not happy about not having a car for Christmas". In the industry films like Little Women were referred to as "needle in the eye" pictures. They were assumed to have no appeal to male audiences and deemed not worth the risk of production. Eventually, Columbia agreed to consider the project under the condition that Winona Ryder was to play Jo. Originally, Gillian Armstrong wasn't on board with directing Little Women. She rejected the offer several times due to the similarities between Little Women and her previous film, My Brilliant Career. However, with persuasion from Denise DiNovi and Amy Pascal (the producers), Armstrong came to realize that the two films were different after all. With the help of screenwriter, Robin Swicord, they aimed to portray more mature themes than the previous adaptations— such as, family, growing up, and progressive feminism. When co-writing, Armstrong chose not to look back at the previous films for inspiration but instead decided to stay true to the novel. Casting Along with Winona Ryder, already signed on to play Jo, offers for the roles of Marmee and Laurie were sent out to Susan Sarandon and Christian Bale. Sarandon almost turned down the role because "... it was towards the end of the school year, and I had a pretty strict policy about not leaving my young kids". The part of Amy was the most difficult casting decision to be made. This adaptation was the first and only to have two different actresses play Amy over the course of the film. According to producer Denise Di Novi, there was something "weird" about having one actress playing first a child and then an adult: "It just didn't work." Among those to read for the role of Amy were the then-unknown Natalie Portman, and Thora Birch who had already filmed Hocus Pocus and Patriot Games. In the end, Kirsten Dunst was chosen - Armstrong mentioned in a 2019 interview that "Kirsten Dunst really blew [other young Amy candidates] out of the water". The decision for the role of the older Amy was close between Reese Witherspoon and Samantha Mathis. Armstrong's first pick, if the production had decided on casting one actress to play Amy, was Witherspoon, "... the very best person we auditioned was Witherspoon. She was also short...". However, casting director Carrie Frazier finally decided to settle on Mathis. The initial candidate to play Bhaer, for di Novi, was