- Title: 'Beauty and the Beast' cast talk on-set challenges and expectations
- Date: 7th March 2017
- Summary: BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (MARCH 4, 2017) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTOR DAN STEVENS SAYING: "It was, I suppose, I was on stilts and muscle suit the whole time and quite sort of sweaty and occasionally quite angry at my own sort of situation, or temperature more than situation."
- Embargoed: 21st March 2017 21:53
- Keywords: Beauty and the Beast Emma Watson Dan Stevens Josh Gad Luke Evans GuGu Mbatha-Raw Alan Menken Disney gay
- Location: BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES / UNIDENTIFIED FILMING LOCATIONS
- City: BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES / UNIDENTIFIED FILMING LOCATIONS
- Country: USA
- Topics: Arts/Culture/Entertainment,Film
- Reuters ID: LVA00466YPTN1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: The cast of Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" say friendships were formed and expectations raised on the set of the live action reboot.
Emma Watson plays Belle, Dan Stevens play the Beast, Josh Gad is LeFou and Luke Evans is Gaston in the latest adaptation of the fairy tale about a monstrous-looking prince and a young woman who fall in love.
The cast became very close while shooting the film in the UK. Gad joked with Reuters: "I fought relentlessly to make sure that Luke didn't get the role and I failed and then I was like, 'Oh, he's in. Let me try to get to know him and like him,' and it worked. I thought he was a villain like his character in Fast and the Furious because I take everything I watch literally so I'm like, 'This guy is no good, I'm telling you. You've clearly never watched the car movie. He's dangerous'."
He added: "It's so fun to go on that journey with someone else, right? I felt blessed that our characters weren't slaves to a soundbooth where we came in by ourselves and recorded out dialogue alone. We did get to interact, we did get to play and discover and, of course, bringing a song like Gaston to life is like a dream come true."
Discussing the challenges he faced bringing The Beast to life, Stevens told Reuters: "I was on stilts and in a muscle suit the whole time and quite sort of sweaty and occasionally quite angry at my own sort of situation, or temperature more than situation."
"It's one thing learning the waltz, nailing it on stilts, but then taking it into that grand ballroom which was 360 degrees of real, grand luxury."
Co-star Emma Watson added: "My other thought was, 'Oh s***, I've peaked at 26, there's never going to be a more beautiful moment than this one, none of my romantic moments in my personal life will ever live up to this."
"Beauty and the Beast" has already made headlines for controversially featuring a gay moment which has caused one US drive-in theater to refuse to show it and Russia considering banning the film.
The live action epic, which also features the voices of Sir Ian McKellen, Ewan McGregor, GuGu Mbatha-Raw and Emma Thompson, is expected to break several box office records when hits theaters on March 17 2017. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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