Ewan McGregor just admitted something that's going to make a lot of die-hard Disney fans lose it: he hasn't seen the original Beauty And The Beast. The 45-year-old actor plays Lumiere in the upcoming live-action adaptation of Disney's Beauty And The Beast, starring Emma Watson, but now we're a little nervous about how this newbie plays the French candle on screen.
"You have four daughters, right?" Stephen Colbert asked when McGregor appeared on the Late Show Monday night. "Surely you knew this musical before you took the job, right?"
McGregor squirmed.
"How could you possibly avoid Disney?" Colbert continued. "How did you escape from the black hole that is 'Be Our Guest?'"
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"I have never seen it, the original. Is it good?" McGregor admitted as the audience gasped. "It's not because I didn't want to. It's just...I don't know. It wasn't one that they watched, I guess."
This is sure to make a lot of people uneasy as they head into the theater to watch the film on Friday, but the actor thinks it's actually a good thing.
"It was quite handy, in a way, because when you're going to play a part that's so well known, it's quite good if you don't know it so it can be yours," he explained. "I didn't have to try and sound like the guy who did it in the cartoon in the '90s."
Which, apparently, he definitely won't, since he admitted earlier in the interview that he really struggled with the French accent.
While none of these things are super encouraging to hear before the release of a film that is so near and dear to people's hearts, McGregor has never let us down in a film before. If he can return to the set of T2 to play the role a 46-year-old heroin addict, it's safe to say that a candlestick is well within his abilities. How about this: we'll all go see the movie on Friday if McGregor promises to watch the original with us after? Sounds like a plan.