Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It won't be Christmas without my sisters, Jo thought, as she wiped down the counter. And it doesn't seem like I'll be getting a call back from that audition.

"Hey, make sure all the lights are shut off before you lock the doors," one of her coworkers reminded her. Jo rolled her eyes. She wasn't the one who kept forgetting to shut the lights off.

"Yeah, I will," she said, sounding perfectly pleasant and friendly, as she had all day long. One of the perks of being an actor, she guessed. Could that be listed on her resume as an applicable skill? Pretending to like asshole coworkers, feigning interest in every customer's story or complaint, and brushing off every inappropriate advance expertly.

All for my tips to look awful at the end of the day, Jo sighed. She still needed to get Beth her Christmas present. This week wasn't the week for it though. All her presents would probably be rather last minute. Maybe she could blame it on the post office when they arrived late in Concord.

Next week would be better. The closer it got to Christmas, the more people got into the Christmas spirit or whatever, and then she might make more tips.

Bartending wasn't all that bad. She tended to make a little more than the waitresses at least. And the flexibility allowed her to attend auditions. Like that one a few weeks back that she kept thinking about.

Jo had been lucky enough to find an open call for some roles in an upcoming production based on a well-known book. She had been waiting for a callback, hoping to be cast as an extra or maybe even a side character like the boarding house landlady. But it didn't look like her luck had held out. Her hope waned a little every day.

Oh well. There were always other auditions, Jo tried to console herself as she flipped the light switches off. What had that man she met there said? We will put our best foot forward and hope that we would look good in the fashion of the 1800s. He was a nice man. Jo wished she could remember his name. It was a nice name.

Jo sighed, testing the door to see if she had locked it. She would probably start searching for another chance tonight. Somebody somewhere had to have a role she could fill. She had years of experience under her belt now, it wasn't as if she was a complete rookie anymore. Or maybe that was what was holding her back- the type of experience she had gained, and the type of roles she had filled. Curse typecasting...

The sun had long since disappeared, and it was drizzling rain outside. By the time Jo reached her little apartment, her hair was plastered to the back of her neck by the cold rain. She grabbed a towel and started drying her hair, then peeled off her jacket, considering just crawling into bed and dealing with damp sheets later.

Her cell phone started to ring. Jo froze, holding her breath. It was way past the time any of her sisters would call, or either of her parents. Unless it was bad news, urgent news. Beth? Or it was spam. Or...

"Hello?" Her voice sounded wavery in her ears.

"Hello, is this Josephine March?"

"Yes?"

Words were coming out of the person's mouth, making their way from phone to phone, and Jo understood them all separately but couldn't believe them all together. The part. Jo March. She got the part. Of Louisa.

Dates and times were being rattled off. Jo frantically searched for a pen and started scribbling down days, times, names, and numbers. Script read-throughs, costume fittings, there were contracts to be signed and pay to be decided upon, and new people to meet. And when I tell Mom and Dad- oh my god. I got the part. Jo's dad had always encouraged her to go for more serious roles, and Jo had never truly believed she would be considered for one but now she had a role in a serious movie, a period piece, a classic. He would be proud of this role. When she had everything written down, babbled endless thank-yous, and the person on the other end of the call hung up, Jo leaped up to grab her planner and pulled up her email to tell her boss that she would have to rearrange her shifts...

Chapter Text

Take a deep breath. Take a deep breath. Take a deep breath.

This was no big deal. Just walking into a room full of better, more experienced actors than her. No, she shouldn't think like that. The contracts were signed. She was officially one of them. She was just walking into a room with the rest of the cast, to go over the itinerary for where and when the filming would happen, where they would be staying, go back over some last-minute things before the real work began, to meet everyone...

Oh god. Her hand froze on the doorknob.

"Are you alright?" She whirled around to see a vaguely familiar man behind her. "I am sorry," he said, a thick accent making his words sound odd. "I do not mean to scare you. You are Jo, right? We spoke before."

"Oh. Oh, you're growing out a beard! I almost didn't even recognize you." Jo let out a sigh of relief. Then started to panic again. He remembered her name, but she didn't remember his.

"I am," he grinned. "I have also allowed myself to gain some weight. To fit the role."

