Josh Gad recalls the ‘Hell and Fury’ answer to the ‘Gay Moment’ in Beauty and the Beast

Josh Gad reflects on “all the fuss” made about his character’s split-second moment in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast in 2017.

At the time, much was said about Gad’s character LeFou dancing with another man in a brief scene, sparking headlines that it was “first gay Disney character” after director Bill Condon said in an interview that there was a “nice, exclusively gay moment in a Disney movie.”

Gad, 43, writes about Condon’s comments in his new memoir In Gad we trust, said that it was all blown out of proportion and that he “never once” played the character as gay.

“I certainly didn’t exactly feel like LeFou was the one the queer community had been longingly waiting for. I can’t quite imagine a Pride celebration honoring the ‘watershed cinematic moment’ involving a quasi-villainous Disney sidekick , dancing with a man for half a second, I mean if I was gay I’m sure I’d be mad Frozen actor writes in the book, according to Weekly entertainment.

He adds that the team behind Beauty and the Beast “never once discussed” centering on “LeFou’s sexuality, which honestly wasn’t a thing to really explore in a random comedic character in the film…or so I thought.”

The quick same-sex dance scene “seemed harmless enough — a funny blink and you’ll miss that little beat,” Gad recalls thinking.

After Condon’s Attitude interview, the “exclusively gay moment” line became controversial, sparking boycotts and even getting the film banned in certain countries that censor LGBTQ content. The film – which starred Emma Watson, Dan Stevens and Luke Evans – still went on to become a smash hit, grossing over $1 billion at the global box office.

Had he known that so much emphasis would be directed at the “seemingly sweet and innocent moment,” he would “never have agreed” to it, Gad says in the book: It was “both too little and not enough to be more than it was.”

“Had the audience defined it as a cute exclusively gay moment, I would have been delighted,” he writes. “But the second we pointed it out and seemingly congratulated ourselves, we had invited hell and fury.”

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In March 2017, Director Condon told ScreenCrush his comments had become “exaggerated”, adding: “Why is it a big deal?” Then, in 2022, Gad noted that The independent that they “didn’t go far enough” with the gay representation “to warrant accolades.”

“We didn’t go far enough to say, ‘Look how brave we are.'” My regret about what happened is that it became ‘Disney’s first explicitly gay moment,’ and it was never meant to be it, he said at the time. “It was never meant to be a moment to praise ourselves because, frankly, I don’t think we did justice to what a real gay character in a Disney movie should be. .”

“It wasn’t LeFou. If we’re going to pat ourselves on the back, damn, we should have gone further with it,” 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.”

I Gad We Trust is available now wherever books are sold.