Ewan McGregor talked about the challenges of his “Beauty and the Beast” character and we now admire him more
It’s hard not to be blown away by Ewan McGregor as an actor. Whether you’re fangirling out over his turn as Obi-Wan in Star Wars, swooning over his singing in Moulin Rouge, or arthouse nerd-ing out over his turn in Trainspotting, if there is a genre of film, you better believe Ewan McGregor has conquered it.
We’re all on pins and needles for the live-action version of Beauty and the Beast to be released. We’re also totally stoked for Ewan McGregor’s turn as Lumière. We’ve always had faith that Ewan would crush the iconic role. But as it turns out, playing the anthropomorphic candelabra was no walk in the park for the Scottish actor.
The thing that kept tripping him up? That pesky French accent!
"When they were shooting, they wanted to have all of our voices to act with," Ewan McGregor explained to Entertainment Weekly. "So, we went to London, we did some very quick accent-coaching [laughs], which in my case didn't work out terribly well. My French didn't really sound very French to begin with — it sounded a bit Spanish or something."
Oof, that’s rough. Fortunately, this is a world of second chances. Later on in the filmmaking process, Ewan McGregor was given the opportunity to retackle the accent issue.
"And then some time later, I went over to New York, where Bill Condon [the film's director] was doing all his post-production," McGregor explained, "and I recorded the whole part again. I'd done a bit more work on the accent, so it sounded more French and I got rerecord the song. So, I got to do my whole performance again, which was a really nice opportunity. You don't often get offered that. But I got a chance to have another crack at all of it!"
Yay, Ewan McGregor! We’re so proud of you for rising to the challenge and really making your second chance count. We absolutely cannot wait to see you slay as Lumière in 2017!