Beauty and the Beast: Josh Gad Says Film “Didn’t Go Far Enough” With His Gay Character

When the live-action Beauty and the Beast was released in 2017, it was big news that Josh Gad’s LeFou, Gaston’s notorious sidekick, would be gay in the film. Despite the hype, LeFou’s sexuality ended up being the first of many “first” gay Disney characters due to the fact that his interest in men was a “blink and you’ll miss it” moment. The movie simply hinted that he was in love with Luke Evans’ Gaston and showed a quick glimpse of him dancing with a man in the party scene at the end of the movie. During a recent chat with The Independent, Gad admitted that they didn’t do enough with the character. 

“We didn’t go far enough to warrant accolades,” Gad explained. “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.”

“If we’re going to pat ourselves on the back, then damn it we should have gone further with that,” Gad added. “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 was going to have the opportunity to reprise his role as LeFou in a prequel series about Gaston. Only three days after it was announced that Rita Ora had joined the show’s cast, Disney announced that they were not moving forward with the show. Gad, who was set to produce and star in the new series, recently appeared on the Just for Variety podcast and talked a bit about his experience with LeFou’s story. When asked directly about the character’s journey with his sexuality, Gad was cryptic about what was going to happen on the now-canceled show.

“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,” Gad told Variety. “I think that we have origin stories here that are unbelievably exciting because they’re unexpected. And I think ‘expect the unexpected’ is all I can really say. And not just with regard to LeFou and Gaston but to a lot of the new characters that we’re introducing.”

Do you agree with Gad’s thoughts about LeFou’s portrayal in Beauty and the Beast? Tell us in the comments!