February 28, 2022
Josh Gad Regrets Disney's 'First Gay Moment' Didn't Do Enough
Kilian Melloy READ TIME: 2 MIN.
Josh Gad, who played LeFou in "Beauty and the Beast," said Disney's "first explicitly gay moment" is a regret for him in that, "We didn't go far enough to say, 'Look how brave we are,'" Digital Spy reported.
Gad made the remarks in an interview with UK newspaper the Independent, which recalled how the 2017 movie was, according to director Bill Condon, going to deliver audiences a major milestone: The "first exclusively gay moment" of a Disney film.
"It turned out to be a two-second dance with another man, which was neither exclusive (it was a crowd scene) nor particularly gay (the two men could easily have been friends)," the Independent scoffed. "After 90 years of Disney ignoring queer people, this was, well, nothing."
Gad told the newspaper that the hyped moment wasn't ever intended to be that promised milestone at all; moreover, he added, "I don't think we did justice to what a real gay character in a Disney film should be."
The actor went on to add: "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," Gad said.
The actor was set to reprise his role of LeFou in a small-screen prequel series, "The Little Town," that would have seen him paired up once again with Luke Evans, the latter in the role of LeFou's best friend – and putative same-sex crush – Gaston.
Gad seemed to tease that the show would address just how friendly the two characters are in an interview with Variety's podcast "Just for Variety" last summer, saying, "You're going to have to tune in when this show airs to see what we're working up, but in the process of working on it, we're asking ourselves every relevant question about these characters and endeavoring to do right by them and by this world."
Unfortunately, production on the series hit a snag and has been postponed, according to The Hollywood Reporter, with no new date announced as of yet for the start of production.
Evans tweeted out a message about the delay, posting that the news was "very sad" and he was "devastated."
"Goodbye, for now, from Gaston and Le fou," Evans said.
Kilian Melloy serves as EDGE Media Network's Associate Arts Editor and Staff Contributor. His professional memberships include the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, The Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association, and the Boston Theater Critics Association's Elliot Norton Awards Committee.
