Josh Gad addresses the full story of the gay LeFou controversy in Beauty and the Beast. Leading up to the release of Disney’s live-action remake in 2017, director Bill Condon teased in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter that the movie would feature “an exclusively gay moment” for LeFou. Despite expectations of LeFou being Disney’s first openly gay character, this only amounted to a fleeting glimpse of LeFou dancing with another man during Beauty and the Beast‘s ending. Josh Gad later shared regrets about how this was handled.
In Gad’s new memoir, In Gad We Trust (via Entertainment Weekly), he goes in-depth about his regrets and frustrations with LeFou being touted as a groundbreaking character for LGBTQIA+ representation. He explains that he does not feel as though LeFou was positive representation for the queer community and that he empathizes with the negative reception to the film’s disappointing moment. Gad emphasizes that it was supposed to be a “sweet and innocuous moment” but it ended up being“both too little and not enough”. Check out the excerpt from Gad’s memoir below:
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. I mean, if I were gay, I’m sure I’d be pissed.
What This Means For Beauty And The Beast
Several Mistakes Were Made
Even though 2017’s Beauty and the Beast is one of Disney’s better live-action remakes, it is undoubtedly tainted by how the LeFou controversy was handled both in the movie and via publicity. In his memoir, Gad breaks down how there were behind-the-scenes discussions about LeFou’s loyalty and feelings for Gaston (Luke Evans). The consensus was that LeFou’s devotion to Gaston was not romantic or Sєxual in any way and that Beauty and the Beast‘s creative team never discussed seriously exploring LeFou’s Sєxuality.
As such, Gad agreed to the dancing moment, because he thought it was “cheeky” and “harmless.” Gad thinks it would have remained this way if not for the way “we pointed it out and seemingly congratulated ourselves.” Condon, who is gay, felt pressured “to share his pride for some form of representation in the film” and “felt awful” about the effect of his comment. In addition to accusations of queerbaiting, the comment led to boycotts and the movie even being banned in some countries, although it did not stop the remake from becoming a $1.2 billion box office hit.
Our Take On Josh Gad’s Comments
His Reflection Goes Beyond Beauty And The Beast
Gad’s comments further clarify the mishandling of his Beauty and the Beast character. If LeFou was going to be gay, the movie should have done far more to explore this and him being gay should not have been teased in the first place. This is something that Gad, Condon, and all involved seem to agree on. The Beauty and the Beast controversy is also a reminder of how important queer representation is and that a blink-and-you-miss-it moment does not equate to authentic representation.
Source: In Gad We Trust (via EW), THR
