A special thank you goes out to Walt Disney Studios for providing press access and materials for this EXCLUSIVE Interview With Emma Watson and Dan Stevens of Beauty and the Beast as well as sponsoring my trip and accommodations to the Be Our Guest Event. Opinions expressed are that of my own.
Neither Emma Watson nor Dan Stevens really need an introduction. However if you happen to want a refresher, both of these actors rose to the spotlight through iconic roles in cinema and television. Emma is known for the character Hermione Granger in 8 Harry Potter films, and Dan is quite memorable as Matthew Crawley in Downton Abbey as well as in a new Marvel series on FX called Legion.
Photo credit Coralie Seright lovebugsandpostcards.com
Well both Emma and Dan are definitely gaining welcomed attention again for their performances in BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, and I got an opportunity to interview them both alongside a group of Mom bloggers about the film, check out what they had to say below:
What was the process for auditioning for your roles?
Emma Watson shared, “Disney was wanting to explore whether or not I could sing. That was the major question mark, so I was scouted on audition tape and then did that classic thing of waiting on tender hooks to get the call, and to hear whether or not it was up to standard. Thankfully it was, so I got offered the role which was very exciting.”
Photo credit Coralie Seright lovebugsandpostcards.com
Dan Stevens then explained, “Yes, for me, I put a song on tape for Bill Condon, and the Beast song from the Broadway musical which we end up not using in the movie…fortunately he like it.”
What was it like seeing yourselves in full costume the first time?
“It was amazing”, laughed Emma. “I think because it’s a fairy tale; I play an archetype. (Belle) She’s more of a symbol and the way I got into character, I started to feel like I was understanding her really well through her costume, so it was working on putting together the boots that she wore, and these slightly scruffy socks, and she had the bloomers underneath her skirt which meant that she could swing her leg over a horse.”
Photo credit Coralie Seright lovebugsandpostcards.com
She continued, “Creating the kind of tool belt that she has on for when she’s inventing things, and it will carry her books and, like, all these little details. She actually has a ring on this finger, which actually is one that I wear from my mom, and I really felt like I was starting to get to know her. Her costume was really important for me, actually, it was the way in.”
Dan elaborated, “I didn’t really have a costume. They made costumes for the Beast. They were really giant coats that he wore, and this massive shredded cloak, but I never actually got to put it on. I spent the whole time as the Beast in a forty pound muscle suit on stilts covered in gray lycra. I looked pretty odd, but nothing like the Beast that you see in the movie.”
Photo credit Coralie Seright lovebugsandpostcards.com
In which ways were you able to shape the character of Belle to help continue her empowerment for future generations?
Emma explained, “That’s a really good question. There was talk of a wedding perhaps at the end, and that had not been in the original. I was like, sorry can I just point out this isn’t in the original. We need to stay faithful to the original, and I felt strongly about that. I felt very strongly that she needed to have a vocation to fill her time with, this is very important to me. We co-opted what was originally kind of crazy ole Maurice’s identity, since that’s not the direction that Kevin’s taking the role in. We had her design this washing machine that allows her to have more time to read and to teach and that was super important to me.”
She continued, “People ask me a lot, what’s it like being a Disney princess? and I go,’Well actually, Belle isn’t a princess'”, laughed Emma Watson. “She’s actually one of the few young women who actually isn’t a princess. She’s an ordinary girl from an ordinary village and that’s very important about her, and she has no aspirations to be a princess. She has no aspirations to marry a prince. There was a line in the movie, originally from Audra (Garderobe), the chest of drawers says to me, ‘we’ll make you a gown fit for a princess”, and I asked Bill, ‘could I say actually, I’m not a princess?”
Emma then elaborated, “he was like, ‘yeah, sure’ and little things like that was protecting and defending Belle’s sort of original DNA, and just making sure that we stay truthful, and faithful to this very independent young woman.”
Photo credit Coralie Seright lovebugsandpostcards.com
How long did it take you to prepare for the dance scenes?
Dan gave us the technical information, “Wow, it was about three months. We did the Beast Waltz and I have three dances in the film. A lot of dance training particularly for that iconic waltz, and we first of all learned it on the ground.” Emma added “It’s a four-step process and we learned to pass.”
He continued, “Yes, with different partners. Then I graduated to the stilts.”
Emma then detailed, “Then he graduated to the ballroom, because that ballroom is so huge, really making it seem as if we were filling that room was a kind of challenge in itself.”