"Who are you playing?"

"Henry. And you are going to be Louisa, I've heard."

"Yes." She studied his face a little longer.

"Are you nervous?" the man asked.

"No," Jo lied, opening the door and stepping in to prove how very not nervous she was. She kept the conversation going as they started down the hallway. "Are you?"

"Not for the movie, but I do fear perhaps the accent will... impede communication somewhat? This is my first major role in America."

"Where are you from?"

"Germany. I am rather well known there, but I doubt anyone here watches, um... German soap operas."

"German soap operas? Interesting." Jo smiled. "I understand you fine. It's impressive that you know more than one language, I could never manage it."

The man smiled again, and Jo couldn't help but smile too. He held open the door and there they were, all gathered around the table. Jo felt herself start to sweat as she tried not to make direct eye contact with anyone else. Two seats stood empty. The man went to one, and Jo went to the other.

One woman, to her left, Jo recognized. She had played a character in a show she binged a while back. And probably that movie Margret watched repeatedly in high school. She couldn't for the life of her remember what the woman's name was.

She glanced across the table and her mouth almost fell open. They got Theodore Laurence to do this movie?! Italian-American, teen heartthrob, famous actor Theodore Laurence? How did she end up on a project with this guy?!

Someone cleared their throat, and Jo directed her attention to the woman standing at the other end of the table with a stack of binders in her arms. "Hello, as you know I'm the director, Eve. And this familiar face," she gestured to the woman sitting beside her, "is one of the casting directors you saw at auditions if you went, Shayla. We're going to pass out scripts and do a readthrough of some of the most important parts."

Shayla, a tall woman with braids down to her waist, began setting binders down in front of people. Eve went along the other side of the table. Jo stared at hers for a few moments before opening it. This was really happening. This was the script for the movie. Neatly stacked papers all on the binder rings. It even had her name on it. She peeked at a random page in the middle to see that all of her lines were highlighted.

"Hey," someone whispered. Jo looked up. It was Theodore Laurence. Talking to her. How surreal was this? "I'm going to be Laddie, and I take it you're Louisa?"

She nodded.

"I figured. Eve said she wanted someone fairly new for the main character, someone who wouldn't just remind people of another popular character."

"Well, lucky for her, my only real claim to fame is a kids' show and a movie that tanked. I doubt many people know me. At least not like they know you."

"We're going to be childhood best friends! This is exciting!"

Jo nodded and smiled. Wow. He was so much... sunnier than she expected him to be. A little dimple showed up on his left cheek whenever he smiled. It would be nice to get to know the real him, away from the portrayals of him on the internet.

The entire session seemed like a whirlwind. Jo wasn't sure how she was going to remember so many names. Once she realized the blonde woman was May Brown, she was sure she wouldn't forget hers. She had seen so many movies with May in them, she'd been acting since she was five years old. Jo ended up being too shy to say hello and mostly talked to Meghan, who was going to play her older sister, Anna.

Plus she finally caught the name of the nice German guy. Friedrich. And his last name was some animal or another. Bear, or fox? Oh well. She had weeks to memorize names. And lines. Yeah, she thought, looking at the binder, I should probably get on that.

Chapter Text

"Hiiii, Jo!"

"Hey, guys!" Jo grinned as her family popped up on the screen, all trying to crowd into the frame.

"First day of filming next week, for your first good, serious role. Do you feel prepared?" her father asked.

"As prepared as I can be," Jo said, keeping her smile plastered to her face even though annoyance bubbled up. She didn't want to start arguing with her dad again right now, not when she was supposed to be happy. He wasn't aware of just how hard it was to find roles, and always wished she wouldn't 'settle' for the kind of roles she had been playing thus far in her career.

"You finally get to go start the movie?" Amy said. She was currently visiting home from college and had brought her girlfriend Lorie with her.

