Ewan McGregor on making Lumire his own in 'Beauty and the Beast'

— -- In the upcoming release of "Beauty and the Beast, British actor Ewan McGregor is playing Lumière -- the friendly candlestick who invites Belle to be a "guest" in the enchanted castle.

The actor appeared on "GMA" to discuss his approach to the role.

"I've played parts on stage that other people have played," McGregor said. "Of course, there's many, many amazing actors who have played that role before and the last thing you would want to do is go ask them how to do it. And if it was a movie role, you wouldn't want to go watch that person do it because you want to make it your own. And I think the writing was very good and Bill Condon's wonderful direction is very good so I let them lead me and tried to make him my Lumière."

Playing a character with a French accent, McGregor revealed that speaking as Lumière took more than one try.

"The household items, we recorded all our dialogue so that when the actors who are doing the live action stuff are on set, they had voices to play back to...I went in to record mine, but my French accent wasn't really very good at all," he said. "Luckily Bill Condon, the wonderful director, I said to him, 'Look, please let me come back and do it again.' I came back here to New York and I got to re-record all of my dialogue again, so it's slightly more French now."

McGregor said "Beauty and the Beast" is the first time he's sang in a movie since the 2001 musical, "Moulin Rouge!"

"It's a very special thing to make music," he said. "If I hadn't been an actor, I think maybe that's what I would've liked to have done cause it's such a pleasure to make music and when you're recording a big number like this, it's very exciting to have an orchestra behind you."

"Beauty and the Beast" hit theaters March 17.

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