The Beauty and the Beast trailers have made it clear that Emma Watson is the perfect Belle. However, it turns out the actress was initially asked to be a totally different Disney princess- Cinderella!
The Harry Potter star has revealed that she was given the chance to be Cinderella in Kenneth Branagh’s remake but rejected the part because she didn’t believe that particular princess was enough of a role model.
“But when they offered me, Belle, I just felt the character resonated with me so much more than Cinderella did. She remains curious, compassionate and open-minded. And that’s the kind of woman I would want to embody as a role model, given the choice.”
“In a strange way, she challenges the status quo of the place she lives in, and I found that really inspiring,” Watson added.
Watson has also confirmed that the character’s backstory had changed so that the princess was the inventor rather than her father.
“I was like, ‘Well, there was never very much information or detail at the beginning of the story as to why Belle didn’t fit in, other than she liked books,” she told Entertainment Weekly.
“Also, what is she doing with her time?’ So we created a backstory for her, which was that she had invented a kind of the washing machine, so that, instead of doing laundry, she could sit and use that time to read instead. So, yeah, we made Belle an inventor.”
