Josh Gad says portraying Disney’s first ever openly gay character is "incredible".
The 36-year-old takes on the role of LeFou in the live-action remake of ‘Beauty and the Beast’, and has said the plot alteration that allows the character – who is the bumbling side-kick of antagonist Gaston, played by Luke Evans – to become Disney’s first ever LGBTQ character is "subtle but effective".
Speaking at the world premiere of the movie in Hollywood on Thursday (02.03.17), Josh said: "[Director] Bill Condon did an amazing job of giving us an opportunity to create a version of Le Fou that isn’t like the original, that expands on what the original did, but that makes him more human and makes him a wonderfully complex character to some extent.
"It’s an incredible moment and it’s subtle, but I think it’s effective."
Exact details of the plot alteration have not been revealed so as to avoid spoiling the movie, but director Bill Condon recently described one scene as offering a "nice, exclusively gay moment".
He 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 realising 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."
Josh took to Twitter shortly after the news of his character’s sexuality was announced on Wednesday (01.03.17) to reply to a fan who had asked him to confirm the news.
Quoting the tweet which included a link to an article, Josh simply said: "Beyond proud of this."
Josh Gad: Playing Disney’s first gay character is ‘incredible’
