"I love that the music has this kind of classical, theatrical feeling to it yet still seems somewhat modern. It rides that perfect line where it's not pop music and not stage music...it's kind of that perfect sweet spot in the middle, and it's just really magical,"
Speaking of dancing, what was it like playing the Beast in Beauty and the Beast?
I think physically, the Beast is the most challenging role I’ve ever taken on, just the condition I had to have for my body, and to puppeteer that suit on stilts was like nothing else I’ve ever experienced, seriously. But the kind of engagement, and actually a lot of dance involved in that role will be on stilts, but it was a very, very intense dance training process that has got me physically more engaged with all of my performances in everything else since.
Have you ever had to do anything like that before?
No. British period drama tends to be from the neck up, you know? You’re under three layers of tweed or velour, that sort of plush velvet. It’s a very different mode of working. And so coming over here and getting to work with a number of different directors from all over the world, not just America, and the kind of demands that they put upon you, it’s been great just to expand my range a bit.
How tall were the stilts?
Oh, ten inches. It was pretty high, yeah. You get a little vertigo sometimes.
“I had to fight for the role. I had to audition. I had to prove I could sing. I really had to go for it. You can’t have doubts when you’re singing in front of a set of 200 people in one of the biggest musicals of all time.”
“A lot of what I was doing was making sure it kept true to the original and, where I could, making Belle as real as possible. In the animated movie, it’s [Belle’s father] Maurice who’s the kind of crazy, wacky inventor. In the movie, it’s really Belle. She comes up with an idea for a washing machine so that she can read while her creation washes the clothes.”
“It was such a luxury to have Dan there at all. Usually when I’m working with CGI, I’m working with a tennis ball or I’m speaking to an orange dot — or, if I’m really lucky, I’m talking to an LED light. So having a living, breathing human there that I could respond to and I could play off of was wonderful — and, I think, really important for this story.”
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“Beast was performed 10 inches off the ground in a muscle suit on stilts. There was singing and dancing and it was an amazing, epic adventure, that one. The Beast was much more physically challenging, [what with] puppeteering that thing and all the rest."
“It’s also a retelling of a classic fairy tale, which the animated version was as well. There’s a few little twists, and it’s definitely a movie that’s game to play a little bit with our expectations of what we think we’re gonna see. And also in making something three-dimensional from two-dimensional, there are a few moments of added depth that add to the story, and there’s a little playfulness here and there. But it’s made with a huge amount of love and respect for the original, and for the fairy tale, and for the Cocteau version. It’s all in there. A lot of the original music is there, and there’s some new songs that Alan Menken wrote and it’s pretty magical. I’m very excited.”
"In this film, we see him at the debutantes' ball, and something that Bill (director Bill Condon) and I were keen to bring out was this sense of a petulant, spoiled child and the sense of entitlement which led to his downfall. There's this psychological rationale about what makes a beast a beast, so I watched everything from 'Wreck It Ralph' to 'Citizen Kane' to help get me inspired."
Director Bill Condon had just watched the entirety of Beauty and the Beast in IMAX for the first time, and to say he was impressed is an understatement. I spoke with Condon just after he viewed the live action adaptation of the 1991 animated Disney film on the extra big screen, and he said even though he knows the film and material so well, the IMAX version made him look at it in a different light. “It made me feel like I was back on those massive sets that we built. They were so big, and you just get to see more of them–that was an unbelievable thrill,” he said.
It’s a significant contrast. Condon kept the IMAX format in mind while they worked. The team looked at both aspect ratios as they filmed and planned camera moves accordingly, whether it was framing the ballroom dance between Belle and the Beast a certain way or showcasing more of the performers. Condon explained the larger image is especially excellent for their sets, which were practical. “We went completely old school for the whole movie. We maybe went on location for a day, but basically the movie was made at Shepperton [Studios] the way you would have made it in MGM in Hollywood in the 1950s,” he said, “We built this entire village with massive sets and huge stages that we connected. So, for example, you could go from the dining room of the castle and walk all the way through to the entry way, to the front stairs, and into this massive ballroom. It was really something. I think that does emerge clearly in the IMAX format.”
A couple of scenes jumped out at Condon as being particularly suited for the IMAX format. “The ballroom,” Condon said. “Being able to go in that room and have it always framed by the chandeliers, which are incredibly high in the air, always have them framing the top of the shot just adds more. Our movie is pretty much packed with beauty, but you get to see more of it and the ballroom scene is a great example.”
