The Cast on Their Characters

- If there's anything that I hope the audience responds to in this version of Little Women, that's different, is probably, her imperfections.

(upbeat music) I really tried to bring out the parts of her that she would feel insecure about.

- I think that what will speak to people most about Meg is the fact that her journey is one to self-acceptance and empowerment and who she is.

- Everybody at one time or another will feel intimidated by people or like they don't want to have to engage with something and they will see that she fights it and she tries and she does her best and she struggles and that's okay.

- In some of the other versions, her sisters would be like, "Jo, you're so stubborn!"

Or, "You're so awkward!"

- -and she wasn't, you know?

Like, she was so perfect and so I really worked hard to sort of illuminate her good qualities as well as her bad ones, or her less-perfect qualities.

- She spends a lot of story wishing that she looked differently, wishing that she had more money, wishing that she had more social access.

- There are so many people that have social anxiety of various different levels and so I hope that people will relate to that.

It's not something we have to hide.

- He is fiercely loyal and protective and is just, I think, a good friend to these girls.

- It's a hard one to say, what will we respond to?

It would be her due diligence, and her absolute assurance that she's right about everything, and those who don't respond or, you know, come back with the same kind of (grunt), she's going to just go right past them.

- There's not many clues in the book about Marmee's background, but one of the very significant ones, to me, was that her mother died when she was young.

You know, when you have a visceral strong response to something, they say that when your response is really high and really angry, it's about the past, it's not about the present, and she has schooled herself to tell what is good, necessary anger, for the raising of teenage girls, and what is just her own (growl).

- Underneath, there is this quality that you sense which is, she's true blue, you know, and she's gonna be, by the end of the story, you realize that all of her machinations were all to the good, and that's a wonderful, wonderful moment, I think, when you realize that she came through in the end.