How much of it was CGI and how much was actually you?
Dan answered, “It was motion capture puppeteering of the suit. I’m inside a giant muscle suit on stilts, so the Beast’s body was me moving inside there. The facial capture was done separately, and every two weeks, I’d go into this booth, and ten thousand UV dots would be sprayed on my face. Twenty seven little cameras would capture everything I’ve been doing for the past two weeks just with my face. It was my face driving that and they turned that information digitally into the Beast’s face and mapped it onto the body that I’d been working on in the set….it’s an amazing new technology that’s never been used this extensively before, and it’s very exciting.”
Did you have any input into the dress?
Emma filled us in,”I was very heavily involved in the dress. Trying to get the dress right was really difficult because we needed to dress her to serve a number of different purposes and functions. So it needed to be of the period, so originally we had- she started off with a seventeenth century traditional dress, but then we realized that it didn’t do that, like, really cute twirly thing that it does in the animation , you know, when the dress spins behind her? It has to do that, otherwise it’s not right. So we’re like, okay, back to the drawing board. It’s gotta twirl. All right, so it can’t be quite- it’s gotta be seventeenth century, but the bottom’s gotta be different, so let me try another version of it, which kind of did have that movement. It was lightness, so we made it out of chiffon, and then we were like, she’s also gotta ride a horse in it, and she’s gotta be able to go into the third part of the movie which is where she goes back to see her father. So it also needs to feel like an action hero dress which is why the front of the dress looks a bit like a coat of armor.”
Emma continued, “It’s got gold flecks in it, and it had that kind of warrior element to it, as well. We created a warrior, modern seventeenth century twisty, twirly dress hybrid.”
Dan laughed, “There was a lot of chewing and throwing with that dress design, and during that extensive design period, Emma came over to my house in London for dinner. We were talking about what the dress was gonna look like, and my five year old daughter at the time sort of overheard our conversation. Se scurried into the next room with a pen a paper and came back about a half an hour later with five different dress designs. Emma was very sweet and sat down with Willow and looked through them all. and they chose which one they thought they should go with. A few weeks later Willow came on set and saw Emma in the finished dress, and says “Yep, that’s the one.” So in her mind, she designed that dress.”
Photo credit Coralie Seright lovebugsandpostcards.com
What would you say to girls that feel different and odd in their own way?
Emma explained, “I remember being so torturous, actually, about school was that is your whole world. It’s like this microcosm the people that are in your class, that’s your entire universe that is your planet. If you don’t fit with those however many people are in your class, it’s miserable. My mom said to me ‘look, it might feel like the end of the world right now, that you don’t quite fit, but one day, you might be really grateful for that’. It’s very hard to see at the time but there’s a big, wide world out there with people who have diverse interests, and perspectives, and opinions. ”
She continued, “You have to go out there and find your tribe; find your kindred spirits; find the people that resonate with you and that you feel at home with. It takes a bit of persistence, and it doesn’t necessarily come overnight or really easily, but actually when I look back on not feeling like I fitted at school I’m really grateful that I didn’t because I don’t really particularly want to be like any of who were the cool girls in my class anymore, I’m glad that I was different. I’m glad that I was a bit odd and I didn’t really fit in. All of this is easy to say in retrospect, but I hope that’s helpful.”
Photo credit Coralie Seright lovebugsandpostcards.com
Readers wanna know what is the most exciting scene that you filmed from the original movie, and how you felt when you did it?
Dan shared,”I’m gonna say the waltz again. It was the most iconic scene that we were really looking to replicate, and the feeling of the waltz, I highly recommend you all go and try it. Take a partner; go and take a waltz lesson. It’s an amazing feeling when you get it right and there’s something about the swirling motion of two people doing that, especially in stilts which is quite weird. It was very satisfying to have completed that sequence and we captured the magic of that original dance.”
Moments off screen that made you laugh, or loosen up a little bit?
Dan revealed, “I think I made you laugh just by being in this monstrous, monstrous, muscle suit on stilts .”
Emma elaborated, “The dance scenes are very bonding because,when you’re this close away from somebody else’s face and it’s kind of awkward and it feels very intimate, and you don’t really know that person. It forces you to break down a certain number of barriers that would be there without that. I think also Dan is a feminist in his own right.”
