All the Photos From Inside the New York Premiere of Little Women

On Saturday night, the Museum of Modern Art hosted the premiere for Little Women, director Greta Gerwig’s latest adaptation of the Louisa May Alcott novel hitting theaters Christmas Day. Starring Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, Florence Pugh, and Eliza Scanlen as the four March sisters coming of age in 1860s New England, the premiere felt less like a red-carpet event than a family reunion for the castmates.

“We moved to Concord, Massachusetts, where the Alcott family is, from September to Christmas, so we really lived together and became a family,” said Laura Dern, who plays the March sisters’ mother, Marmee. “It was an irreplaceable memory, and now we’re all besties, truly.”

So much so that the red carpet regularly was thrown into chaos with every cast member stopping to hug each other and collectively bask in the excitement of the evening. Timothée Chalamet (who plays Laurie, the character portrayed by Christian Bale in the 1994 version) was all goofy charm, photobombing Gerwig on the carpet in Alexander McQueen. And much like their onscreen counterparts, the four women’s distinctive personalities were all on display with their eye-catching ensembles. Watson’s head-to-toe Balenciaga look was a beautifully Gothic deviation from her more traditionally preppy style, while Ronan donned a smart Gucci dress with sheer sleeves and a turquoise-embellished neckline.

Making her film debut as Beth, a pixie-haired Scanlen turned heads in a stunning Khaite ensemble. While Dern acted as a set mother for the ensemble cast over the course of the shoot, the Australian newcomer came into Little Women with another high-profile cheerleader: her former Sharp Objects costar Amy Adams. “What’s so lovely about Amy is that she has this unwavering faith in me and gives me little pockets of advice,” Scanlen said. “She was actually one of the first people I told when I got the role!”

And what was her reaction?

“She cried,” Scanlen told Vogue with a laugh. “She said, ‘I get more happy about the roles you’re doing than my own!’”

While Gerwig’s film is the eighth film adaptation of Alcott’s beloved text, the writer-director made the decision to slightly deviate from the source material in an effort to update it for modern audiences. The resulting film is a fresh-faced Little Women that tweaks the narrative while retaining the themes and characters that made it a beloved best seller in the first place, delivering four heroines for a new generation of young women to fall in love with.

“Greta gives the audience a moment to realize that these women were dealing with a completely different set of scenarios back then,” says Pugh, who plays the youngest March sister, Amy. “They had to choose the best option and the safest option for their life and for their children, but that’s something I think Greta’s done so beautifully.”