Many moments from the animated Beauty and the Beast, like the battle on the turrets and the iconic ballroom scene, are featured in the live action version, but this isn’t meant to be a reboot. Condon explained what they were going for: “In general, it wasn’t about reinventing like some of these recent movies have been. It was really about exploring and digging deeper, inevitably, because you’re bringing people into a live action world. My deepest hope is people see the movie and feel that the additional scenes and the additional material is stuff they always wondered about and wished had been there, so they don’t even remember what was in the animated film and what wasn’t. That it all becomes of a piece.”
"I hadn't been in a recording studio for a long time, and I was in a recording studio in London when we recorded the song for the first time. There was an enormous amount of pressure, I thought," he recalled. "I had only just arrived, I was jet lagged from LA. I got off a plane one day and the next day I was in a recording studio. It's very nerve-wracking recording, because you're in a quiet room and through the glass there's people who are looking at you, and they speak to each other and you can't hear them. In this instance there were 50 people in there, and I was standing jet lagged alone trying to sing in a French accent this big number. Every time I stopped they would go, 'OK, hang on,' [and talk amongst themselves]. I became terribly scared they were going, 'What the f--k are we going to do with him?'
"We did it, it was fine, and then I asked Bill, I said, 'Look, when we're working on the dialogue next time, can I have another shot at it?'" McGregor continued. "So we went just privately, me and him and a few people in New York, and we recorded it a second time."
"I was in very good hands with Bill Condon, the director. I didn't think very much about it -- I just did it," McGregor said. "Partly that was interesting because I had to do a French accent, and I've been married to a French woman for 22 years, and my house is full of French every day. My kids all speak French to their mother, and I found it very difficult to do. I rather arrogantly thought I'd just be able to do this French accent without very much work, and when I tried to do it, I didn't do it very well. Also Disney wanted the full French sound, they didn't want the 'r' sound, so when you put an 'r' in a French accent it turns Spanish or Mexican, so that was an issue. I came back to it afterwards and rerecorded the whole thing again with Bill Condon in a studio, so we had two shots of it and we improved it. By that time, I'd got a handle on my French accent."
“I loved how she had this relationship with Beast where they were just toe to toe and that to me just seemed like such a dynamic and interesting kind of relationship that I’d never seen before in a fairy tale,” Watson said of Belle and the Beast’s story.
“It was so funny and so romantic but in a way that for me didn't feel contrived in the same way that I think other fairy tales are, in the sense that Beast and Belle really dislike each other in the beginning."
"She remains curious, compassionate and open-minded. And that's the kind of woman I would want to embody as a role model, given the choice. There's this kind of outsider quality that Belle had, and the fact she had this really empowering defiance of what was expected of her. In a strange way, she challenges the status quo of the place she lives in, and I found that really inspiring. She manages to keep her integrity and have a completely independent point of view. She's not easily swayed by other people's perspective—not swayed by fear-mongering or scapegoating."
“One of the great things about the animated film is the blend of romance and classic fairytale telling as well as a bit of humour and fun and that’s something we’ve really tried to maintain in this, the romantic side as well as the silliness,” Stevens explained.
“I hope that we will do justice to the love that people have for the animated film and people feel like we’ve taken it on, moved it on a bit, brought something fresh to it, brought I few new songs to it.”
“Something that Bill (Condon, director) and I were really keen to bring out was the sense of this petulant, spoiled child and the sense of sort of entitlement that led to his downfall,” Stevens said.
“It was interesting to introduce that element and see that through and thread it though the Beast’s story and see him cursed not just for having refused a rose, but for all his other traits that he could be damned for,” he added.
"Physically, the Beast is the most challenging role I've taken on," Stevens told IGN at the 2017 winter TV Critics Association press tour, where he was promoting Legion. "The condition I had to have my body in to puppeteer that suit on stilts was like nothing else I've ever experienced, seriously. The kind of engagement -- and actually a lot of dance involved in that role, albeit on stilts; it was a very, very intense dance training process -- has gotten me more physically engaged with all of my performances in everything else since."
'I've not done much comedy in my career, not for the want of trying, and this was my chance to do it', he explained. 'I hadn't thought so much about how the interaction would work with Le Fou and then I met Josh and then I realised that whatever I had in mind that was going to be funny was only going to be emphasised and made better by having the likes of Josh in the scene with me.'
