BB Exclusive: Dan Stevens Chats The Beast & Dancing At The Beauty And The Beast Press Conference

Dan Stevens recently sat down to chat about his upcoming role in Disney’s Beauty And The Beast during the film’s Los Angeles press conference. Dan will be taking on the role of the film’s male lead, the Beast, when it opens in theaters on March 17.

On taking on the role of the Beast: “It was a very physical engagement, I think just to support that muscle suit on stilts was a challenge that I’d never really encountered before. I’ve definitely been taking a more physical approach to my roles in the last few years and just training myself in different ways.

I think with the backstory we decided that the prince before he was the Beast was a dancer, that he loved to dance, and so I trained myself like a dancer and learned, you know, three quite different dances for this movie and worked very closely with Antony, just in terms of, you know, his general deportment, both for the prince and the Beast, and there was a lot of work dancing in stilts.”

On using dancing to get to know a costar: “…getting to know Emma, first and foremost, on the dance floor was probably, you know, I think it’s a great way to get to know your costar, and I’m going to try and do with every movie I do now, whether there’s a waltz in the movie or not.

But no, I mean the trust that Emma had to place in me that I wouldn’t break her toes, and also it really became part of that sort of crucial part of the title really, the ‘and the’ bit, you know, and that’s sort of the essence of a waltz being two people in this whirlwind and learning about choreography really, the storytelling through dance, not just getting up and dancing but actually really – really telling a very crucial part of the story in that big turning point.”