Photo credit Coralie Seright lovebugsandpostcards.com
She continued, “I actually found out he was one of the first people to review Caitlin Moran’s, ‘How to be a Woman’, which was one of the books I chose for my family’s book club. He wrote a review of it for one of our English newspapers. Coming into the project he was so excited by the speech I’d given at the UN, and he wanted to make sure that we were collaborators and exploring the masculine and the feminine energies that are in this movie. How to celebrate them both; how to serve them both; how to make sure that they interact in a way which is really dynamic and fun for people to watch. I think all of those shared interests: books, our conversations about feminism, he was a dream collaborator.”
What is important for girls and boys to take away from this movie?
Dan then praised, “I remember the animated film as being a Disney film that was immediately loved by boys and girls. I actually have a great friend of mine who’s now in his mid-thirties. He grew up in the west of England in the countryside, who for him, Belle was his greatest hero, and he used to go into the fields of Somerset and sing, ‘I want to adventure in the great wide somewhere’, because there is something about the spirit of Belle that is to be championed in all of us. I think that curiosity, that imagination, that ability to see beneath the surface deep, but also to see beyond your immediate surroundings. She has tremendous vision in all ways, and I think that’s something to be applauded.”
Emma then complemented with, “I think as a child, I had a very hard time working out sometimes why people weren’t kind to other people, and trying to understand. I think what is so beautiful about Belle is she’s so nonjudgmental. It’s her ability to see beyond the surface of things and to understand that everyone has a story, and you don’t always know what that story is, and to look deeper into things before you make a judgement. There’s a compassion and empathy there which I think is a relief because I don’t think anyone is inherently evil. There’s light and dark in everyone, and she symbolizes that very well.”
This EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW With Emma Watson and Dan Stevens was such an amazing experience and I was glad to gain insight into the film as well as the actors thoughts and ideas. Want to learn more about the film Beauty and the Beast, continue to follow along as I post details from the Be Our Guest Event.
Photo credit Coralie Seright lovebugsandpostcards.com
ABOUT DISNEY’S BEAUTY AND THE BEAST:
The story and characters audiences know and love come to spectacular life in the live-action adaptation of Disney’s animated classic “Beauty and the Beast,” a stunning, cinematic event celebrating one of the most beloved tales ever told. “Beauty and the Beast” is the fantastic journey of Belle, a bright, beautiful and independent young woman who is taken prisoner by a Beast in his castle. Despite her fears, she befriends the castle’s enchanted staff and learns to look beyond the Beast’s hideous exterior and realize the kind heart of the true Prince within.
The film stars: Emma Watson as Belle; Dan Stevens as the Beast; Luke Evans as Gaston, the handsome, but shallow villager who woos Belle; Kevin Kline as Maurice, Belle’s father; Josh Gad as LeFou, Gaston’s long-suffering aide-de-camp; Ewan McGregor as Lumière, the candelabra; Stanley Tucci as Maestro Cadenza, the harpsichord; Audra McDonald as Madame de Garderobe, the wardrobe; Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Plumette, the feather duster; Hattie Morahan as the enchantress; and Nathan Mack as Chip, the teacup; with Ian McKellen as Cogsworth, the mantel clock; and Emma Thompson as the teapot, Mrs. Potts.
Directed by Bill Condon based on the 1991 animated film, “Beauty and the Beast,” the screenplay is written by Stephen Chbosky and Evan Spiliotopoulos and produced by Mandeville Films’ David Hoberman, p.g.a. and Todd Lieberman, p.g.a. with Jeffrey Silver, Thomas Schumacher and Don Hahn serving as executive producers.
Alan Menken, who won two Academy Awards® (Best Original Score and Best Song) for the animated film, provides the score, which includes new recordings of the original songs written by Menken and Howard Ashman, as well as three new songs written by Menken and Tim Rice. Celine Dion will also perform the Original Song called “How Does a Moment Last Forever”.
To learn more, like BEAUTY AND THE BEAST at facebook.com/DisneyBeautyAndTheBeast and Follow on Twitter at twitter.com/beourguest as well as on Instagram at instagram.com/beautyandthebeast. For updates, visit the official website at movies.disney.com/beauty-and-the-beast-2017.
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST OPENS IN THEATRES EVERYWHERE ON MARCH 17TH, 2017!
Carlee @ FLL
A special thank you goes out the Walt Disney Studios for providing this information and materials about Beauty and the Beast.
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