The Beauty and the Beast remake was a standout for its best original moments like giving Belle’s mom a backstory and Beast’s new original song “Evermore.” However, the Disney live-action remake received controversy when Gaston’s sidekick, LeFou, became part of Disney history’s LGBTQIA+ representation for having the “first gay moment.” Actor Josh Gad clarifies how his character’s queerness came together for the remake.
LeFou was the loyal servant to one of the best live-action Disney villains, Gaston. Played by Josh Gad, the Disney sidekick was introduced as the studio's first gay character on the big screen after the mistreated servant is seen dancing with another man for three seconds of the film’s ending. However, the Frozen voice actor wrote about the controversy of his character in his memoir In Gad We Trust (via EW) with an understanding of why some LGBTQIA+ fans weren’t satisfied with Disney's attempt at representation:
I for one certainly didn't exactly feel like LeFou was who the queer community had been wistfully waiting for. I can't quite imagine a Pride celebration in honor of the 'cinematic watershed moment' involving a quasi-villainous Disney sidekick dancing with a man for half a second. I mean, if I were gay, I'm sure I'd be pissed.
At the time of its release, the Christian-owned Henagar Drive-In theater banned Beauty and the Beast from being shown as well as censorship in countries like Russia, Malaysia, and Kuwait because of the insinuated same-sex attraction LeFou shows for Gaston. However, the real controversy came when director Bill Condon said in his 2017 interview with Attitude that LeFou is a character who doesn’t know whether he simply idolizes Gaston or is in love with him, making the remake’s new addition “a nice, exclusively gay moment in a Disney movie.” Josh Gad pointed out that “we had invited hell and fury” when Disney congratulated themselves on an ambiguous LGBTQIA moment that wasn’t really explored.
The Annie Award winner said that before production began on Beauty and the Beast, the creative team got together to decide on what level of love LeFou had for Gaston. Here was the decision they came up with:
…ultimately landed on the side of LeFou was truly in awe of Gaston, and that was not driven by any sexual desire whatsoever but rather a deep-seated love, appreciation, and belief in this person he had served alongside in battle for many years.
Considering the creative team decided that LeFou’s love for Gaston was more in admiration and not in anything sexual, it’s confusing why Bill Condon would later call LeFou’s infatuation with his master “an exclusively gay moment.” Maybe back then, it was Disney’s way of trying to be inclusive but not fully knowing how. Fortunately, Disney has slowly been introducing the LGBTQIA+ community starting as background characters to eventually introducing the first openly gay main character in 2022’s Strange World.
In terms of where Josh Gad stands on the heated issue, he mentioned that he “never once” played LeFou as gay. At the same time, he would have been “delighted” to portray the Disney sidekick as queer if that was the direction the creative team went in. While Gad was responsible for coming up with LeFou’s widely talked-about ending of him dancing with another man, the American actor said he saw that more as a “fun blink-and-you’ll-miss-it little beat." As the villainous Gaston dies at the end of the movie, you can see LeFou dancing with another man as a way to establish his newfound independence away from his arrogant master.
Josh Gad has previously said he regretted that moment being promoted as “exclusively gay” in not going far enough to bring justice to a real gay character. If queer audiences watching wanted to see themselves in Beauty and the Beast, more could have been done to make that happen than a few seconds of a same-sex dancing scene.
LeFou's queerness may have come together in an attempt to be inclusive to the LGBTQIA+ community, but it also brought dissatisfaction to some for being too ambiguous and providing little significance. Through this brief, unexplored representation in Beauty and the Beast, the Disney remake proved itself to be the stepping stone towards greater inclusivity that would later follow upcoming Disney movies.
Watch Josh Gad as LeFou in the musical romance fantasy playing on your Disney+ subscription. You can also read his memoir In Gad We Trust available for purchase on Amazon or your local bookstore.
