DIY Belt from Beauty and Beast Premiere

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I had a surreal experience meeting the amazingly talented Emma Watson and Dan Stevens about the Live Action Beauty and the Beast Movie. Meeting them inspired me to make this DIY Belt similar to the belt worn by Emma Watson to the Beauty and Beast Premiere.

I am huge fans of Emma Watson and Dan Stevens from their previous work and am sooo excited about how they have brought to life one of my favorite Disney movies. These actors were perfect choices for Beauty and the Beast! Today I will be sharing my interview with Emma Watson and Dan Stevens. Also, for fun, my daughter and I made gold roses inspired by the gold rose brooch.

Beauty and the Beast Audition Process

Emma Watson discusses the auditioning process. “I think it was Disney wanting to explore whether or not I could sing. I think that was the major question mark. I was scouted and asked to make an audition tape. I went away and I did, and then waited to get the call, and to hear whether or not it was up to standard. Thankfully it was, so I got offered the role which was just very exciting.”

Dan Stevens spoke to his audition. “For me, I put a song on tape for Bill Condon. I did the Beast song from the Broadway musical which we end up not using in the movie, but there is was, because the Beast doesn’t sing in the animated film. Fortunately he, he like it.”

Belle’s Costume

Emma Watson talks about seeing herself in costume for the first time. “It was kind of amazing. I think because Belle, it’s a fairytale. I play an archetype. She’s more of a symbol than anything. The way that I got into character and started to feel like I was understanding her really well, was through her costume. She had these slightly scruffy socks, and she had the bloomers underneath her skirt which meant that she could swing her leg over a horse.

And creating the kind of tool belt that she has on for when she’s inventing things, and it will carry her books and all these little details. She actually has a ring on this finger which actually one that I wear which is one from my mom. I really felt like I was starting to get to know her, so her costume was really important for me, actually. It was the way in.”

“I was very heavily involved in the dress. Trying to get the dress right was really difficult because we needed to dress her to serve a number of different purposes and functions. It needed to be of the period. Originally we started off with a seventeenth century traditional dress, but then we realized that it didn’t do that really cute twirly thing that it does in the animation. You know, when the dress, like, spins behind her? We were like, damn. It has to do that, otherwise it’s not right.”

Emma and the costumer designer went back to the drawing board to incorporate the twirl. “It’s gotta be seventeenth century, but the bottom’s gotta be different, so let me try another version of it, which has that movement.

It was lightness, so we made it out of chiffon, and then we were like, she’s also gotta ride a horse in it, and she’s gotta be able go into the third part of the movie which is where she goes back to see her father. It also needs to feel like an action hero dress which is why the front of the dress looks a bit like a coat of armor. We created a warrior, modern seventeenth century twisty, twirly dress hybrid.”

The Beast Costume

Dan Steven’s talks about his Beast costume. “I didn’t really have a costume. Well, I did have a costume. They made costumes for the Beast. They were really giant coats that he wore, and this massive shredded cloak, but I never actually got to put it on. I spent the whole time, as the Beast, anyway, in a forty pound muscle suit on stilts covered in gray lycra.

I looked pretty odd, but nothing like the Beast that you see in the movie. It was motion capture puppeteering of the suit. I’m inside a giant muscle suit on stilts, so the Beast’s body was me moving inside there.

The facial capture was done separately, and every two weeks I’d go into this booth, and ten thousand UV dots would be sprayed on my face, and twenty seven little cameras would capture everything I’ve been doing for the past two weeks just with my face. It was my face driving that Beast’s face and, and they turned that information digitally into the Beast’s face and map it onto the body that I’d been working on the set.”

Belle’s Strength

Emma Watson discusses the strength she brings to Belle’s character and advocating for autotomy. “There was a lot of talk at the beginning, of a wedding perhaps at the end [of the film]. That had not been in the original, and I was like, can I just point out this isn’t in the original. We need to stay faithful to the original. I felt strongly about that. I felt very strongly that she needed to have a vocation to fill her time. This is very important to me.”

“We kind of co-opted what was originally kind of crazy ole Maurice’s identity. Well, that’s not the direction that Kevin’s taking the role in. Could I co-opt that for Bell, and we had her design this washing machine that allows her to have more time to read and to teach. That was super important to me.”

Disney Princess Belle

Emma Watson discusses her role as a Disney Princess. “People ask me a lot, you know, what’s it like being a Disney princess? And I go, well, actually, Belle isn’t a princess, She’s actually one of the few Disney that’s in that line of young women who actually isn’t a princess. She’s an ordinary girl from an ordinary village and I actually that’s very important about her.

She has no aspirations to be a princess. She has no aspirations to marry a prince. There was a line in the movie, originally, from Audra, the chest of drawers says to me, oh you know, we’ll make you a gown fit for a princess, and I asked Bill, if I could say, ‘I’m not a princess’?”

“He was like, yeah, sure. This is one of the little things where I just felt like I was protecting and defending Belle’s original DNA and just making sure that we stay truthful and faithful to this very independent young woman.”

Special Thanks to Coralie of Lovebugs and Postcards for taking these amazing photos.

Emma Watson’s Beauty and Beast Premiere Outfit DIY

Emma Watson’s Outfit from the Beauty and Beast Premiere was so lovely. It subtly captured the Disney Princess spirit in an empowered way that makes me even more excited for my daughter to watch it. Emma Watson and Belle are role models for young girls everywhere.

This weekend I spent time with my daughter working on Emma Watson’s Beauty and the Beast Premiere Outfit. We started the day at the craft store and ended it taking photos together. It was a blast!

Items needed for DIY Belt

Here are the items that I used to create the Emma Watson Premiere Outfit DIY.

Large Roses
Hair Clip
Hot Glue Gun
Gold Leaf Spray Paint
Recycled Boxes

Start by removing the rose from the stem. You can usually pull it off. If not, you will need a pliers to cut it off.

Place the roses into a box outside out of direct sunlight.

Spray paint the roses with light coats so that paint does not drip. You can wait 5 to 10 minutes in between coats depending on the humidity. The higher the humidity, the longer you should wait.

Once the top gold, I leaned the flower on its side to get the different angles of the rose petals.
Wait for the flowers to dry completely. About 2 hours.
Attach the flower to a lobster clip so that you can use it on the belt and in your hair. This is a very versatile accessory.

DIY Belt Tutorial

You can complete the Beauty and the Beast Premiere look with Black Skinny Belt, Black Jumpsuit, and Brown Eyeliner. I found this amazing jumpsuit that looks even more similar to the Emma Watson’s cropped black jumpsuit!