'Should have gone further': Josh Gad thinks Disney didn't do his gay character justice on Beauty and the Beast
PHOTO: Instagram/Josh Gad
PUBLISHED ONFebruary 28, 2022 4:40 AM
Josh Gad thinks Disney "didn't go far enough" in depicting his Beauty and the Beast character as gay.
The 41-year-old actor played the part of Le Fou in the 2017 movie, but Josh regrets not making more of Disney's first-ever "gay moment".
He told The Independent: "We didn't go far enough to warrant accolades.
"We didn't go far enough to say, 'Look how brave we are.' My regret in what happened is that it became 'Disney's first explicitly gay moment' and it was never intended to be that. 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."
On reflection, Josh now regrets not making more of the opportunity.
The actor — whose character briefly danced with another male character in the film — said: "If we're going to pat ourselves on the back, then damn it, we should have gone further with that.
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"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."
By contrast, Josh previously claimed that he felt "so proud" of the film's "gay moment".
The Hollywood actor — who starred in the movie alongside Emma Watson, Dan Stevens and Luke Evans — explained: "Here's what we decided, we decided that Le Fou's happy ending would be to dance with another man, [and] that became such a controversial thing apparently, even though it was three seconds of screen time.
"We never put a spotlight on it, we never meant to put a spotlight on it. I think the director Bill Condon was very proud of the moment and he made some comments about being very proud of it.
"[But] the movie speaks for itself, and that moment speaks for itself."