"Well, we get a chance to settle in a bit, then it's hectic for the next few weeks. Well, even more than it's already been. You know what I mean." It had already been rather hectic- preproduction for a whole film was a lot different from preproduction for a commercial or even a TV show. Maybe because it was a period film. A lot of preproduction had been meeting with costume design. Jo had known that clothes back in the day had layers, but to actually wear all those layers... holy crap. Costume design went the extra mile with authenticity, beginning with the chemise and stockings, moving to the corset, dress, and then any shawls, coats, bonnets or hats all matched into outfits for certain scenes. Then the gloves, shoes, and various other accessories that they had to learn how to use. Jo remembered one of the costume design team members teaching Friedrich how to wind up an old watch, pop open the back, and reset the time. Eve had recommended that Jo and Meghan learn how to hold, open, and shut fans for the party scenes.

"I love the costumes," Margret sighed, "I saw those pictures you posted after they announced the cast list. That sky blue looked so nice, you know the dress I'm talking about?"

"Yeah."

"I saw the pictures too! I can't believe you'll be acting with Theodore Laurence!" Amy said. As a teen, he had been one of her celebrity crushes. "And I can't believe you got a picture with him!"

"Yeah, he's nice. Mostly everyone is really nice that I've met so far." Jo hoped it would stay that way. "He's starting to talk about maybe making some YouTube videos, talking about the book and stuff. You know, getting his audience interested."

"I'm sure they're already interested, I mean, have you seen his obsessive following?"

"You'll post some pictures, right? And keep us updated?" Margret asked, trying valiantly to keep her little son from running wild. "I know you'll be busy but I want to hear from you."

"Of course," Jo promised. "How's Beth, I don't see her."

"She wanted to talk to you honey, but she's just so exhausted. We'll call again sometime when you aren't busy, she would love to talk to you." Her mother looked exhausted too, Jo thought, with a pang of guilt. Her family insisted she didn't need to move back home when Beth's health issues reared their ugly head. They insisted, especially Beth, that she should focus on following her dream.

"Okay. Tell her I love her."

"We will."

"Are you finished packing? What all are you taking?" Margret asked.

"Well, I think I'm finished. I'm taking nearly everything I moved here with. It's not like I ever completely moved into this apartment, some of my stuff is still in the attic at home."

"You have sunscreen, right?" Amy reminded her.

"Yes, I do. I'm not trying to get burnt."

"And lipstick?"

"What for? I have chapstick right here if that's what you mean."

"No, I mean lipstick. I wouldn't mind having Theodore Laurence as a brother-in-law, you know..."

"Amy..." Jo tipped over her phone as her sister giggled. "Nothing of the sort is going to happen, I'm going to do my job and film this movie without... doing anything stupid."

Jo had never really liked sleeping in hotels, the tight sheets and unfamiliar air making it hard to fall asleep. But she would be living here in this hotel room during filming. It wouldn't be so hard to get used to. It was nicer than the accommodations she was used to being in during shooting. That is, when the jobs in the past had even lasted long enough to warrant having 'accommodations'... Although the book took place in Massachusetts, most of the filming was going to take place in Canada. So... maybe she should start making herself at home? Unpacking maybe?

She didn't end up unpacking and instead paced until it was time to fall asleep. The next morning, she woke up to her alarm blaring. This morning was going to be spent photographing pictures for promotional posters. Jo threw on some leggings and a tank top then looked outside at the frosted grass and grabbed a jacket as well.

The first person she saw when she entered was Eve, who grinned and waved her over. "Josephine! Early, love to see it. Claire is going to get you started with hair and makeup ASAP, as one of the main characters you're in most of the posters." Jo let herself be steered over to a chair where a woman with frizzy hair immediately took her bun down and began braiding her hair back into a style that fit the time period of the movie.

"Good morning Jo," a younger woman with freckles and long brown hair sat down in the chair next to Jo's.

"Morning, Jen." Jenny was going to be playing Lizzie Alcott, one of Louisa's younger sisters. She was very friendly and easy to become comfortable around.

"So, how do you like the hotel?" Jenny asked.

Jo shrugged. May piped up from across the room where she was taking off her purse and fluffing her curls up in the mirror. "Well, I think it's... fine. Subpar if I'm being honest, but that's not where a lot of the budget is going."

"Oh. I thought it was pretty, I like their curtains."

May sighed. "You're sweet, Jen."

"Heyyy," Theo pushed the door open with his hip, brandishing a drink holder. "Who's in the mood for a little pick me up?"

