The hype machine for next year's live-action Beauty and the Beast continues to plug along, and we're eating up every bit of it. The latest little taste of the fairy tale comes from Gugu Mbatha-Raw, who will play maid turned feather duster Plumette. While promoting her slightly more serious summer movie, Free State of Jones, she gushed to E! News about her Disney co-stars.
"It's so exciting!" the British actress said, affirming that she will be singing in the role. "I play Plumette, so a lot of my character is animated."
Diehards probably already know this, but in the animated movie, the feather duster is called Fifi. Plumette sounds so much more respectable, oui?
"I was only on set a couple of days, but they were magical days!" she said. "I've got Ewan McGregor, who's my dance partner. We're ballroom dancing around this Disney ballroom. Emma Thompson playing Mrs. Potts, Ian McKellan playing Cogsworth — it was such a wonderful British cast. "
She counts herself among the animated version's fans, but said this movie has something a little extra in its villains: "Also there's Josh Gad and Luke Evans, who to me are just so hilarious," she said. "They play LeFou and Gaston, and they are just hilarious. It's got all the magic and the romance of the original, but it's also very funny."