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Entertainment March 1, 2017
Photo via Twitter/@TheSplashReportThere’s something very new about the live action remake of animated classic “Beauty and the Beast.” The film is to feature Disney’s first ever LGBTQ character.
Gaston’s sidekick LeFou will wrestle with his sexuality in an added subplot to the movie – and Josh Gad who plays him couldn’t be more thrilled.
Gad tweeted that he was “beyond proud” to be such a part of film history.
Announcing the news in Attitude magazine, “Beauty and the Beast” director Bill Condon said, “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. It’s somebody who’s just realizing that he has these feelings. And Josh makes something really subtle and delicious out of it. And that’s what has its payoff at the end, which I don’t want to give away. But it is a nice, exclusively gay moment in a Disney movie.” Luke Evans plays Belle’s brawny suitor Gaston.
Condon introduced the new storyline in honor of the late Howard Ashman, who wrote the lyrics for the original film but died of AIDS before seeing its 1991 release. Ashman, who also wrote the lyrics for “The Little Mermaid,” left a personal mark on “Beauty and the Beast,” according to Condon, who said the lyricist added depth to the story by seeing the Beast’s curse as a metaphor for his own battle with AIDS.
Condon explained, “He was cursed, and this curse had brought sorrow on all those people who loved him, and maybe there was a chance for a miracle and a way for the curse to be lifted … It was a very, very concrete thing that he was doing.”
Emma Watson and Dan Stevens, who play Belle and Beast in the remake, have both said the new film revolves around the theme of ostracism, with Belle too clever to fit in with the local establishment and Beast persecuted because of his appearance.
Ewan McGregor, Kevin Kline, Emma Thompson, Ian McKellen, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Stanley Tucci and Audra McDonald also feature in “Beauty and the Beast,” which will be released on March 17.
