Bill Condon was rounding out the cast for Disney's live-action adaptation of Beauty and the Beast and he tried but failed to cast Beyoncé whom he had worked with before. Beyonce played Deena Jones in his 2006 film Dreamgirls. To date, he's one of just two directors to put her in a musical—the first being Robert Townsend, who directed MTV's Carmen: A Hip Hopera.

So, the director lobbied to work with her again. "I even tried to get her into Beauty and the Beast, but it wasn't a big enough part," he said. " She would have been a good feather duster."