When watching Beauty and the Beast, it’s hard to remember that Dan Stevens is actually The Beast. With the help of a lot of CGI, the Downton Abbey actor was transformed into the character with such lifelike precision, you’d be forgiven for not realizing there’s a real man under all that fur. (Of course, that's the fairy tale's story line at its core, so it's a fitting illusion.) Now, however, we’ve been given the gift of behind-the-scenes images that show just what the filmmakers saw through their camera lens, pre-CGI. Spoiler: It’s hilarious.
On stilts that look like moon boots and wearing a gray muscle suit peppered with CGI-friendly targets, Dan is certainly a sight to behold. The images are now being shared all over Twitter, with many users questioning how Emma was able to keep a straight face while filming scenes with her costar and love interest. Consider that feat one more reason she's an amazing actress.
When the movie premiered, Dan spoke to People about the process of transforming into the title character, saying, “It was] traditional motion capture and puppeteering of a big muscle suit on stilts. I was inside this 40–pound thing covered in gray Lycra and marker dots.” Physically acting out the scenes in such garb, the actor joked that it was hard for him to fit in some of the bathroom stalls while filming. As far as his face went, Dan explained, “Every couple of weeks I would go into a special booth, and my face would be sprayed with about 10,000 UV dots, and I would sit in what I used to call the Troncage. Anything I’d been doing the previous two weeks in the scenes, whether it was eating, sleeping, roaring, waltzing, I did it again with my face, with Emma [Watson] sitting on the other side of the cage, and we would capture the Beast’s face.”
Sure, all of that sounds quite involved and extremely meticulous, but when we saw it all come to life on-screen, we gave no thought to the artistic prowess it took to create what we were seeing. Until now.
Take a look:
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While Dan was certainly the one literally carrying the extra weight in each scene, Emma’s acting in Beauty and the Beast was more imaginative and impressive than we’d even realized.
RELATED: Emma Watson Thinks Your Favorite Beauty and the Beast Scene Was Boring to Make
