Josh Gad says he ‘never’ intended for Beauty and the Beast’s LeFou to be gay: ‘It was not enough’

Frozen star Josh Gad has reflected on the controversy surrounding his role as LeFou in 2017’s Beauty and the Beast live action remake, stating that he “never once” intended to play the character as gay.

The film, which saw Emma Watson and queer actor Luke Evans in lead roles as Belle and the Beast, caught major flak for seemingly positioning the Beast’s assistant LeFou, played by Gad, as Disney’s first LGBTQ+ character.

The film makes no explicit reference to LeFou’s sexuality, bar a brief, three-second clip of him dancing with another man.

However, in an interview with Attitude Magazine, director Bill Condon described it as an “exclusive gay moment” and suggested LeFou “wants to kiss” Gaston, prompting both backlash from anti-LGBTQ+ right-wingers, and the queer community who felt short-changed by the crumb of supposed representation.

Writing in his new memoir In Gad We Trust, Josh Gad has now addressed his feelings on the debacle, revealing that it was never intended for LeFou to be explicitly queer.

“I for one certainly didn’t exactly feel like LeFou was who the queer community had been wistfully waiting for,” Gad writes in the book, as per Entertainment Weekly, suggesting that the moment was taken out of context, and that he “never” understood the role as a gay one.

“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 p*ssed.”

Gad writes in his memoir that he, Condon and screenwriters Stephen Chbosky and Evan Spiliotopoulos did explicitly discuss |”the specific nature of LeFou’s devotion to Gaston” before filming began, to “distinguish whether or not LeFou loved Gaston or was in love with Gaston”.

Together, they concluded that LeFou was “in awe” of and had a “deep-seated love, appreciation, and belief” in the Disney villain, but that it wasn’t driven by “any sexual desire whatsoever”.

It was “never once” suggested that LeFou’s sexuality would be a leading focus in the film, Gad writes.

When Condon and the film’s choreographers suggested having LeFou dance with a man, Gad agreed as he felt it was simply a “cheeky” addition, and didn’t expect it would have any ramifications or inferences drawn from it. 

“I was a side character, I didn’t want to suddenly throw the weight of sexuality on this character that in no way was driving the film, but the moment (as described to me) seemed harmless enough – a fun blink-and-you’ll-miss-it little beat,” he explains in his book.

Gad writes that the moment was not described to him as something “that we were going to hang a lantern on and pat ourselves on the back for”, stating that he “never would have agreed to the seemingly sweet and innocuous moment” if it had been.

“It was both too little and not enough to be anything more than it was,” he continues.

However, Gad defends Condon in the book, stating that the director “felt awful” about the quote published in Attitude, as he felt he had been been “put on the spot… to share his pride for some form of representation in the film”.

Condon’s comment was seen as confirmation that Beauty and the Beast included a gay character, and that Disney was driving forward with LGBTQ+ representation – an unavoidably political move, given that the film arrived weeks after Donald Trump became president of the US.

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

In Gad We Trust is out on 16 January.