Josh Gadhas candidly called out the huge public outcry over the “gay” moment his character LeFou shares with a dancer in the final scenes of Disney’s live-action remake ofBeauty and the Beast. The blink-and-you-miss-it moment grabbed headlines when the movie was released back in 2017, and even saw some boycotting the movie with bans on the film being put in place. In his new book,In Gad We Trust, the actor explains that director Bill Condon’s hype around the scene was not justified and accidentally set up a disappointing outcome.
WhenBeauty and the Beastwas released, it became another runaway success for Disney, and gave them the confidence toplunder their entire animated back catalog for more live-actionrip-offs…also called reimaginings. However, one moment that became talked about more than any other was the moment that Gad’s LeFou dances with a man in what Condon called “a nice, exclusively gay moment in a Disney movie.” For the actor, that led to a lot of unnecessary and misguided backlash against the film. As shared byEntertainment Weekly, Gad wrote:
“I mean, if I were gay, I’m sure I’d be pissed. I for one certainly didn’t exactly feel like LeFou was who the queer community had been wistfully waiting for. I can’t quite imagine a Pride celebration in honor of the “cinematic watershed moment” involving a quasi-villainous Disney sidekick dancing with a man for half a second.”
While Condon himself would later comment that the two-second-long moment in the movie had been “overblown” and was “not a big deal,” it is clear that Gad felt the whole thing was made out to be something it was not initially. In his book he went on to explain that there had been a conversation between himself, Condon and the movie’s screenwriters, but that was“about the specific nature of LeFou’s devotion to Gaston,' Gad said, adding that ‘in the course of our discussions, we tried to distinguish whether or not LeFou loved Gaston or was in love with Gaston.”
Of course, anyone who has seen either version of Disney’s take on the classic fairy story will not need to be told that LeFou is completely in awe of the movie’s antagonist. That was also the conclusion that Gad says the conversations came to, and while the orientation of the character was noted, Gad explained that he did not feel it needed to be anything more than a “harmless” moment. He added:
“Because I was a side character, I didn’t want to suddenly throw the weight of sexuality on this character that in no way was driving the film, but the moment (as described to me) seemed harmless enough – a fun blink-and-you’ll-miss-it little beat.”
Josh Gad Explains Why Beauty and the Beast Spin-Off Has Not Moved Ahead
The Gaston-centric Beauty and the Beast spin-off series was taken off Disney’s radar earlier this year, and Josh Gad has explained why.
As Gad said, what was meant to be a small aside in the film to simply round out the character and address his potentially confused stance on what he wanted, was turning into something that drew unnecessary ire because,“The second we pointed it out and seemingly congratulated ourselves, we had invited hell and fury.”
In the end,Beauty and the Beastbecame a $1.26 billion hit, and despite Gad finding that interviews about the movie’s release very quickly became all about that incredibly brief moment, things turned out pretty well all round. A prequel series focusing on Luke Evans’ Gaston and Gad’s LeFou was originally put into production for Disney+, but after several stop-starts, that project was finally said to be completely abandoned last year.
Beauty and the Beast
