more traditionally feminine sister Meg.

** A new film adaptation of the book entered development in 2013, and Creator/SarahPolley was reportedly hired to write and direct in 2015, but nothing came of it. Greta Gerwig was then hired to write a screenplay in 2016, and eventually became its director after the success of ''Lady Bird''.
** Greta Gerwig was unsure about casting Saoirse Ronan again, having just directed her in ''Film/LadyBird''. But Saoirse had written to her and ''told'' her she was going to be Jo. Realising that casting herself was a very Jo attitude to things, she was signed on.

* ActorInspiredElement: Meryl Streep suggested Amy's speech about why she has to marry well. She felt it was important for a modern audience to understand a woman's powerlessness and lack of options in that era.

* ActorInspiredElement: Meryl Streep suggested Amy's speech about why she has to marry well - feeling it was important for a modern audience to understand a woman's powerlessness in that era.

* DawsonCasting: Well all the actresses in their twenties also playing the characters across seven years. Most egregiously in the case of Florence Pugh, who plays Amy from the age of ''thirteen'' to twenty (the previous 1994 film cast two actresses to play the character as a child and adult).

* EnforcedMethodActing: As with ''Film/LadyBird'', which was set in the early 2000s before the smartphone boom, Creator/GretaGerwig prohibited the use of them on set.

* FakeAmerican: Irish Creator/SaoirseRonan[[note]]Who was born in New York but raised in Ireland, and has dual Irish and American citizenship[[/note]] as Jo; Brits Creator/EmmaWatson, Creator/FlorencePugh and Creator/JamesNorton as Meg, Amy and John Brooke; and Australian Eliza Scanlen as Beth.

* AllStarCast: Creator/SaoirseRonan, Creator/EmmaWatson, Creator/FlorencePugh, Creator/TimotheeChalamet, Creator/LauraDern, and Creator/MerylStreep.

* CaliforniaDoubling: Averted for the most part, as the film was primarily filmed in and around UsefulNotes/{{Boston}} (where ''Little Women'' is set), but the UsefulNotes/{{Paris}} scenes were also filmed in Boston.

** Creator/EmmaStone was originally cast as Meg, but filming conflicted with the press tour of ''Film/TheFavourite'', so she was recast with Creator/EmmaWatson.