“Little Women” is the first book she finished on her own. Growing up with dyslexia, reading was a constant challenge for her. (She is the daughter of actors Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman.)īut, like Thomas, Hawke felt an intense personal connection to Alcott’s novel. The role eventually went to Maya Hawke, a newcomer (of sorts) making her onscreen debut, despite coming from a family steeped in the business. Still, finding the right actress to portray Jo - a character who has been played by Katharine Hepburn, June Allyson and Winona Ryder, among others - was critical. See the most-read stories in Entertainment this hour » They’re not just there to facilitate Jo’s story.” “It was very important for me that Meg and Amy and Beth all have their moments to shine. She was determined that her version of “Little Women” would depict a more complicated, less saintly version of Marmee, and that it was the story of the entire March family - not just Jo. Now I was standing in Marmee’s shoes at the shoulder of those girls.” I very much saw myself as a fifth sister, as a lot of us do. “When I first read ‘Little Women,’ I stood in the shoes of the girls. She made the BBC’s Wenger promise they’d have the budget to make it convincing.īut revisiting the book as an adult was also an eye-opening experience for Thomas. One moment she considered sacred? The scene where Amy falls through the ice while skating. The key is “identifying the sacred moments of the novel” and proceeding from there. When working from a classic, “you tend to be judged on what you leave out, not what you put in,” explained Thomas, who previously adapted “Madame Bovary” into a miniseries that aired in 2000. “What you don’t want to do is let yourself down or the book down or your audience down - those are three massive sets of expectations that somehow one has to fulfill.” (So far, Thomas has at least satisfied British viewers: The series aired over Christmas, as scheduled, to highly positive reviews.) Thomas was motivated by a desire not to disappoint. “There were days where I sat there so long I couldn’t stand up, but when you love what you do, 18 hours is not a very long day,” she said. “I just knew it was a chance that may not come again,” she said, recalling how she hunkered down to write in her favorite leather armchair for marathon sessions, even investing in a pair of flight compression socks to ward off vein thrombosis. They approached Thomas, whose “Call the Midwife” is one of the most popular shows on British television. The idea of revisiting the March family first arose in conversations between the BBC and executive producer Colin Callender, whose company Playground is known for its small-screen adaptations (“Howards End” on Starz, the upcoming “King Lear” for Amazon). They don’t feel like characters in a Victorian novel, and I think for that reason it hasn’t dated.” “The relationships between the girls are extraordinarily durable, very passionate and alive. “It’s a book that exists outside of its own context, outside of its own time, outside of its own geography,” said Thomas. Starring Emily Watson as Marmee, Angela Lansbury as the formidable matriarch Aunt March and Maya Hawke as aspiring writer Jo, it tells a tale of young women coming of age in a fraught period that will resonate with contemporary viewers - bonnets and all. Co-produced by the BBC, the series was written by Heidi Thomas, creator and showrunner of “Call the Midwife,” another period drama focused on the lives of women.
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