"Oh, me!" Claire raised her hand. Theo kept his foot by the door, holding it open for Friedrich, who helped to carry in the rest of the drinks.

"I've got black coffee and cappuccino, take your pick," Theo said. "Also, a mocha cookie crumble frappuccino for Miss May." He offered it to her with a mock bow.

May smiled for the first time that morning. "How did I ever consume this much sugar on a regular basis?"

"I don't know, but I vividly remember you having this exact drink nearly every morning during The Love Letter."

Friedrich sat down near Jo. "They are old friends, yes?"

"I think so," she said. She hadn't actually seen the movie Theo and May were talking about, or many others with either of them in it. She had somehow missed the boat on teen dramas and romcoms, preferring other genres like mystery, horror, and action.

"So, are you a... black coffee person?"

"Not really. Is it alright if I have one of these?" Jo asked, pointing to a cappuccino.

"Ach, I guessed wrong," Friedrich said in mock disappointment. "And of course, we brought them for everyone."

Jo took a sip, trying to think of something else to say. Meghan had wandered over and everyone else was talking in a circle. Even Claire was momentarily distracted and pulled into the conversation. Jo still didn't feel like she was one of them. "I- um, how long do you think you'll keep growing it out? Your beard I mean." Was that a weird question? Was it weird to ask a guy about his beard? Small talk was so difficult.

"A little longer maybe. Do you think it looks nice? I'm considering keeping it around after the movie."

"I think it looks nice," Jo said.

"Thank you," he said. They held eye contact for a little too long and Jo looked down, taking another sip of her drink and burning her tongue.

"We need to do that again. It wasn't good enough."

"We need more movement of the hips- come on, focus! Nobody on this set is going on break until you can get it right. do you hear me? Now I want you to look up, you know the expression 'through your eyelashes'? Give us provocative. And don't look so uncomfortable."

Jo woke up from a weird dream that she couldn't remember much of. She felt too warm and her mouth was dry. The lights on set... she thought. Wait. that's ridiculous. I'm in bed.

She wasn't on set. She lay in a quiet hotel room. And after getting a drink directly from the bathroom faucet, she stumbled back to bed.

Chapter Text

Jo threw herself into studying the script as soon as she got it and had been reading through it over and over for weeks by the time the script read-through rolled around. And she still hadn't fully memorized it. Well, it was rather different from scenes from TV shows, or even musicals she'd been in during high school. In musicals, half of it was songs, and songs were easier to memorize than dialogue. Her other roles had been very minor. Now she was in nearly every scene of what would be an extraordinarily long movie unless Eve decided to cut bits and pieces.

She mentioned it in passing to Friedrich and he told her they were hardly ever expected to have the whole thing memorized. They would probably read through the scene before shooting it, and go until it was perfect, in character, and natural. "You don't need to be able to recite it from cover to cover," he assured her.

That was a huge relief. But it still didn't keep away the first-day-on-set jitters. The night beforehand, Jo caught herself chewing her nails, a habit she thought she was over with. The last of the fittings and costume altering and makeup and hair plans had at last been completed that day, and tomorrow they were officially filming.

"Jo!" she was pulled from her thoughts by Theo, "Hey, I'm trying to get everyone to my hotel room for some promotional content." He held up his phone, which displayed his YouTube channel.

"What kind of promotional content?" Jo asked.

"Y'know, some fluffy stuff, Stars of This Year's 'Four Sisters' Play Uno or something like that. Oh, or sing karaoke! Can you sing?"

"Not really," Jo laughed, but she fell into step with him anyway on their way out.

"It doesn't really matter either way. This stuff just gets the fans interested."

"It's not going to take much for your fans. You pretty much have a cult following."

"They aren't a cult," Theo protested, holding open the door. He paused to think for a moment. "Okay, maybe they're a little cultish."

"Who's a little cultish?" Meghan finished putting out her cigarette and fell into step with the other two.

"Hey, are you coming to karaoke?" Theo changed the subject before Jo could tease him anymore.

"Yeah, of course, sounds like a lot of fun," Meghan said. "Who else is going?"

"I don't know, anyone who wants to. May, definitely. We'll ask the rest after the read-through."

