Timothée Chalamet, Saoirse Ronan, And the ‘Little Women’ Cast Talk Putting a Modern Spin on Alcott

I have loved you ever since I've known you, Jo. I couldn't help it. It would be a disaster if we married, okay? It wouldn't be a disaster. We'd be miserable. Jo, we ought to be a perfect safe. I can't, I can't. Amy producing, you directing, all these lovely girls. Like, what was it like getting everyone together and telling this amazing female forward story? Well, what was sort of astonishing about it, and I still kind of can't believe, I can't believe we got away with it. I can't believe anybody let us do this. I can't believe the studio got behind it in the way that it did because not only is it a film, this epic story about the sisters and the lives of girls and women, and what's more domestic with the men that they know, but it's also a period piece. It's also based on a novel. This is exactly the kind of movie that nobody makes anymore, and nobody wants to finance, and nobody thinks there's an audience for. The fact that we did it, and we did it here in Concord, on location, on film with this great of a cast, I feel like we got to steal something from the world. I feel like we got away with something. Well, it's pretty amazing, and I will say, like I was saying down there, like, it's this generation's version. Like, every generation should get their version, and it's amazing, and in every version, I'm sorry, Lori is, how do I put it? The guy that would leave you on, ghost you on Tinder. No, I don't think so. I don't think so. No, no, Lori's like the guy who would, like, cry in front of your door. Also, not even ghosting on text, ghost on Tinder. That's a whole nother. No, Lori doesn't ghost on Tinder. Lori doesn't ghost. No, no, Lori's not even on Tinder. Lori's, like, swiping for his friends, and being like, don't go out with him. And then I feel like, loves people too much, and then it's like, you're like, go home. Go home. It's hard, somebody was asking Greta that earlier, to imagine contemporizing some of these characters, not to make it a narrative, but just in real life. I think Lori might be one of the trickiest. Maybe not even, yeah. He might be. Actually, you know what? Maybe he's more Brian Krakow, the one that gets left on the bicycle. To be honest, I feel like Lori's you. Yeah, okay, good. I'll take that. I mean, is that fine? Yeah, because somebody said at this wing event we did, they were like, we feel that Lori is the OG ally. And I was like, it's true for women. Like, he was, like, he holds the space. He wants to be part of the club, and he's not gonna interrupt, and he'll do a funny voice, and he'll pretend to be another person. Like, he's like, he'll go in with everything he's got to be part of the club. What are you saying? Did I do that? No, no, I'm kidding. That was the numbers. I'm loving these voices. No, I feel like, but I do feel like Lori is a new vision of masculinity, and it's emotional, it's connected, and it's egalitarian, and I feel like Timothy is an emerging young person, is also doing that. I like that. And if I could just say one thing to that, that, God, I'm not gonna be able to say it quick enough. No, say it, say it, say it. But just, you know, that's very nice, and yet, I do feel like a part of this, and a small part, in a good way, in that, in fairness and in honor of Greta, she fleshed out this role for this guy, I think, very significantly, and yet, he's just a human, and we're all just humans, and that's what's so awesome about this movie. And again, not to make an empty sales pitch, but this is like, this is a worthy, real thing. It's one of my favorite things, when I talk to people about the movie now, and it wasn't an anxiety about mine, but it felt like an obvious thing to say to Greta before we started making it, which is, well, they've made other versions, so, you know, ours is gonna be worthy, right? And I like that, when I talk to people now, it's not even, it doesn't even come, or, and I love, all respect to all the versions, but it doesn't even come up now, because it's, it's not even like, well, let's still debate this, because really, this is. It's own thing. And did you see, okay, I guess you can't say this either, but I can't say this, did you see what Gillian Armstrong said, the director of the 94 version? Yes, yes, yes. That's awesome, that's awesome. No one is obliged to say that, no one needs to say that. And it's a moving thing, that tweet, like, moved me. And it's a weird thing to say, that tweet moved me, it feels like an empty thing to say. I don't know if you saw, but the thing that she said at the end, and the hashtag, whatever, and it's like, you know, it's, as Greta said before, this thing, this got made, and that's amazing, and it's not a miracle, but it's a great thing, it got made in itself. And yet, in no woe is us way, I also see the, whatever. The other side. Yeah. I intend to make my own way in the world. No one makes their own way, least of all a woman. You'll need to marry well. You are not married, aren't you? Well, that's because I'm rich. Ladies, all I have to say is, I love this cast, I love all of you guys, and like, with Meryl and Emma, produced by Amy, directed by Greta, written by, what was it like coming all together, and