Disney to feature first gay character

"Beauty and the Beast" is a romantic classic centered on a heterosexual love story, but its upcoming remake will be breaking new ground by featuring Disney's first "exclusively gay moment," filmmaker Bill Condon revealed in an interview with the magazine "Attitude."

The central story stars Emma Watson as Belle and former "Downton Abbey" star Dan Stevens as the Beast. Accompanying the film's main antagonist, Gaston (Luke Evans), is his sidekick, a character called LeFou, played by Josh Gad.

"LeFou is somebody who on one day wants to be Gaston and on another day wants to kiss Gaston," Condon said in the interview. "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."

Asked to confirm this by television host Chris Parent, actor Josh Gad replied by posting on twitter that he was "beyond proud" of his character.

Condon, who is openly gay himself, pointed out that the soundtrack to Disney's 1991 version of the tale was composed by Howard Ashman and Alan Menkan. Ashman was battling AIDS during production and died before the release of the film. As "Beauty and the Beast" is also a story about feeling ostracized and finding acceptance, some of the lyrics echoed Ashman's own stigmatization.   

The remake of "Beauty and the Beast" hits theaters March 16 in Germany and March 17 in North America.