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[yanipheonu]

I mean, I've heard worse answers.

 

[adamantypants]

Yeah, I don't see a problem. I'm as socially liberal as you can get, but he's on a press junket representing Disney being interviewed about a Disney movie. What he says is basically Disney's word, not his own.

If he said the same thing casually or in an informal interview, like late night, then he would deserve the vitriol.

 

[Bobby Roberts]

Disney is rushing to remove gay Rafiki as we speak.

Why would they make Rafiki gay when they have Timon & Pumbaa right there?

 

[Sanjuro]

Why would they make Rafiki gay when they have Timon & Pumbaa right there?

If they make those gay characters gay, I'm boycotting the film!

I'd also be down for gay Scar. He sent me a few vibes back in the day.

 

[aeolist]

Everything about this "exclusively gay moment" has been milquetoast and hamfisted.

The gay moment is two men dancing for fucks sake.

They should be ashamed, just a clear attempt to gain publicity points from progressives while doing the least possible.

it's the epitome of capitalist exploitation of social justice. this is all we'll ever get from these huge rapacious companies.

 

[What did he mean by this?]

A real life thread backfire

 

[Discotheque]

Disney is rushing to remove gay Rafiki as we speak.

hahaha.

they should get RuPaul to voice new Rafiki tbh.

 

[Bobby Roberts]

If they make those gay characters gay, I'm boycotting the film!

I do wonder if they're going to lean into that, though.

 

[Vital Tundra]

I'm not gonna make him out to be some piece of shit for not saying anything, but what a fucking coward. No one is going to shit on you for saying what's right.

 

[Sanjuro]

hahaha.

they should get RuPaul to voice new Rafiki tbh.

I'm okay with this.

 

[SweetDonuts]

It's sad that he couldn't say he supported equal rights because it could possibly lead to "backlash", very sad. I think he gave a cowardly answer.

 

[Isotropy]

I'd also be down for gay Scar. He sent me a few vibes back in the day.

But not in a worthwhile way. Scar was basically the epitome of the long-running Hollywood trope of the devious/deviant effeminate male villain. There was nothing inventive about him at all, laziest part of the movie.

 

[PSqueak]

Man, must suck to be in his position:

-Say you're in favor? There will be Negative Consequences
-Say you're against? There will be Negative Consequences
-Decline to comment? There will be Negative Consequences

As far as we know he could totally be in for it, but told to not comment beyond the context of his character by disney or his agent, but now, with a "decline" answer, people will just assume he's is on the side they're not, here in GAF people say "he was to coward to say he supports it!", conservatives probably are all like "He didn't straight up say he doesn't support it, he must support it" and all he got now is stress.

 

[Shanlei91]

"I'm going to stay out of that one. I don't need that controversy," Gad told Fairfax Media at the Sydney premiere of the film, before being swiftly led away by his publicity team.

And yet this comment still managed to stir controversy haha

hahaha.

they should get RuPaul to voice new Rafiki tbh.

I would watch Rafiki's drag race.

I'd also be down for gay Scar. He sent me a few vibes back in the day.

Dunno why.

 

[Koomaster]

Perhaps, but do you think Disney will want him to wade into the debate on the week of release?

They don't get it both ways. They don't get the credit for including gay characters/moments in their films and then turn around and complain if one of their actors comes out in support of lgbt rights.

 

[a916]

If they make those gay characters gay, I'm boycotting the film!

I'd also be down for gay Scar. He sent me a few vibes back in the day.

Well, he was Sarabi's mate... I would rather they keep him straight because it makes Scar even more evil that he was shacking up with Simba's mom.

 

[Poor GRIMES]

While I get the comments here, it's still sad that supporting such a thing is considered a political statement that people shouldn't feel they need to openly support.

 

[excelsiorlef]

Man, must suck to be in his position:

-Say you're in favor? There will be Negative Consequences
-Say you're against? There will be Negative Consequences
-Decline to comment? There will be Negative Consequences

As far as we know he could totally be in for it, but told to not comment beyond the context of his character by disney or his agent, but now, with a "decline" answer, people will just assume he's is on the side they're not, here in GAF people say "he was to coward to say he supports it!", conservatives probably are all like "He didn't straight up say he doesn't support it, he must support it" and all he got now is stress.

Spoiler

Who cares what homophobic conservatives think

 

[Beth Cyra]

This whole minor gay moment has caused such an up road for almost nothing of value given how quickly it goes by.

I don't blame him for avoiding at this point, his career doesn't need this mess I suppose.

Those poor dears who dreamed Elsa could be a lesbian......., this world can't handle a minor male dance scene let alone the most popular character for females in decades

Damn shame.

 

[Messofanego]

If they make those gay characters gay, I'm boycotting the film!

I'd also be down for gay Scar. He sent me a few vibes back in the day.

Well, there is the whole weird thing of making villains quite flamboyant and feminine, so implanting negative stereotypes of gays onto them and they're found in Disney "sissy" villains. When the Hays Code (1930s) came about, "sissies" then became villains who were contrasted with the super masculinity of the heroes. There's a bunch of politics about this.

