Little Women: How Florence Pugh & Saoirse Ronan Bonded Off Set
In her retelling of "Little Women," the classic Louisa May Alcott book about a family of girls in the Civil War era, director Greta Gerwig brought together rising stars Florence Pugh and Saoirse Ronan as Amy and Jo March, respectively. Their dynamic drives much of the film's aching emotional arc, with Jo determined to make it as a writer in a publishing industry controlled by men, while Amy more readily accepts the gendered roles set out for her by society and secretly resents Jo's literary pursuits.
Playing two sisters required Pugh and Ronan to get familiar with each other, but that wasn't a problem. As noted by Pugh in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the main cast lived together, leading not only to bonding activities like cooking meals together and having slumber parties, but even to getting playfully physical. "We weren't faking any of those wrestles or arguments or cuddles," Pugh said of her and her costars' performances. "We were living [together]; when I got there, we had to hit the ground running and get to know each other very quickly."
Connecting with her costars was easy, Pugh said. "We all understood one another and had the same sense of humor," she explained. "We had dinner nights. Every week we'd try to do a dinner and have a bit of a slumber evening. At that time, it was getting cold and cozy, so we were all making mulled wine and cooking Bolognese. It was very idyllic."
Wine making, slumber parties, and play fights brought Pugh and Ronan together
While slumber parties with Florence Pugh, Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, and more might sound like the epitome of fun, Pugh noted that things could get aggressive on the live-together set of "Little Women." Like real siblings, fights involving varying degrees of playful aggression were liable to break out, especially between her and Ronan. "Saoirse and I would give each other funny looks, and that would mean, 'Let's fight,'" Pugh told Entertainment Weekly.
The March girls get into plenty of scuffles throughout "Little Women," and Pugh says they felt all the more real onscreen because they were happening unprompted when the cameras were off. "In classic fashion, we would just either be wrestling or messing about. All of that was totally real," the "Oppenheimer" actor explained, noting that certain fight scenes between herself and Ronan could get particularly intense. "In this fight, I remember I was like, 'Saoirse, just jump on me and hit me!' And she goes, 'Okay!'"
However, even the scuffles were all in good fun, Pugh clarified, and were born out of the loving friendship she and Ronan developed. "That was so much fun, and can only happen when you trust someone and you love them," Pugh said, adding, "We really did."