New Cinderella is a Strong, Powerful Character Says Movie's Lead Stars

Cinderella
The modern-day Cinderella is no damsel in distress. |

The lead stars of Disney's newest live action movie Cinderella are guaranteeing that the lead character of the film will be no pushover, and will be someone all girls can look up to.

"This Cinderella is a really powerful, strong character - I wanted to bring a strength of spirit to the role," Lily James who plays the title role told The Hollywood Reporter.

Her co-star Richard Madden, who plays the prince said that Kenneth Branagh's modern tale is pretty impressive and will definitely empower women.

"This young woman in distress doesn't need a man to save her. That's totally irrelevant - she'd be fine without the prince, she'd get on with it."

Madden's take on Prince Charming will definitely make audiences laugh since he has a "sense of humor - the ability to make fun of himself and have a bit of banter with his dad."

Disney is also working on another live action movie, which is Beauty and the Beast. And James could not be more thrilled that fellow Downton Abbey star Dan Stevens landed the male lead role alongside Harry Potter alumna and UN ambassadress Emma Watson, who will be playing Belle.

"I'm so excited he's playing the beast! I couldn't believe it, I texted him immediately," she said.

James already advised Stevens to brush up on his dancing skills because he's going to need it a lot once they start shooting!

"Practice your dancing, because you're gonna have to do it at some point!" James said.

It seems like British actors are dominating fairy tale movies, which even started with Maleficent, which starred Angelina Jolie. Even James cannot fathom why British actors are getting highly covetable roles all of a sudden.

"I don't know! It's weird! On set, there was a sense of theater of company, of epic storytelling in an intimate nature. I don't know whether British actors are more theater?" she said.

Madden also weighed in on this, saying that maybe it's because fairy tales are a big part of European culture.  "Maybe it's just because it goes back further - fairytales are just bred in us. Or maybe it's just coincidence! I don't think it's deliberate," he said.

A good friend of the actors, Matthew Goode, brought his daughter to the screening of Cinderella and even had an idea why. "Good on the Brits, yes! It's because of the wild, imaginative people that the Brits are," he jokingly said. "I think it's merely because we're cheap - that can be the only reason, because there's so many good American actors!"