Late that night, Jo found that her nerves hadn't been settled by that little get-together at all. If anything, they had come back worse.

Theo had ended up live-streaming their karaoke-and-Chinese-food get-together, most of the main cast being there, including the actor for John who Jo hadn't gotten a chance to meet yet.

"Hi, I'm John Brooke."

"Really?" Jo hadn't been able to hold back her laughter. "And you're playing..."

"John Pratt, yes."

He was a pretty good singer. The comments in the live stream had requested Livin' on a Prayer, and he had delivered.

The livestream comments... that had ended up being the problem.

It was fun at first. There were thousands of people on the livestream, and Theo and May seemed very at ease with that. So did everyone else who was now accustomed to being in the public eye. Jo, however, was skittish. She had never been so aware of being watched. The number kept creeping higher. She saw all sorts of excitement and positivity, people who were ecstatic about this movie. They had all sorts of questions that Theo scrolled through between songs.

"No spoilers!" Jenny yelled from off-screen, earning a laugh. She had settled in a beanbag chair with a bowl of lo mein and looked perfectly content there.

"There will be spoilers," Theo said. "And don't anybody cry about it, you've had over a hundred years to read the book!"

"And watch one of the other- what, three movies?" Meghan popped open another container of rice and scooped some onto her plate. "Four? And that one anime?"

"Sure has gone through a lot more iterations than that," a middle-aged man in the seat next to John's said. "Including a silent movie, all of which is lost except for two frames."

"That's Mr. Westerson," Friedrich explained softly, when Jo glanced at him, puzzled. "He is playing a younger Mr. Laurence in a few flashbacks, he just got here."

"Oh," Jo nodded. Mr. Bhaer seemed to catch on quickly to confused expressions and filled her in quietly on any people she wasn't familiar with. It was a relief that he didn't make her moments of cluelessness known to the others.

"He knows a lot of trivia about the book and its author. He was actually talking to me just earlier about the amount of concealed pregnancies on the sets of a few adaptations."

"Really? There were?"

Mr. Bhaer shrugged. "Apparently."

Questions and comments continued to pour in. Meghan had recently acted in another period piece and compared the eras and their costumes for a while. May and Theo hadn't worked in a film together in a few years, and fans were ecstatic to see them back together. Then others started asking about Jo and Theo. Or Louisa and Laddie.

Will they get together in this version?

Louisa and Laddie shippers rise up

do tehy kiss i havent read the book

"So, basically, for anyone who hasn't read the book-"

"Which I totally recommend, one of my childhood favorites," May added.

"Yeah, great book," Theo continued, agreeing, "And in it, Laddie and Louisa are childhood friends. They are described as brothers in the book. Laddie catches feelings, but Louisa doesn't reciprocate. It's very... one-sided and sort of tragic?"

"The movie- it does not stray far from the source material," Freidrich said. "This is not a reimagining or any alternate ending."

"The director is a huge fan of the book. Wouldn't change it."

Then the weird comments started to show up about Jo and Theo. At some point, he had gotten up, went to brace himself on the back of the couch, and touched her shoulder. That was enough to spark theories about their dating. Jo tried to ignore it until the livestream ended.

"Don't worry about it. Happens a lot," Theo shrugged it off. "A lot of celebrities are shipped, don't take it too seriously."

"Yeah, it'll pass soon enough. Well, unless you do another project together, there's always that," Jenny said.

"Don't even get me started on the fanfiction sites," John sighed. Jo laughed, believing he was trying to add some levity to the situation. He adjusted his glasses, looking grim. She awkwardly stopped. "In all seriousness, be prepared for anything. This movie could seriously propel you into the spotlight."

"Don't scare her too badly," Meghan wrapped an arm around Jo's shoulders. "It's really no big deal, the weirdos are few and far between."

May scoffed but didn't say anything, opting instead to take another egg roll.

At twenty-two, Jo still had somewhat of a baby face. She stood in front of the motel bathroom mirror, ignoring the web of cracks in the corner, and tried to focus on the YouTube video playing on her phone. The woman in the video transformed her face shape with contour like magic. Jo tried to follow along as best she could.

