Dan Stevens Talks About Learning To Sing For Beauty And The Beast

Even though the original Beauty and the Beast cartoon is well known for its music, Disney decided to go with mostly untrained singers for the leads in its upcoming live-action remake, casting Harry Potter star Emma Watson as Belle opposite Downton Abbey's Dan Stevens as the Beast. Watson previously called singing for the film "nerve-wracking" in an interview with Lorraine, and now Stevens is speaking out about his experience learning belt it out for the movie.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Stevens revealed that there is a new song for the Beast in the film, called "For Evermore." Written by Alan Menken and Tim Rice, the song is "a big, romantic, soaring number," that comes after Belle leaves the Beast when he has already fallen in love with her.

"I've done bits of singing for jobs, but nothing like this," he told EW on the set of the film in 2015. "I sang very very badly in an episode of Downton. I did sort-of musicals at school, university. But, no, professionally I haven't done too much. This is another level, really."

Stevens said he worked with singing coach Ann-Marie Speed, of the Royal Academy of Music, to learn how to take on the number. "Like a lot of the things I've been doing over the last few years, [it's about] acquiring new skills, or challenging myself to do something I've never done before— in this case, challenging myself to do several things I've never done before," he said. "But it's really good fun. It's certainly interesting!" According to Stevens, he really took to the experience, with the actor saying, "who knows, I might end up singing again. I quite enjoy it!"

Beauty and the Beast, which director Bill Condon recently revealed will feature Disney's first openly gay character, will be released on March 17. In the meantime, watch the film's full trailer above, check out excerpts from the famous songs "Belle" and "Gaston" and see the other movie releases that you won't want to miss this year.