Trivia / Little Women (1994)

• Ability over Appearance: Noted under Adaptational Attractiveness. Jo in the book is frequently compared to a colt and she describes herself as "ugly and awkward". In the 1994 film she's played by the very petite and absolutely lovely Winona Ryder — who captures Jo's spunkiness and spirit perfectly. Producer Denise Di Novi even said...
  "Physically, Jo was supposed to be plain and gangly, but Winona was a Little Women fanatic and so understood the character. She was the It Girl, but she was also outspoken and embodied Jo."
• Actor-Inspired Element: Claire Danes inspired a lot of how Beth was presented in this version. On seeing her screen test of Beth's death, Gillian Armstrong realised that she didn't have to be portrayed as frail, but rather an "old soul".
• Awesome, Dear Boy: Eric Stoltz, having read both the book and the script, accepted the relatively small part of John Brooke because he was that enthusiastic about the project.
  "I told them I'd do anything."
• Billing Displacement: Gabriel Byrne and Samantha Mathis get top billing over Christian Bale and Kirsten Dunst, despite not appearing until well over an hour into the film.
• California Doubling: The movie was shot in Canada and London due to the low budget.
• Dawson Casting:
  • Averted with Kirsten Dunst, who was twelve at the time of filming, matching Amy's age pre-Time Skip.
  • Played Straight with nearly everyone else. Claire Danes was only a couple of years older than Beth (fifteen playing thirteen) and Winona Ryder was twenty-two playing fifteen-year-old Jo. Trini Alvarado was twenty-seven playing sixteen-year-old Meg and Samantha Mathis, who played Amy after the Time Skip, was twenty-four playing Amy at sixteen.
• Fake American: The British Christian Bale as Laurie, and Matthew Walker as Robert March. Canadians John Neville and Janne Mortil as Mr Lawrence and Sally Moffat respectively. Andrea Libman, also Canadian, plays New York's Kitty Kirk. Downplayed with Trini Alvarado, who is half Puerto Rican and Spanish, but was raised in New York.
• Fake Irish: The Irish maid Hannah is played by Canadian actress Florence Patterson.
• Fake Nationality: Irish actor Gabriel Byrne plays the German Professor Bhaer.
• Friendship on the Set: Kirsten Dunst describes the set as being like a summer camp, and all the cast members bonded, with their family chemistry being reflected on screen. Winona Ryder also admits that she and Christian Bale basically became Jo and Laurie for a while.
• Method Acting: Claire Danes went to hospices and really did research on how to accurately portray Beth's death.
• Playing Against Type: Winona Ryder tended to play moody Emo Teen roles or else Innocence Lost characters at that point in her career. The Spirited Young Lady like Jo is a little different. Indeed Gillian Armstrong was reluctant at casting her before meeting her in person.
  "I needed to be sure in my heart that she could be Jo, because most of her earlier work, she played characters that were more introverted or frail. But when I met Winona, I could see that she would be a wonderful Jo — that she had an incredible passion and hadn’t been given the chance to play a woman that was that strong and alive and funny."
• Real Life Writes the Hairstyle:
  • Claire Danes had to wear a wig as Beth because her dyed red, shoulder-length hairstyle for My So-Called Life was too contemporary looking.
  • Winona Ryder likewise had to wear a wig because she'd cut her hair short for Reality Bites. It was even too short to use in Jo's post-haircut scenes, so that was a different wig.
• Reality Subtext: The look on Beth's face as she's given the Hummels' sick baby is because Claire Danes was about to burst into tears at the sound of the screaming child.
• Saved from Development Hell: It took this version of Little Women twelve years to get made, as most studios didn't want to go near a film with four female leads. Even Gillian Armstrong turned down the offer to direct several times, as she found the material too similar to her film My Brilliant Career.
• Sleeper Hit: As noted below, Columbia didn't think the film would be that notable, and certainly didn't expect it to gross nearly three times its budget - as well as netting three Oscar nominations.
• Stunt Casting: Winona Ryder being cast as Jo was a condition of Columbia agreeing to consider the project.
• Those Two Actors: Christian Bale and Samantha Mathis both star in American Psycho.
• Wag the Director: Winona Ryder really lobbied to have a female director.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Gillian Armstrong actually turned down the offer to direct multiple times, viewing the story as too similar to her previous film My Brilliant Career.
  • Christina Ricci, Natalie Portman, and Thora Birch auditioned for young Amy.
  • Alicia Silverstone auditioned for Beth, but was thought to be "too old".
  • Olivia Hussey lobbied hard for the role of Marmee but was turned down because of her thick English accent. Susan Sarandon almost passed on the role too, because it was close to the end of the school year and she didn't want to be away from her children.
  • Mary Louise Parker was talked about for Meg, but they decided she was too edgy and went with Trini Alvarado, who was screenwriter Robin Swicord's preferred choice.
  • Reese Witherspoon was Armstrong's first choice for Amy, back when the production was considering casting one actress for both time periods.
  • Hugh Grant was the leading choice for Professor Bhaer, Denise De'Novi admitted that "we all had a huge crush on Hugh". But he was considered too young and confident. John Turturro really lobbied for the role too, but Word of God is that they wanted someone deeper and more poetic - so Gabriel Byrne got it.
  • The film originally had a much lower budget because executives were worried about it falling into the Girl-Show Ghetto. Gillian Armstrong showed them a rough cut, which moved them so much, that they gave her more money for re-shoots and extra music.
  • The film was not considered marketable, due to how female-focused the story was, and it was referred to as a "needle in the eye picture". One studio exec suggested a Setting Update to the 90s to make it more commercial - in this version, the March sisters would be unhappy about not having a car for Christmas.
• Writer Revolt: Producer Denise De'Novi personally hated the idea of one actress playing Amy as a child and adult, finding it "weird". This then became the only one of the Hollywood adaptations to have two actresses play Amy in the two halves.