Dan Stevens. [Photo/Mtime]

When Dan Stevens met his Beauty and the Beast co-star Emma Watson in preproduction, she wanted to get to work analyzing the story and the themes. He just wanted to talk about her UN speech about gender inequality.

"It was so impressive and so mighty in its message. I was so blown away by it," Stevens said recently.

He quickly realized that her ideas actually did apply to the film too. Between the spoiled Beast, the sleazy Gaston, the gracious Maurice and others, Stevens began to think about just how many different types of masculinity are on display in the film, which opened in theaters last Friday.

"Looking at these little elements of the patriarchy that she can smash through on her quest through the movie and the challenges presented to her as a girl, they tally so beautifully with Emma's project," Stevens said. "I love storytelling and fairy tale and myth and getting to grips with those fundamental elements is something that I really get a kick out of."

At 34, Stevens is perhaps still best known for his role as Matthew Crawley on the PBS period series Downton Abbey, which he somewhat infamously left five years ago to pursue other things stateside. In the interim, the English actor has found roles in edgy indies, like the home invasion thriller The Guest, and even in campier family fare like Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb as the overconfident Lancelot.

Now Stevens is on the verge of becoming a household name with a leading role on FX's edgy comic book series Legion and, of course, Beauty and the Beast by far his highest profile role since Downtown. Ironically it's also one where his face is largely hidden for most of the film.

"It's still my face driving it," Stevens said, insisting that his friends and family have said they can definitely tell its him behind the facial capture technology that turns the blonde-hair blue-eyed human male into a horned and hairy beast.

Besides, it allowed him to focus on the performance in the eyes something he studied in Jean Marais' performance in Jean Cocteau's 1946 version of Beauty and the Beast to prepare.