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Little The Women who still have a huge impact on girls everywhere
As Louisa May Alcott’s classic tale of love, grief and growing up gets a lavish BBC makeover, Emily Watson and her young co-stars tell why it will leave an indelible impression on teenagers today
Tragedy, true love, coming of age and the value of virtue over wealth – Little Women by Louisa May Alcott is one of the best-loved novels ever published. Written in 1868 but with the story starting a few years earlier during the American Civil War, its two volumes follow the fortunes of the four very different March girls – Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy – as they journey from adolescence to womanhood. And now, to celebrate the 150th anniversary, a major threepart BBC adaptation of both volumes will introduce the March girls to a whole new audience.
The sumptuous drama stars BAFTA winner Emily Watson and screen legends Michael Gambon and Dame Angela Lansbury alongside four young British and American actresses as the girls, with a script by Call The Midwife writer Heidi Thomas. ‘Its humanity, humour and tenderness never date,’ says Heidi. ‘And as a study of love, grief and growing up it has no equal. There’s no better time to revisit the story of a family striving for happiness in an uncertain world, and I’m thrilled to be bringing the March girls to a new generation.’
In the books, loosely based on Louisa’s own adolescence with her three sisters in Massachusetts, the March sisters live with their mother Marmee in genteel poverty, facing Christmas without their father as he’s away at war having lost all their money in bad loans. Meg and Jo (played by Willa Fitzgerald and Maya Hawke) are the elder sisters who work to support the family. Meg teaches four children in a nearby household, while Jo helps their Aunt March, a cantankerous wealthy widow whose health is failing. Beth (Annes Elwy) helps with the housework while Amy (Kathryn Newton) attends school. Meg is the beautiful sister, Jo the tomboy heroine, Beth the fragile musician, and Amy the artist.
Sadly the BBC budget didn’t stretch to filming in Massachusetts, so great ingenuity has gone into recreating the Alcot ts’ manor house in the grounds of Kilpedder Rif le Range in County Wicklow, an hour outside
Dublin. And today
on the set, as Little Women begins at Christmas, the ground is covered in fake snow. There’s a snowman and Christmas tree, icicles hang from fir tree branches and the cast are wrapped in coats and mufflers. The costume designer is handing out theatre glasses, fans and peacock feathers for the next scene, as a horse-drawn carriage awaits to take the girls off to the opera.
Fresh from her role as the poster girl for sexy fiftysomethings in BBC thriller Apple Tree Ya r d , Emi l y Watson is relishing playing Marmee, a 19thcentury matriarch who’s wise and loving, but effectively a single parent. ‘They’re in a very precarious situation because the dad is away at war,’ explains Emily, ‘and they don’t know when he’s coming back. She’s bringing up four teenage daughters on her own which is pretty hair-raising. When I started working on it I thought, “My God, I wish I was as good a mum as Marmee.” She’s able to judge when to talk to people, what advice to give, how to let people make their own mistakes and grow and not just value success.’ Marmee makes it clear that although she’d like her girls to marry they will always be welcome to live at home, but she has her own demons. ‘She talks about having had a terrible temper all her life,’ says Emily. ‘The children have never seen it and she’s learned to step back and not react. To do that in a house full of teenage girls Michael Gambon stars as Mr Laurence is quite something, especially when they’re falling out and running riot. It’s no wonder modern adolescents relate to the story, it’s very ahead of its time. Marmee’s not raising her children just to be “little wives”, they’re strong, independent women.’
The book is a classic almost every young girl growing up, both here and in America, has read, and it’s been an inspiration to generations of teenagers who have felt empowered by the central character Jo’s spirited individuality. It was originally published in two parts, the first called Little Women and the second, a year later, called
‘It’s very ahead of its time, they’re strong women’ EMILY WATSON
Good Wives. In the first volume the March girls are self-absorbed teenagers learning to navigate what it means to be a young woman with the help of their mother. There’s tragedy, humour and conflict, and the book ends with John Brooke, tutor to next door neighbour Laurie, proposing marriage to Meg. In the second volume, the March girls go out into the world and a love triangle develops between Jo, Laurie and the enigmatic Professor Bhaer (Mark Stanley), who teaches Jo German when she moves to New York to work as a governess. Meg and John marry and have twins, while her sis- ters’ lives and loves take fluctuating turns for better and worse.
