Once Upon a Time reaches back to creators Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis’ Lost roots on Sunday’s episode titled “Skin Deep” when guest star Emilie de Ravin plays Belle of the Beauty and the Beast tale.
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“There are obviously a lot of similarities,” de Ravin tells The Hollywood Reporter about the show’s take on the well-known character. “Obviously, she’s quite a bit more, shall we say ballsy, than I suppose in the past versions, but she’s really brave and really forthright with her opinions and all she wants to do.”
In the world of the ABC series, Rumpelstiltskin (Robert Carlyle) steps into the role of the “beast” when he helps Belle’s father in a raging war with ogres. But, there’s always the payback. In this case, it’s Belle or her father’s life.
“She would do anything basically for her father, but also her friends and family in general, and that’s what she does,” the Australian actress says. “She has this chance where she’s always wanted to be brave and make a change and do something different and not just sit around in the confinement of her castle and her simple life.”
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Of course, Rumpelstiltskin may prove a harder challenge than what we’ve seen on Disney movies.
“There’s a point where Belle is a very giving, caring, passionate, nonjudgmental person,” de Ravin, 30, tells THR. “But, there’s also a breaking point, and sometimes enough is enough. And as much beauty as she can see in anyone, you know in Rumpelstiltskin slash the beast, if it can’t be believed by the other person or accepted, then you know, you can’t force somebody to feel something.”
“There’s possibly the opportunity for him to lose power and to gain love, and so does the old question of what will you choose?” she continues. “Love over power or power over love? And that’s a big struggle for him because it’s been so long of him being such a powerful, cruel person, that you know it’s almost, it’s completely hard to fathom that A, somebody would be able to care for him and B, that would be better than power.”
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This won’t be the last time we see de Ravin’s Belle, who wasn’t allowed to reveal who she plays in the modern day Storybrooke, as she’ll return later in the season to continue her story line.
And while the actress has had to play with some challenging “props” on Lost (a dead squirrel baby perhaps?), she says that working on the ABC series represents her first experience with green screen animation. “I was actually quite scared,” she says.
“I was quite nervous,” de Ravin continues. “I was talking to the director about it. He was like ‘Oh, you’ll be fine.’ Then, we started, and really, all the props physically are there that you need — you know, tables and what not — it’s really the bigger picture of the room, or the windows, or that kind of stuff, which, you know is always nice to see, but they have a fantastic set up of a couple of monitors that you can see a markup of basically how it’s going to look.”
Watch a sneak peek of de Ravin on Sunday’s episode below.
Once Upon a Time airs Sundays at 8 p.m. on ABC. For more information on the series, visit ABC.com.
Email: Jethro.Nededog@thr.com; Twitter: @TheRealJethro
