Emma Watson speaks out on turning down La La Land

What a run La La Land has had – not only did it win the hearts of audiences across the globe with a worldwide gross of over $416million (not bad for a $30million film), it walked away with 6 Academy Awards at the end of the “awards season” despite the kerfuffle over the Best Picture award. But it could have all been much different had Emma Watson taken the lead role instead of Emma Stone, who won Best Actress at said Oscars last month.

Now, Watson has broken her silence on the film while promoting Beauty and the Beast, which opens next week, and has spoken of her regret at not being able to take the part as well as Belle in the Disney film but has said that doing both wasn’t possible. Speaking on ITV’s Lorraine show (via Sky News), the actress said that she had to commit to one role and “her heart” was with Belle, saying:

“With a movie like Beauty And The Beast it’s like three months prep, it’s like three or four months shooting, it’s in the UK… I had to be there to do that and, as I was saying before, it’s like you can’t half-a*** a project like this, you know, you’re in or you’re out.”

Early iterations of Damien Chazelle’s film, it was his Whiplash star Miles Teller who was set to play Sebastian in the film with Watson as Mia before both left the project and Ryan Gosling and Stone stepped in. We will never know what the two would have brought to the film, but it’s hard to see anyone but Gosling and Stone in the leads.

In other La La Land news, the official US home entertainment release date has been announced for April 25th (April 11th for Digital HD) with a Blu-ray, DVD and 4K UHD release planned that will feature commentaries and 10 behind-the-scenes featurettes. (via USA Today)

La La Land is still playing in cinemas now.