Director of the forthcoming live-action reboot, Bill Condon has announced that Beauty and the Beast will feature Disney’s first gay character in the remake of the film.
While speaking in an interview recently, Condon said he and the movie’s writers and producers have developed the admiration felt by sidekick LeFou (played by actor Josh Gad).
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‘It’s somebody who’s just realising that he has these feelings,’ he said. ‘And Josh makes something really subtle and delicious out of it. And that’s what has its pay-off at the end, which I don’t want to give away. But it is a nice, exclusively gay moment in a Disney movie.’
‘And Josh makes something really subtle and delicious out of it. And that’s what has its pay-off at the end, which I don’t want to give away. But it is a nice, exclusively gay moment in a Disney movie.’
On Wednesday March 1, 2017, Gad tweeted that he was ‘beyond proud’ to be playing such a groundbreaking role, which is a tribute to the 1991 original’s lyricist Howard Ashman, who died before the film opened.
The film, which Watson has said she would have been unwilling to sign on for had it not been a feminist reinvention of the fairy tale, is set for release soon.
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Co-star, Luke Evans is one of the few openly gay leading actors and Condon – whose previous credits include Dream Girls, The Fifth Estate and the final two Twilight movies – is also gay.
The trailer for Beauty and the Beast, which is one of the most eagerly anticipated films of the year, was watched more than 130 million times in its first 24 hours when it was released last year.
Other cast members include Ewan McGregor, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Kevin Kline and Stanley Tucci.
This post originally appeared on TNS.
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