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Little Women: This Scene Is Exactly Why Saoirse Ronan Is Getting Oscar Buzz

In this exclusive clip, Ronan delivers a monologue that speaks for generations of women.

It only takes one scene to realize why Saoirse Ronan is drumming up Oscar buzz for Little Women. In the film, written and directed by Greta Gerwig, Ronan plays Jo March, the iconic tomboy and bookish scribe of the March family. Though Jo is full of fire and wit, there’s one scene—available to watch exclusively above—where her tough facade crumbles while talking to her mother (Marmee, played by Laura Dern). She’s left searching for meaning in a world that demeans and devalues women, while also reckoning with the fact that she wants to find a partner.

“I just feel like women, they have minds and they have souls, as well as just hearts,” Jo says through tears. “And they’ve got ambition and they’ve got talent, as well as just beauty.”

It’s a moonshot of a monologue, with Ronan packing a world of emotion into a brief, 32-second moment. The actor has long been considered a best-actress contender, and this scene easily proves why. Should she land an Oscar nomination, she’d likely be up against competitors like Renée Zellweger (currently a front-runner for Judy), Charlize Theron (Bombshell), and Scarlett Johansson (Marriage Story).

Little Women, the latest of many adaptations of the Louisa May Alcott classic, has been drumming up awards buzz in general; Gerwig is a strong contender for best-director and best-adapted-screenplay nominations, while Florence Pugh, who plays the petulant Amy, and Meryl Streep, who plays the fussy Aunt March, could be in contention for best-supporting-actress nods. Timothée Chalamet, who plays heartsick rich kid Laurie, is also a possible contender for best supporting actor, though the competition is stiff (Brad Pitt, Tom Hanks, and Al Pacino are just a few of the other contenders in this stacked race). Behind the scenes, it seems likely that two-time Oscar winner Alexandre Desplat could earn a nod for his wonderfully treacly score.

The film has been earning strong reviews from critics, including Vanity Fair’s Richard Lawson. “For others, including the many teary, sniffly people in my screening audience, the film ought to perfectly satisfy the promise created by its very existence: A strong cast works well in a charmingly mounted version of a cozy old story,” he wrote in his review, taking special care to praise Ronan specifically for giving “perhaps my favorite performance of hers to date.” Little Women hits theaters on December 25.

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