The Surprising Reason Why Dan Stevens Was 'Terrified' To Lead Beauty And The Beast

For the record, Dan Stevens did all of his own singing and dancing in Beauty and the Beast. But the actor's real face is only seen in the film for fleeting moments that bookend the drama and the romance. While Stevens' singing is quite impressive throughout, the dancing is even moreso, considering he actually performed the the film's iconic waltz in a 40-pound, Beast-sized mo-cap suit while wearing springy stilts.

We know now that beast of a suit was part of what worried Stevens about Beauty and the Beast. In fact, the actor claims he sought advice form mo-cap masters Andy Serkis (The Lord of the Rings and Planet of the Apes movies) and Mark Ruffalo (the MCU's Hulk) ahead of production. According to Stevens, one of those stars thought the film's mo-cap approach wouldn't work.

"I spoke to Andy Serkis briefly in preparation for this and just sort of wanted to get the low-down on this kind of performance," Stevens revealed. "I spoke to Mark Ruffalo briefly, who obviously used a similar kind of thing for Hulk. The way that we did it, I described it to him, and he told me it would be impossible."

Ruffalo's proclamation is what "mildly terrified" Stevens about the role. But the adventurous actor eventually used it as motivation, telling IndieWire in 2017, "I thought, 'okay, I'm going to try to prove him wrong here.'" 

Stevens more than proved Ruffalo wrong, delivering a brilliantly humanistic mo-cap performance that helped Beauty and the Beast earn more than $1 billion at the box office. And if Stevens' recent comments to IndieWire are any indication, he may be looking for more mo-cap work in the future: "I loved learning to perform in that way and it's something I would definitely do again."