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Emma Watson Discusses the Elephant in the Room - the "Stockholm Syndrome” in ‘Disney’s Beauty and the Beast’.
By Flora / 17 Feb 2017 (Friday)
Photo Credit: Entertainment Weekly
We all know how this fairytale ends: Belle ends up with Beast, her captor who imprisons the Disney princess in exchange for the release of her father.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Watson confessed that it was a topic she pondered, before accepting the role as Belle in the live-action remake of 'Disney's Beauty and the Beast'.
"It's something I really grappled with at the beginning: the Stockholm-syndrome question. That's where a prisoner will take on the characteristics of and fall in love with the captor," the 26-year-old actress said.
"She has none of the characteristics of someone with Stockholm syndrome because she keeps her independence; she keeps that freedom of thought," Watson adds. "I also think there is a very intentional switch where, in my mind, Belle decides to stay. She's giving him hell. There is no sense of 'I need to kill this guy with kindness.' Or any sense that she deserves this. In fact, she gives as good as she gets. He bangs on the door, she bangs back. There's this defiance that 'You think I'm going to come and eat dinner with you and I'm your prisoner—absolutely not.’"
In addition, it has been reported that Watson sat down with director Bill Condon during its pre-production stages where she made several changes to her character, in hopes that fans can relate to the beloved Disney princess better.
"The other beautiful thing about the love story is that they form a friendship first. There is this genuine sharing, and the love builds out of that, which in many ways is more meaningful than a lot of love stories, where it was love at first sight. They are having no illusions about who the other one is," she continued.
Disney's Beauty and the Beast opens InCinemas 16 March 2017!