The Beauty and The Beast star, Josh Gad, revealed that he had some regrets on 2017’s Beauty and The Beast remake specifically how it handled making his character gay.
Gad starred in the film as LeFou, a loyal sidekick to Gaston (Luke Evans). Director Bill Condon shared in 2017 that the film would introduce Disney’s first-ever openly gay character. However, when the film is released, there wasn’t anything ‘open’ at all aside from a dancing man. LeFou’s character was criticized and in a recent interview with The Independent, Gad reveals that there are some regrets he wants to address with his character.
Gad explained, “We didn’t go far enough to warrant accolades, We didn’t go far enough to say, ‘Look how brave we are.’ My regret in what happened is that it became ‘Disney’s first explicitly gay moment’ and it was never intended to be that. It was never intended to be a moment that we should laud ourselves for, because frankly, I don’t think we did justice to what a real gay character in a Disney film should be.”
After the film was criticized for having no ‘gay moment’ as the director announced, Gad told USA Today at the film’s 2017 premier that he feels ‘honored’ to bring the character in the live-action version.
“What was most important to me was taking a character that is wonderful and so iconic, but is defined by cartoon conceits in the (original) movie…and expanding on that, giving him dimension, making him human,” Gad said at the time. “I’m honored to have that [exclusively gay] moment as part of my character’s arc.” the actor explained.
Going back to his recent interview with The Independent, Gad clarifies “That was not LeFou. If we’re going to pat ourselves on the back, then damn it we should have gone further with that. Everybody deserves an opportunity to see themselves on screen, and I don’t think we’ve done enough — and I certainly haven’t done enough to do that.”
A recent report says that a prequel series was being put on hold for Disney+, reuniting LeFou and Gaston in their duo adventures. Though it would be a perfect chance to address LeFou’s character, seems like the prequel series won't make it into development due to creative and scheduling issues.
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