Emily Watson was obsessed with the character of Jo when she first read the books as a child. ‘Everyone wants to be Jo, she’s a really clever, crazy, very relatable young girl,’ she says. ‘It’s about not being the pretty one, or the clever one, it’s about feeling out of sorts and not right in your own skin.’
When news broke that Jo would be played by Maya Hawke (who bears a striking resemblance to her famous mother Uma Thurman) some critics deemed her too pretty. But in person Maya has a coltish, natural charm. ‘I
really am very awkward and clumsy,’ she laughs. ‘So I can connect with Jo, that feeling of being out of control.’
She also understands Jo’s fear of growing up. ‘I think Jo real ly resents the move towards romance because it’s a move towards being confined and losing her sisters and this sense of authenticity and naturalism that she’s enjoyed as a child. Little Women was the first book I read cover to cover by myself, so it was very important to me because Jo is so ambitious. She overcomes so many challenges and has such a passion for language and poetry.’
Louisa May Alcott struggled with the ladylike behaviour expected of girls in the 19th century, and for Maya recreating Jo’s tomboy physicality wasn’t hard. ‘She has so much energy it just spills out of her eyes, and she can’t even begin to exist in the world like an ordinary person,’ she says. ‘She blurts things out, and unfortunately I have that unique skill too.’ Maya adds that she relished acting opposite Angela Lansbury as Aunt March. ‘It was amazing. Being in scenes with Angela you have to be in the moment. She demands your full attention.’
It was certainly a coup to persuade Dame Angela to take on the part at the age of 92. Aunt March is temperamental and judgmental and she disapproves of the family’s poverty. She appears to be strict and cold, but deep down she’s really quite soft-hearted. ‘She’s a tough old broad!’ says Angela. ‘I thought to myself that this is a very strong, dark character. Now I’ve played some strong, dark characters during my career and what appeals to me is the challenge of making them real and human. I felt Aunt March had a lot of varied colours to her which made her interesting to play. I don’t think we could begin to understand the restrictions that women had to overcome in those days,’ she adds, while insisting that the novel still resonates powerfully today. Willa Fitzgerald, who plays Jo’s beautiful elder sister Meg, agrees. ‘That feeling of not fitting in, or feeling afraid of what your friends are going to think of you, is so universal to everyone’s experience of growing up.’
In today’s oversharing society we’d probably spot that Jo’s reclusive younger sister Beth suffers from acute social anxiety. ‘ She’s very sensitive to other people’s turmoil so she keeps the peace b e c aus e she doesn’t want anyone to be in pain,’ explains Annes Elwy. ‘If people argue, she’ll want to bring them back together because she knows they all love each other really.’
Jonah Hauer-King, who is cast as young Laurie, relates personally to his character. ‘He hasn’t had a lot of female relationships in his life which is why he’s drawn to the March girls,’ he says. ‘It’s very much about him trying to navigate what it is to be a young man, which is something I’m still going through myself, and what it means to fall in love. The triangle between Laurie, Jo and the professor is one of the great plot points.’
He says he loved working with Michael Gambon, who plays his grandfather Mr Laurence, a wealthy neighbour who is lonely in his mansion and enjoys becoming a benefactor and protector to the March family. ‘When Laurie is vulnerable, Mr Laurence is there for him,’ says Jonah.
The drama is set against the American Civil War, when slavery was a key issue, and the politics are fascinating, but this new adaptation will also look stunning. ‘Because so much of it is shot outside and the light’s so beautiful it just feels very truthful and free,’ says Annes Elwy. The girls’ embroidered cloaks gleam warmly in the natural light too. ‘Although we’ve still got corsets,’ groans Kathryn Newton. ‘But this is a story that young women need to hear right now. We can all relate to these girls and we’re living in 2017.’
‘Aunt March is a tough old broad, she’s very dark’ ANGELA LANSBURY
Little Women starts on Boxing Day on BBC1.