Josh Gad’s LeFou stays straight in ‘Beauty and the Beast’ adaptation

Josh Gad is ready to give his side of the story.

In his new memoir, In Gad We Trust, the Frozen actor opens up about the challenging period following the release of the 2017 Beauty and the Beast reboot. A brief shot of Gad’s character LeFou dancing with another man prompted an intense public backlash, but Gad claims he “never once” played the faithful servant to the arrogant Gaston (Luke Evans) as gay, and that the “sweet and innocuous moment” was taken wildly out of context.

“I for one certainly didn’t exactly feel like LeFou was who the queer community had been wistfully waiting for,” Gad writes. “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.”

But it wasn’t the dancing scene alone that turned an inoffensive legacy IP rehash into a powder keg of controversy. Off-the-cuff comments from key member of the Beauty and the Beast creative team helped plant the idea that the film intentionally set out to make LGBTQ history.

Gad says that prior to production commencing on Beauty and the Beast that he, director Bill Condon, and screenwriters Stephen Chbosky and Evan Spiliotopoulos had a “casual (but ultimately seismic) conversation… about the specific nature of LeFou’s devotion to Gaston. In the course of our discussions, we tried to distinguish whether or not LeFou loved Gaston or was in love with Gaston.”

They “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.” To be as clear as possible, Gad reiterates that the Beauty and the Beast creative team “never once discussed” putting the focus on “LeFou’s sexuality, which frankly was not a thing to really explore in a random comedic character in the film… or so I thought.”

Josh Gad and Luke Evans in ‘Beauty and the Beast’.

Laurie Sparham/Walt Disney pictures/everett

But the focus did shift onto LeFou’s sexuality, for two reasons. First, it was an idea that Condon and the choreography team had for LeFou — “a brief, tiny moment dancing with another male celebrant.” Gad approved of the “cheeky” addition to the film, writing, “because 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.”

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Second, Condon gave an interview to Attitude in March 2017 in which he said the following: “LeFou is somebody who on one day wants to be Gaston and on another day wants to kiss Gaston. He’s confused about what he wants… and Josh makes something really subtle and delicious out of it. And


Credit: ew.com