Voiceover work always presents a fascinatingly unique set of challenges for an actor -- particularly when there's an accent involved. With the upcoming release of Beauty and the Beast, actor Ewan McGregor apparently discovered that fact the hard way. The actor recently opened up about his role as Lumière in Bill Condon's upcoming film, and it seems that he had a difficult time nailing his French accent. The actor explained:
When they were shooting, they wanted to have all of our voices to act with, so Emma and Darren had characters to work with --- that being our voices. 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. And then some time later, I went over to New York, where Bill Condon [the film's director] was doing all his post-production 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!
During a recent chat with EW Ewan McGregor opened up regarding the inherent challenges of playing a character like Lumière in the live-action version of Beauty and the Beast. According to the actor, director Bill Condon wanted the entire voice cast present during filming in order to record their voices for the live-action portion of the film. McGregor did some cursory work with a voice coach in order to prepare, but his French accent ended up sounding more Spanish than French. Luckily for the Star Wars actor, Condon provided him with the opportunity to redo his performance during post-production, which is not an opportunity that many actors get.
Nailing Lumière's accent represented a fundamental part of Ewan McGregor's performance in the upcoming Beauty and the Beast adaptation. The character became iconic in 1991 after Jerry Orbach provided his voice for the original animated version of the film. He's an integral part of the story, and a fan-favorite aspect of the Beauty and the Beast universe, so any mistakes would be noticed. We're just glad McGregor got a second chance to properly capture the spirit of the character.
Stay tuned for more details elated to the upcoming release of Bill Condon's Beauty and the Beast. The live-action Disney adaptation will hit theaters on March 17, 2017.
Do you want to get a better look at the upcoming live-action version of Beauty and the Beast? Check out the official trailer for the film on the next page!