being sisters on this just like, amazing like, female forward set, so. Incredibly supportive. Awesome. It was a good sisterhood, I'd say. And just fun. It was just fun from start to finish. Like, we just mess about all the time, and poke fun at each other, and we're always, I mean, we're behaving very well now, but we're usually like, on top of each other, or picking at each other, or whatever. You know, and we had Laura, as well as Greta and Amy, obviously, we had Laura at the helm, just, who's someone that, you know, I think we all look up to, and she was this incredible, I mean, they do. They do. Ah! To camera, as well. But she's an incredible, she's an incredible woman to just bring us all together, and be such a good sort of role model for us. And she, I do feel like, a lot of the time, you really set the tone for the young'uns. So, yeah, we were very lucky. That's beautiful. And also, I think we can all agree, it was an amazing set of men. We had, both crew and cast, the most amazing, supportive, generous, thoughtful men. And, I mean, wouldn't it be gorgeous to say, something that's female-forward is this inclusive space where everyone's in consideration of each other. I mean, she totally could've made Timmy like eye candy, but she gave him some good lines, let's be honest. I'm just kidding. Wouldn't do that to him, he's great. But I also wanna ask you, Saoirse, like, you have a, obviously, very close relationship with Greta, working with her, Lady Bird, in this, but why do you think she was perfect to sort of put her spin on this? Because I heard Amy say it's what? Punk rock Shakespeare? Is that what she calls it? No, that's quite cool. Well, what's really interesting, and I only found this out when we were doing press for the film, is that when Greta went into Sony to pitch the movie, she hadn't made Lady Bird yet. She wasn't this thing that, like, everybody sort of admired so much, and everyone wanted to work with her, and nobody knew how, like, hot a director she was yet. And she went in and she said, to me, Little Women is very clearly about art and money, and a woman's relationship to it, and how you try and balance that, and especially now, for all of us, that's such a relevant, important, sort of, like, idea. And that's what she wanted this movie to be about more than anything, and that was sort of the driving force. And I think that's really interesting to kind of look at it from that angle. And then I think on top of that, like, her, she's got a very specific style of filmmaking. She has always known the type of filmmaker that she is. She knows what movie she wants to make. And I think her just even, like, you know, really sort of carefully playing with, like, the timelines and how there's these very, like, delicate sort of connections between past and present, your childhood and who you are now. Like, it made it, it made it something that was just fresh. And I, you know, we all knew she was gonna do that, because she's smart. Eliza, this is one of the more bigger things that you've done. What was it like working with her as your first role? Because she's, like, an actor's director, I think, and I would imagine that probably helps. Oh, yeah, for sure. Greta has this incredible sensibility because she is an actor. And she speaks our language, and it makes all the difference. And working on this film, it took me a while to process that I was going to be on this set. And I felt like I had a little bit up my belt, but I knew I was going to learn a lot on this set, which I did. Not just with the craft and with filmmaking, but just being surrounded by these beautiful women. And they're all very strong-headed, and they know what they want. And I think they really taught me to stand up for what I want. And I was only, how old was I? 19. I was 19. That's pretty good for 19. I'm almost 21 now, so, yeah. I have to ask you guys about this fight. I have to talk about, slap me, Saoirse. Break it down for us. I actually was on the phone to someone this morning, and they were like, is it true that you got hit by Saoirse before every scene? And I was like, no, where's this coming from? And they were like, because apparently you asked her to hit you before every scene. I was like, that's mad. Even scenes that I wasn't in, I would just come on set and smack her. No, Saoirse and I have a very boisterous, loving relationship, as we all did on the set. We were always on top of one another in the scenes and off. So, it was just during that one scene when I burned the book, it was like one of the last days of shooting as well, and we just wanted to wrestle. And so, we did, on camera. And it was amazing. It was, and we were all trying to pry them apart. I mean, to really... It's brilliant, doing that stuff. It was just incredible. You made me actually like Amy. Amy's a hard character for most people in the book and in previous iterations. But I have to ask, both sides of a married directorial couple, have you made your allegiances between Noah and Greta? Like, who are you going to sit with at these various award shows? They both wore your shirt at the Gotham. I'm now, I think, an adoptive child. And I'm, you know, being hopefully very mindful of, you know, honoring each parent. And we're having the time of our life.