Claire Danes’ commitment to her craft went a little too far on the set of 1994’s “Little Women,” where her emotionally intense death scene as Beth March was so impassioned it had to be reshot. To make matters worse, Danes had no idea she was getting it wrong.
“The Beast in Me” actress stopped by Tuesday’s episode of “Good Hang With Amy Poehler,” where she reflected on her storied career. As Poehler noted, by the time Danes was 20, she had already appeared in 13 films, including Gillian Armstrong’s “Little Women.” Danes said that while people often told her, “It’s so remarkable that you can deliver performances at such a young age,” she felt that by 11 she had already lived a full, rich life, adding that she had “enough material for four lifetimes.”
“It makes total sense to me because when you’re in ‘Little Women’ and you’re dying, I was like, ‘She’s been here before,’” Poehler joked.
“We had to reshoot that scene, just my side, because apparently I got too excited about the death rattle,” Danes said of her experience filming the famous book adaptation. “Of course I read, like, ‘5 Stages of Dying’ and really studied whatever illness Beth had, and I got a little carried away.”
Danes even joked that her “The Beast in Me” co-star Matthew Rhys calls her “Death Rattle Danes” after hearing the story.
To her surprise, she didn’t realize until recently that her original scene was so intense that director Julian Anderson had her reshoot it — and had made up a little white lie to protect her feelings at the time.
“Gillian [Armstrong], the director, lied to me,” Danes shared. “I only learned this, like, last year, literally. And said that Coke had spilled on the negatives of the film and that we needed to reshoot. It was really ’cause she needed to, like, calm the death rattle down a little bit.”
“So, that’s a factoid,” Danes concluded with a laugh.
You can watch her full “Good Hang” interview in the video above.
