Movies Beyoncé turned down the live-action Beauty and the Beast, director says She was asked to play the feather duster By David Canfield David Canfield David Canfield is a former staff editor at Entertainment Weekly. He left EW in 2022. EW's editorial guidelines Published on October 18, 2017 12:53PM EDT Beyoncé turned down an offer to co-star in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast live-action remake, director Bill Condon has revealed. In an interview with Yahoo! Entertainment, Condon described his desire to collaborate with the pop icon again after casting her in what’s arguably been her most substantial film role, in Dreamgirls. “Isn’t that weird? God, it seems crazy!” he said of the fact that she has been cast in so few movie-musicals. “I even tried to get her into Beauty and the Beast, but it wasn’t a big enough part. She would have been a good feather duster.” Gugu Mbatha-Raw, best known for Beyond the Lights and the “San Junipero” episode of Black Mirror, ultimately played the role in the film. Dreamgirls celebrated its 11th anniversary since its theatrical premiere last week. Condon’s film won Jennifer Hudson the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress and also starred Beyoncé, Eddie Murphy, and Anika Noni Rose. Beyoncé has acted less in the decade since most notably lending her voice to the animated Epic and starring opposite Idris Elba in Obsessed. Condon thinks Beyoncé is looking to the future of big-screen musical entertainment instead. “You look at something like Lemonade: that is brilliant,” he told Yahoo. “That is a brilliant new direction for movie musicals.”