Josh Gad, who plays LeFou in Disney's
upcoming live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast, said at
the film's premiere that he's proud of his character.
LeFou, the bumbling sidekick to Gaston,
the film's ultra-masculine villain, has a “gay moment” in the
film, according to director Bill Condon.
“[LeFou] is just realizing that he
has these feelings [for Gaston],” Condon
told UK gay glossy Attitude.
“And Josh makes something really subtle and delicious out of it.
And that's what has its pay-off at the end, which I don't want to
give away. But it is a nice, exclusively gay moment in a Disney
movie.”
At Thursday's premiere, Gad told the
AP that Condon “did an amazing job of giving us an opportunity
to create a version of LeFou that isn’t like the original, that
expands on what the original did, but that makes him more human and
makes him a wonderfully complex character to some extent.”
“I'm very proud of it. It's an
incredible moment and it's subtle, but I think it's effective,” Gad
said of the scene.
Out actor Luke Evans, who plays Gaston
in the film, added, “Fear is not a good thing to fuel, and Gaston
is responsible for that. But he fails – he fails miserably, and
everybody finds love. Everyone!”
(Related: Franklin
Graham calls for Disney boycott over gay characters.)