You Can’t Unsee This Video of a Pre-CGI Dan Stevens in Beauty and the Beast

This is the magic of Emma Watson’s Belle and Dan Stevens’ Beast in Beauty and the Beast like you’ve never seen it before.

Fans already knew that the 34-year-old actor transformed into the Beast for the wondrous live-action remake of the animated classic with some help from motion-capture technology and CGI. But no one really knew exactly how the film brought the Beast to life — until now. Recently surfaced footage shows Stevens as the Beast in his bulky motion-capture suit and some very tricky shoes escorting Belle down the castle’s golden staircase.

The Downton Abbey actor wore a 40-lb. grey lycra “muscle suit” covered in marker dots and stilts for filming, according to People. It looks like Watson, total pro that she is, had no trouble compensating for the lack of fur.

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The internet is treasuring the silliness of it as fans often do with these inside looks. Perhaps the classic film’s enduring theme song said it best. “It’s just a little change, small to say the least.”

Watch Stevens describe working with the suit below.