H.E.R. Felt “Poised” and “Proud” When She First Put On Her Yellow Dress for ABC’s ‘Beauty and the Beast: A 30th Celebration’

H.E.R. is already an expert at performing in front of a live audience, as anyone who has tuned in to the Grammys, the Oscars, the People’s Choice Awards, and the BET Awards over the last five years can tell you. But earlier this year, the artist also known as Gabriella Wilson decided that she was ready for a very different challenge in front of a live crowd. On Thursday night, she’ll take on her first major acting role as Belle in ABC’s live-audience, part-animated Beauty and the Beast: A 30th Celebration, opposite Josh Groban as the Beast. In an interview before the show, Wilson said that while she was a little apprehensive about trying something new, she thought the process of working with costars like David Alan Grier, who plays Cogsworth, and Martin Short, in the role of Lumière,was an incredible learning experience.

“It was challenging for me because I’ve never done anything like this before,” she said. “I just went in full throttle ’cause I’ve been on tour all year.” Her first day of rehearsals felt like a whirlwind. “I came from Argentina, and literally the next day was just like, boom, boom, boom, boom, song after song, rehearsal of the wolf chase, ‘Belle’s Reprise,’ and ‘Beauty and the Beast,’ and costume design.”

The biggest challenge for any adaptation of a Disney Princess tale is nailing the dress, which is emblematic of the main character in the Disney universe. Wilson worked with six-time Emmy-winning costume designer Marina Toybina to bring the look together. “Marina and I talked a lot, and she had this amazing vision for the evolution of the costumes,” Wilson said. “How to kind of bring a modern twist but still have that old French vibe, with the big ball gown and the corset.”

Toybina, who is responsible for some of the most memorable costumes on The Masked Singer, said that pulling together the costumes required deep research on past productions of the story and French fashion of the 1700s. But imagining Wilson in the role also helped Toybina land on the perfect combination of new and old. “I just love Gabby so much,” she told Vanity Fair. “I think she has such a modern presence. You know, there’s this youthfulness and joy to her. I really wanted this to feel special and [like] something that was made for her. So it’s almost like two worlds are colliding between the classic and the now.”

Toybina said that the dress was ultimately the last costume in the production to come together. “I was very much inspired by the story of the rose, and at the same time I was trying to figure out, How do I bring those elements into the gown?” she explained. One of the biggest debates was whether the dress should be yellow or gold, and in the end they settled on something in the middle, an iridescent yellow fabric with golden detailing on the corset. “When Gabby saw it, it was definitely a special moment for the two of us, because I think it is reinventing the old. But at the same time, you could see that there was so much love and history behind it.”

Wilson described what it felt like when she stepped into the iconic yellow dress at her first full dress rehearsal. “I felt like a little girl. I really felt like a little kid who put a dress on for the first time,” she said. “I felt poised and I felt proud, you know? I felt like a pretty princess, like a Black and Filipino princess. I just felt like, Wow, this is going to be really special and it’s going to be historic.”

The original film was released before the 25-year-old singer was born, but she remembers watching it on VHS as a young girl and singing along to the Oscar-winning songs. “It was definitely something I loved when I was a kid, and I saw myself wearing the yellow dress,” she said. But when she started to prepare to play Belle for the 30th anniversary special, she found a new depth. “There’s a strength in her and ambition that I think we forget about, but that was the whole purpose. And I found that when I was discovering the character myself.”