We’ve come a long way since Disney’s first “gay-only moment” when the studio made a big deal about LeFou in its live-action show. Good and bad—especially in the big depressed circle, now we’re back at the House of Mouse cutting LGBTQ+ headlines from its media to appeal to conservative parents again. But now almost eight years later, the star at the center of this back-patting noise is talking about how shocked she was to see Disney blow it up equally.
“I personally didn’t feel like LeFou was what the queer community was waiting for,” Josh Gad said of his role as LeFou in the film, writing in his new memoir. In the Garden Sithembe (via Entertainment Weekly). “I can’t imagine a Pride celebration honoring a ‘cinematic watershed moment’ that includes a Disney villain sidekick dancing with a man for half a second. I mean, if I were gay, I’m sure I’d be upset.”
And yet, that’s actually what Disney tried to do back in 2017, when Good and badDirector Bill Condon teased the moment—where LeFou dances with a male co-star during the film’s climactic sequence—as a major step forward for Disney’s on-screen LGBTQ+ efforts, describing it (now infamously) as “the only gay moment” in an interview with Attitude. But according to Gad, this moment had not been discussed as a deliberate moment, and was not intended to be seen as a silent nod.
“Because I was a side character, I didn’t want to just throw the weight of sex on this actor who didn’t drive the movie,” Gad wrote. But this time (as described to me) seemed harmless enough—a delightful blink-and-you’ll-miss-it little beat.”
Instead, Condon’s casting at the time turned into a firestorm in the media, with fans outraged by the two men dancing together (something that had never happened in a Disney film before) and the studio itself eager to capitalize on it. a tiny speck of queer representation on the big screen. It wouldn’t be the first time in the next few years, as Disney seems to have been able to rehash the fact that they are making their “first openly gay character” in many press cycles, even as the studio and its major subsidiaries take slow steps towards queer. characters and their existence beyond this acceptance of abandonment.
“If the audience had interpreted this as just a good gay moment, I would have been happy,” Gad concluded, “but the second we showed it and it seemed to be self-congratulatory, we invited hell and fury.”
The more things change, the more they stay the same—even though now Disney is inviting hell and fury with its cowardice, more than anything else.
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