Jo was my North Star,” Greta Gerwig tells Total Film in her idiosyncratic breathless, sing-song cadence that makes everything sound giddily exciting when we catch up with her for a brisk October walk through New York. “I think it’s almost indistinguishable for me – wanting to be a writer and a creator, and my love for Jo. I don’t know what came first.” She’s rhapsodizing about Jo March, the gusty, uncompromising, direct and honest tomboy in Louisa May Alcott’s 1868 novel following four Victorian-era sisters through adolescence to adulthood via joy, heartbreak, death, and singed skirts.
Jo – with her lust for the arts, clear-eyed sense of self and ear for language – is a character who could be Gerwig after last year’s triumphant directorial debut with Lady Bird, which took her all the way to the Academy Awards. And it’s especially true of the way Gerwig went after Little Women, demanding a meeting with producer Amy Pascal in 2016, sure she was the person to interpret a new, pertinent version despite having never directed before. “I went in, and I said, ‘This movie is about art and women and money, and it’s about the impossibility of all three. It’s about: how do you become an adult, and keep the part of you that was a brave girl alive?’” she shouts over traffic. “I said I should [direct]. And in [any] case, I was able to write the script. So I wrote the script. And then I went away, and I directed Lady Bird. By the time I was done with that, they said, ‘We’re interested in making this movie, and you can direct it...’ The day after the Oscars, I went to a cabin in the woods with all my research and I spent two weeks there alone, trying to figure out if I was true and worthy of this task.”
Denne historien er fra December 2019-utgaven av Total Film.
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Denne historien er fra December 2019-utgaven av Total Film.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
RETURN TO OZ
WICKED Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande defy gravity as the Broadway smash reaches cinemas.
GRIN AND BEAR IT
SMILE 2 Trauma-horror sequel sees the curse latch onto a pop superstar...
BAD ROMANCE
TIMESTALKER Alice Lowe falls in love with the wrong man time and time again...
CLOWNING GORY
TERRIFIER 3 Creator Damien Leone says Art the Clown is coming home for Christmas...
SELF EXPRESSION
LAYLA A non-binary, British-Palestinian drag queen navigates their expression of identity.
GENA ROWLANDS
I like difficult roles,' said Gena Rowlands. No kidding. A stage, TV and film actor whose career spanned more than six decades, Rowlands will be most remembered for the series of coruscating dramas she made with her first husband, actor-turned-director John Cassavetes, between 1968 and 1984.
'NOW NOTHING IS ABOUT LOOKS OR ABOUT BEING A LEADING LADY.AND IT'S VERY LIBERATING' EMILY WATSON
Since breaking hearts in Breaking the Waves, Emily Watson has delivered countless screen masterclasses, from Gosford Park and Punch-Drunk Love to Apple Tree Yard. Now, the English star goes toe-to-toe with Cilllan Murohy in Irish drama Smeal/ Things like hese and fronts 1V prequel Dune: Prophecy. Is it her second coming? It's elementary, my dear Watson...
BLODD PRESSURE
BASED ON STEPHEN KING'S MOST INFLUENTIAL BOOK AND WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY IT SCRIBE GARY DAUBERMAN, VAMPIRE MOVIE SALEM'S LOT FACED AN UNHOLY FIGHT TO GET TO OUR SCREENS. TOTAL FILM HUNTS DOWN DAUBERMAN AND STARS LEWIS PULLMAN AND MAKENZIE LEIGH TO LEARN ALL THAT WAS AT STAKE...
Lucky Man
He broke out in Beatles jukebox musical Yesterday and has a varied slate of juicy projects on the horizon, including a very different take on a superhero franchise. But, as the everhumble Himesh Patel tells Total Film, he puts a lot of it down to luck...
A BUE ABOVE
WORLD-BUILDER EXTRAORDINAIRE RIDLEY SCOTT IS ALSO THE MASTER OF THE DIRECTOR'S CUT, RESTORING HIS MISHANDLED GEMS INTO MASTERPIECES. WITH THE EXPANSIVE DIRECTOR'S CUT OF NAPOLEON NOW AVAILABLE TO STREAM, TOTAL FILM SPEAKS TO THE GREAT SCOTT ABOUT BLOWING UP BONAPARTE HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH EDITING AND WHY BIGGER IS (USUALLY) BETTER.