Jay Ryan had a great deal of input on the Beast's look and fighting style. It turns out that a lot of the Beast's characteristics were developed by Vincent himself. Thanks to spending upwards of four hours at a time in the makeup chair to apply the Beast's makeup and prosthetics (plus another hour and a half to take it all off!), Ryan had strong feelings about the way Vincent and the Beast should appear onscreen.
Beauty and the Beast won the People's Choice Award 2014 for Favorite Sci-fi/Fantasy TV-show over such well established shows as Supernatural, The Walking Dead and The Vampire Diaries. The show remains a huge fan favorite despite harsh reviews from the critics when the show first aired.
Jay Ryan auditioned for the show while wearing a giant, ridiculous wig. When Beauty and the Beast was first casting, Ryan was busy filming the miniseries Top of the Lake, for which he had shaved his head completely. So when he got a last-minute call to do a chemistry read with Kreuk, the studio decided he would better fit the part if he had some hair. Unfortunately for him, the only hair they had on hand was a big, gray, out of the box thing that looked like a big mane on his head. Luckily, even a bad wig couldn't disguise his good looks, and he got the part and a new 'do.
Austin Basis, who plays JT, is an avid Tweeter and is known as "King Beastie" to the fans of the show (the beasties).