Disney’s 2017 live-action movie Beauty and the Beast saw stars Emma Watson and Dan Stevens transform into the iconic love tandem of Belle and the accursed Prince Adam who turned into a beast. The success of the movie brought the studio a whopping $1.26 billion at the box office, making it one of the highest-grossing Disney live-action films in history.

beauty and the beast 2 emma watson

Emma Watson and Dan Stevens in Beauty and the Beast

Filming for the movie entailed a lot of effort and trust for both Watson and Stevens. Their performances were very crucial because not only they had to sing but they also had to dance.

Dan Stevens Revealed Emma Watson Was Afraid He Might Step On Her Toes

Emma Watson and Dan Stevens bonded a lot during their time rehearsing the dance sequences in Beauty and the Beast. In his interview with Collider, the actor shared:
“There was a lot of work, dancing on stilts. Getting to know Emma, first and foremost, on the dance floor was a great way to get to know your co-star. I’m going to try to do that with every movie I do now, whether there’s a waltz in the movie or not. No. There was the trust that Emma had to place in me, that I wouldn’t break her toes.”

beauty and the beast

Beauty and the Beast

In another conversation with ABC News, Stevens admitted his co-star was actually afraid that he might step on her toes. Thankfully, they managed to perform the dance scenes without any injuries.

“She’s a great dancer but she was terrified of me that I was going to break her toes in these contraptions that I was wearing. Fortunately, we learned the dance on the ground. As I always say to my kids, if you think you can fly, always test it taking off from the ground. So, we learned it on the ground and then worked our way up to these stilts.”

Stevens also commended Watson’s dancing skills. The trust she had given him would have been the most important part of their teamwork. The Harry Potter star similarly admitted she had a great time working on the movie. In fact, she did not have to memorize the lyrics because she knew them by heart.

Dan Stevens Had Anxiety Playing The Beast

Dan Stevens as Beast

Dan Stevens as Beast

Dan Stevens confessed to Harper’s Bazaar that he was equally terrified of joining the project and portraying a character that has been around for decades and is so well-known to many. He was both ecstatic and scared:

“It was a mixture of extreme excitement and mild terror. It’s a huge honor to be asked to play an iconic role like this. It’s a privilege. I guess the biggest responsibility I felt was to my childhood self, really, who loved this fairytale, loved fairytales in general, and loved the animated film. Then it was to my own kids. I tried not to think about all the millions of other kids that would be seeing it.”

Stevens admitted transforming into Beast was not super fancy at all. He had to wear prostheses and a heavy 40-pound muscle suit. In addition to the uncomfortable costume, the actor also had to make his performance as natural-looking as possible. Despite the worries, the movie ended up a massive success for Disney.