Emma Watson turned to feminist icon Gloria Steinem before signing on to star in Beauty and The Beast, because she worried her portrayal of Belle didn’t reflect her feminist views.
The Harry Potter star wasn’t sure she’d be a good fit for the fairytale role and worried that playing Belle would go against her core values as a leading women’s rights activist.
So she sought out career advice from her mum and Steinem.
“I couldn’t care less if I won an Oscar or not if the movie didn’t say something that I felt was important for people to hear,” she tells Vanity Fair. “I was like, ‘The first shot of the movie cannot be Belle walking out of this quiet little town carrying a basket with a white napkin in it. We need to rev things up!'”
The actress was also adamant her onscreen wardrobe was more practical.
“The original sketches had her in her ballet shoes, which are lovely – don’t get me wrong – but she’s not going to be able to do anything terribly useful in ballet shoes in the middle of a French provincial village,” she explains.
And Watson’s insistence on changing Belle’s portrayal won Steinem’s approval.
‘It was fascinating that her activism could be so well mirrored by the film,” she says.
Steinem was also impressed the story line focused heavily on the characters’ passion for books and reading.
“It’s this love of literature that first bonds the Beauty to the Beast, and also what develops the entire story,” she adds.
The 24-year-old previously spoke about her reluctance to star in the movie, but she is grateful for the growth she experienced during the filming.
“When I finished the film, it kind of felt like I had made that transition into being a woman onscreen,” she says. “(Belle is) absolutely a Disney princess, but she’s not a passive character – she’s in charge of her own destiny.”