Thirty minutes later she was scrubbing it off, the laughter of the female lead making her face burn in embarrassment.

They put padding in her bra instead. That would make her look older. It was a much better plan than the makeup, she was assured.

Chapter Text

"This is going to be Orchard House," Jo said, flipping the camera on her phone and slowly walking around with it.

"Wow," Beth sighed. "They chose a really pretty house for it. This is exciting Jo, the biggest movie you've ever been in. There's so much work being done on it."

Jo worried that Beth's voice sounded so small. She turned the volume up to hear her better. "Yeah. And when it's out, I'll buy you a ticket. We can see it together." When this movie was out, Jo had half a mind to move back home and never leave again. Working out the fake bonds between her and her character's family made her miss her real family even more. "There are a lot of things that I want us to do together. When this is over, we'll do some of them at least."

"I hope so, Jo, I really do."

"It feels very backward to start with a wedding," Jo said, adjusting the bridesmaid's dress. She refrained from touching the flower crown or any of the perfect ringlet curls that Claire had just worked on.

"It'll be very fun though," Jenny said. She appeared very pale since Lizzie had already been sick at this point in the timeline.

"Here comes the bride!" Theo announced as Meghan stepped carefully out of her dressing room in a wedding gown.

"Wow," Jo couldn't help but say, as Meghan gave them all a spin. Meghan certainly looked the part of a radiant bride. Eve ran over to check that everything was in place. She gave the other 'sisters' and the wedding guests another once over, then called: "Places!"

May, Jenny, and Jo all settled into a line, Jenny leaning on Jo quite a lot. Make the audience wonder if it's sisterly love, or if you're trying to support your weight, was the advice they had been given. You are supporting Louisa emotionally during this time. Is Louisa supporting Lizzie the same way, or physically, or both? May stood with her head held a little too high and her chin out a little too far. You are a girl who wants to be a woman. You don't want to be left behind as everyone else grows up, you are eager to grow into yourself.

The camera rolled. Their 'father' sounded a little choked up. The wedding vows began. A line was flubbed. They went again and made it to the end with the kiss. Eve wanted a take where Meghan and John's characters looked a little more teary-eyed. "He has recently returned from war, after all, let's see some waterworks!"

Some 'family members or neighbors' in the audience pulled out handkerchiefs in the middle of the scene. Jo rubbed her nose with the back of her hand, a very Louisa-like, unladylike action.

A camera was stationed by the altar. The walk up the aisle was filmed a couple of times. A pan of the small crowd was captured. Then the cast was dispersed throughout the 'reception area' which was just the backyard with a table set up.

Jo ended the day with sore feet from dancing. Theo was already pulling off his suit jacket. "Wow, that was fun," he sighed. "But I'm sweating."

"Me too," Jo laughed.

The next few scenes they shot were even further along in the movie. Henry's visit near the end with the whole 'family' present, then the Christmas when Mr. Alcott returned home. Pretty much all the scenes with the most characters in them went first, then they would be narrowed down to the smaller groups, and eventually, the scenes where the actors would be alone on set.

"I think it's a budget thing," Jo explained to Beth later over the phone. "When they don't need the background actors or the minor role actors anymore, they can be on their ways to other jobs and they don't need to pay them anymore. If we shot the movie chronologically, they would be here for a lot longer and need to be paid more for their time."

"That makes sense," Beth said. "So what's tomorrow?"

"The hair scene. They're putting me in a wig again, even shorter."

"If you can pull it off, you think you'll cut your real hair?"

Jo snorted. "Never! Love it too much."

Off camera, Jo heard her mother's voice faintly from down the stairs.

"Okay, I'll be there," Beth answered. "I've got to get ready for my appointment."

"Oh. Should I call you back after?"

"No. I get really tired after, I think I'll just sleep."

"Okay." Jo tried to continue to look cheerful and not let her face betray the worry that plagued her constantly. "Do what you need to. It'll turn out fine."

"Yeah." Beth didn't look convinced. She mostly looked tired. Tired already, and she hadn't even been to the doctor yet.

"Alright. I guess I'll go over tomorrow's lines again. Talk to you tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow," Beth nodded.

"Alright. Love you."

"Love you too, Jo."