The World of Little Women

(soft guitar music) - The production design, I think, is absolutely splendid.

I mean, we're in Ireland.

We're supposed to be in Concord, Massachusetts.

- We had to do a lot of research and continue to do a lot of research about authenticity of the world and of the period.

- When I was researching Little Women, I had the great opportunity to work with the Executive Director of Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House in Concord.

- [Susie] We have an ongoing relationship with Jan Turnquist who runs that, which has been invaluable.

A much greater understanding of the environment, and how the Alcotts lived and what informed Louisa May's approach to the women.

- I wanted to go to Concord to visit the museums, to understand every detail I possibly could to the point of what kind of flour they'd use to make bread.

- The entire production team has done an incredible job in making the world of when the story was set.

- [Susie Liggit] Susie Cullen, our designer, has basically worked miracles to give us so many sets of such a scale.

- We have a whole range of different locations and sets to realize.

My favorites would always be anything that are based on character.

So, that would mean that the March house, because you have a big backstory, and you can kind of layer that up accordingly, and kind of feel like you really know these people.

- They've created this beautiful exterior homestead with this exquisite, very American garden.

- It's been amazing.

You feel like you're there.

You feel like you're right there in Concord, Massachusetts.

- And then, you try to give each of the girls a hobby.

Amy's got her art.

So, there's a sense of that in her bedroom.

And she's painted the fire screen in the parlor.

Louisa's sister, also, did drawings that are still there at the museum, so we sort of took inspiration from that.

- The authenticity's fantastic.

Every single thing in each interior has a sort of beauty and a purpose to it.

- They're so good at what they do that it really feels like a home.

- [Man] It's a lovely day for a wedding everybody.

And playback.

- Eimer is fantastic.

I think the costumes are unbelievably beautiful.

- It's very much about individual characters and creating their separate personalities through costume.

- This is a terrific costume.

I've got two of this variant with different colors here.

And you can see the top, that wonderful thing there.

And it's all dark which I like very much.

- It's a magical thing when you put on the petticoats and the corset, and your posture suddenly changes.

- Because as soon as you get that costume on, you're like, oh this is who I am.

This is who I get to be today.

- At the time, crinolines were in vogue.

Which are these big hoops under skirts, but we decided just to use petticoats.

Everything that they wear is functional and it's useful.

It's kind of reflecting the financial circumstances of the family as well.

- And it's right, because the family made their own dresses.

They would be personalized.

They would be special.

- [Eimer] The most exciting costumes are actually just the day dresses that the girls wear.

- She's created amazing clothes for this family, and think that was important that they had clothes rather than costumes.

- For Sharon, who's the makeup designer, the hardest thing is making people look like they're not wearing any makeup.

So, that's her achievement.

And I think the girls all look beautiful and natural, as they should.

- One of the things that was very important to me, telling a truthful story, was to empower the women in it by not making them dollies.

By making them just pure and beautiful in that.

- It's a reminder of what people probably really looked like.

There's no false eyelashes, there's no rouge.

- I think it's really beautiful how in the hair design they're really embracing imperfections, and like fly aways.

- I think they look like incredibly beautiful women but without any falseness to it.

- It's that whole sense of the lives really lived, but with a sort of prism of beauty and care that they've all brought.

- Everybody blows my mind on this, how everybody's so talented.

- Both in productions and in costumes have such an important role in taking you to that place as an actor.

It does an extraordinary amount of the work for you.

- This needed to feel real so our mantra's been about reality and we have tried not to leave a stone unturned.

(soft guitar music)