OUT MAGAZINE
Even the actors playing Disney's "first gay characters" know it's not enough.
Josh Gad, who played LeFou in Disney's live-action 2017 remake of Beauty and the Beast is reflecting back on portraying his character as gay, and he's not exactly satisfied.
Gad talked to The Independent about his career and looking back on playing LeFou five years after the movie came out. And he didn't mince words when it comes to whether or not the movie, and Disney, deserved praise for making his character gay.
"We didn't go far enough to warrant accolades. We didn't go far enough to say, 'look how brave we are,'" he said. "My regret in what happened is that it became 'Disney's first explicitly gay moment' and it was never intended to be that."
The "explicitly gay moment" he mentioned was a scene at the end of the movie where there's a large crowd scene of characters dancing and LeFou is partnered with another male character for a few seconds of the dance.
"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. That was not LeFou," he said.
"If we're going to pat ourselves on the back, then damn it, we should have gone further with that," Gad continued. "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 supposed to have a chance to flesh out the character and his sexuality in an upcoming Beauty and the Beast prequel series following LeFou and Gaston for Disney+. Unfortunately, earlier this month, the series was put on indefinite hold because of "creative reasons" and scripts and original music taking longer and going in different directions than expected.
Many fans were hoping that the show would have explored LeFou's sexuality. Gad himself had said to "expect the unexpected" with the character and was looking forward to "doing right by him."
The show had also recently cast gay Hawkeye actor Fra Free as "handsome, charismatic, confident" Prince Benoit Berlioz, a childhood friend of LeFou's step-sister Tilly (Briana Middleton). This show really could have been the first Disney Princess project to really highlight and tell a gay story, but alas, it was too good to be true.
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