Emma Watson: Why Belle Isn't an Example of Stockholm Syndrome in 'Beauty and the Beast'

The love story at the heart of Disney‘s animated classic Beauty and the Beast may be a tale as old as time, but there certain elements do feel dated in a contemporary context. Case in point: the fact that headstrong heroine Belle is essentially being held in a semi-voluntary hostage situation, yet ends up falling for her captor, the brooding Beast. On the surface, it seems like a textbook case of Stockholm syndrome, aided and abetted by the Beast’s amiable gallery of singing and dancing housewares.

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The vaguely uneasy underpinnings of the Beast/Belle romance weighed on the mind of Emma Watson, who plays Belle opposite Dan Stevens‘ Beast in Bill Condon‘s upcoming live action adaptation of the 1991 cartoon. “It’s something I really grappled with at the beginning: the kind of Stockholm syndrome question about this story,” the Harry Potter star admits to Entertainment Weekly. But Watson had a change of heart as she began to build her version of the character for the film, which opens theatrically on March 17. “Belle actively argues and disagrees with [Beast] constantly,” Watson points out. “She has none of the characteristics of someone with Stockholm syndrome because she keeps her independence, she keeps that freedom of thought.”

Related: ‘Beauty and the Beast’ Director Bill Condon on Reimagining the Fairy Tale

And just as Hermione Granger took an active role in the great wizarding war that pitted the students of Hogwarts against Voldemort’s legions, Watson promises that Belle won’t be a shrinking violet…or rose. “She gives as good as she gets,” Watson asserts. “[When the Beast] bangs on the door, she bangs back. Beast and Belle begin their love story really irritating each other and really not liking each other very much. They build a friendship, slowly, slowly, slowly, and very slowly that builds to them falling in love. They are having no illusions about who the other one is. They have seen the worst of one another, and they also bring out the best.”

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