There’s a new princess in town! Emma Watson’s Belle in Disney’s upcoming live-action Beauty and the Beast is no damsel in distress. The actress shared with Entertainment Weekly that she’s added her own modern twist to the classic character, ditching the corset and making Belle an inventor.
“In the animated movie, it’s her father who is the inventor, and we actually co-opted that for Belle,” the Harry Potter star told EW. “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. Also, what is she doing with her time?’ So, we created a backstory for her, which was that she had invented a kind of 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.”
In addition to having an interesting job, Watson’s Belle won’t be constrained by a waist-cinching corset in the live action remake of the 1991 Disney animated classic.
“In Emma’s reinterpretation, Belle is an active princess,” costume designer Jacqueline Durran added. “She did not want a dress that was corseted or that would impede her in any way.”
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