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Discloure – I was invited to the #BeOurGuest press event from Disney. Expenses for trip were paid by Disney but thoughts and opinions are my own.

This month I had the opportunity to visit the Walt Disney studios to screen Beauty and the Beast. This movie is AMAZING and I will be sharing my review later this week. What made the trip to Los Angeles even more special was the opportunity to interview some of the cast from the film. Our group attended the Beauty and the Beast press junket in Beverly Hills where the interviews took place as well as a special music presentation with Alan Menken.

The first interview I am sharing this week is with Emma Watson (Belle) and Dan Stevens (The Beast)…

Exclusive Beauty And the Beast Interview With Emma Watson & Dan Stevens

Photo Credit: Coralie Seright

We had the opportunity to interview the AMAZING Emma Watson that you may know as Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter films who plays Belle in the film. She is as amazing in person as in the movies! I think it was great also getting to do a duo interview with Dan Stevens who plays the role of the Beast and the prince in the film who you will also see in Noah Hawley’s Marvel series “Legion” for FX this year.

Below are some of my favorite questions that were asked during our interview that I want to share:

What was the process like for auditioning for the parts?

Emma Watson: It was about wanting to explore whether or not I could sing. I think, really, that was the major question mark, so I was put- scouted on audition tape and I went away and I did, and then kind did that classic thing of waiting on tentative hooks to, to get the call, and to hear, you know, to whether or not it was up to standard and it- thankfully it was, so I got offered the role which was just very, very exciting, really.

Dan Stevens: I put a song on tape for Bill Condon and I sing the Beast song from the Broadway musical which we end up not using in the movie, but there it was, because the Beast doesn’t sing in the animated film, of course, and yes, I mean, the same thing. Fortunately he liked it.

What was it like seeing yourselves in full costume the first time?

Emma Watson: It was kind of amazing. I think because Belle, you know, it’s a fairytale; it’s kind of- I play kind of an architype, really. She’s more of a symbol than, like- the kind of the way that I got into character and I sort of started to feel like I was understanding her really well, was through her costume, so it was like working on putting together the boots that she wore and, like, she had kind of these slightly scruffy socks, and she had the bloomers underneath her skirt which meant that she could swing her leg over a horse.

And 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- she has a ring on this finger which actually one that I wear which is one from my mom, and she- all these tiny things, I really felt like I was starting to get to know her, so her costume was really important for me, actually. It was, like, the way in.

Dan Stevens: I didn’t really have a costume. Well, I did 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, anyway, in a forty pound muscle suit on stilts covered in gray lycra. So I looked pretty odd, but nothing like the Beast that you see in the movie.

Photo Credit: Coralie Seright

What is important for both of you, for girls and boys, young, to take away from this movie? It’s a great on both sides, there’s such great messages for boys and girls to learn.

Dan Stevens : There really are. I remember even for me, 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 venture in the great wide somewhere you know, because there’s something about the spirit of Belle that is to be championed in, 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. And she has tremendous vision in all, in all ways, and I think that’s, that something to be applauded.

Emma Watson : I think as a child, I had a very hard time working out sometime to why people weren’t kind to other people, and trying to kind of like understand, you know, and it’s, I think what is so beautiful about Belle is that she’s so nonjudgmental. It’s her ability to see beyond the surface of things to and to understand that kind of everyone has a story, and you don’t always know what that story is, and to kind of look deeper into things before you make a judgement.

And, so there’s a kind of like a compassion and empathy there which I think is kind of a relief because I don’t think anyone is inherently evil. I think there’s light and dark in everyone, and I think that she kind of- she symbolizes that very well.

What would you say to girls that feel different and odd in their own way?

Emma Watson: I think what I remember being so torturous about school was that is your whole world. It’s like this microcosm; you don’t know, the people that are in your class, that’s your entire universe. That is your planet, and if you don’t fit with that, with those however many people are in your class, it’s miserable. I think what my mom really said to me was that, 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. And 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. And you kind of have to just go out there and find your tribe; find your kindred spirits; find, find the people that resonate with you and, you feel at home with. I’m 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, really. I’m glad that I was different. I’m glad that I was a bit odd and I didn’t really fit in. So, obviously, all of this is easy to say in retrospect, but I hope helpful.

Other Interesting Things I Learned During The Interview:

The dance scenes in the movie took about 3 months to prepare for which consisted of lots of dance training and particularly for the iconic waltz.
Emma brought books to one of her first interviews with Bill Condon when auditioning for the film.
Emma has her own book club and recommends teens read Judy Bloom’s, Oh God, It’s Me, Margaret.
Dan says he thinks he made Emma laugh on set just by being in a monstrous muscle suit on stilts.
Dan had to do facial capture every 2 weeks for the part where he would go into a booth and have ten thousand UV dots would be sprayed on my face.
Emma was very heavily involved in Belle’s dress and trying to get the dress right was really difficult because they needed the dress to serve a number of different purposes and functions.

LISTEN to the whole Exclusive Beauty And the Beast Interview With Emma Watson & Dan Stevens below:

This is one interview I will remember forever and can’t wait to share with my kids once they have seen the movie that comes out this FRIDAY! I plan to take all of my children because they all have grown up watching the classic animated Disney’s Beauty and the Beast and I can’t wait to see their reactions.