VICE: Why Do Disney Villains Sound Gay?

Why Are Disney Villains Gay / Queer? : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8pDYbPSKlU

It's not just Disney, obviously.

 

[Bladenic]

While I get the comments here, it's still sad that supporting such a thing is considered a political statement that people shouldn't feel they need to openly support.

This.

Also Josh Gad's ego needs to come back down. He's hardly a big enough star that anyone would give a fuck what he says.

 

[Shanlei91]

He's hardly a big enough star that anyone would give a fuck what he says.

To be fair, we're currently in a thread titled "Josh Gad refuses to say he supports marriage equality in Australia"

 

[hirokazu]

Sounds a lot like he doesn't want his opinion to mire the BatB publicity run, either by personal choice and/or by Disney's. Fair enough.

 

[Aarglefarg]

Are AU's political gerrymanders even more ridiculous than the US's or something?

149 out of our 150 electorates were (majority) in favour of marriage equality, in a study of the 2013 Vote Compass*. And that odd one out had a slim majority against it.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-polit...osed-to-samesex-marriage-20160923-grn2mq.html

*Not a direct poll but they used an educational tool people use to see how candidates align with their views, and adjusted the results in this research based on demographics.

 

[Particle Physicist]

Well, I think there's two possibilities in here.

One: He doesn't support equal rights for the LQTBQ community, and if so, fuck him.

Two: He does support them but with all the controversy, he is scared to speak for it because of the possible backslash he could get.

I don't necessarily fault him if it's the second, I'm not sure if I would be brave enough to speak my mind when I knew millions would hear me.

Number 2 would make him a coward. A huge fucking coward. If it's a contract thing that is different though. Still a bit upsetting but more understandable.

 

[IdreamofHIME]

I didn't even know he was Australian.

 

[firehawk12]

I bet they're already afraid of the "backlash" that the initial announcement had.

 

[Particle Physicist]

I didn't even know he was Australian.

He isn't.

 

[PSqueak]

Spoiler

Who cares what homophobic conservatives think

About what they think? no one worth listening to.
About their MONEY tho? Disney, most likely.

 

[Chuck Norris]

Why should he comment on another country's politics if he doesn't want to? The no comment is perfectly acceptable, he is an actor that doesn't mean he has to be a politician or activist if he doesn't want to. Especially when it comes to a country he likely knows nothing about the political situation

With that said, Prime Minister Trumble is the only name that should be matched with "coward" in this thread

 

[PeskyToaster]

These weird Disney conspiracy theories are so bizarre. First they personally send executives to oversee every decision made in a movie to enforce strict diversity quotas yet also put out gag orders on their actors to stop them from discussing said diversity. What an amazing plan for maximum profit.

 

[PSqueak]

These weird Disney conspiracy theories are so bizarre. First they personally send executives to oversee every decision made in a movie to enforce strict diversity quotas yet also put out gag orders on their actors to stop them from discussing said diversity. What an amazing plan for maximum profit.

It's not a foreign concept, for example, you know why Will Smith's love interest in "Hitch" was a latin actress (Eva Mendez)? Because execs thought that a black actress (as they originally intended) would make the movie "too black", hollywood has always been like that about diversity: "diverse but not TOO much", so they're like "we'll make Le Fou gay, but don't make the movie TOO queer friendly!"

 

[Skellig Gra]

Is he an expert in Australian politics? If not I'll give him a pass.

 

[Grassy]

Australia's most popular tv show at the moment is "Married at first sight".. sanctity of marriage indeed.

People actually watch that shit? Wow.

 

[broncobuster]

Chris Evans is playing Captain America, has an infinitely bigger target on his back, and yet he and Don Cheadle have zero issue expressing their disgust in the Trump administration. Yet Gad is too fucking afraid to say "I support equal rights."

Evans and Cheadle do it on their personal time. It's a bit different when you're on the job promoting the movie. It's partly why Evans and Renner caught heat for calling Black Widow a slut while promoting Avengers 2.

I don't like Gad, even before I was swindled into watching The Wedding Ringer, but when you're on the company's dime at least I understand why he's wary of answering. He could've come up with a more diplomatic response, for sure.

 

[excelsiorlef]

I didn't even know he was Australian.

He's not he was in Australia doing a press tour


Here's what happened:

Director of the movie let's this slip

”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."

http://attitude.co.uk/world-exclusi...et-to-make-disney-history-with-gay-character/

And everyone goes hey cool and talks about it... now Gad gets asked about gay rights because he's playing a supposedly gay character...

Of course not everyone even agrees he's gay:

However, Alan Menken, the legendary composer of the original animated Disney film, is disagreeing with the live-action film's director and actors on LeFou's sexuality — ambiguous or otherwise.

"You know, I don't see him pining," Menken told ComicBook.com. ”To me, he has always been look[ing] up to Gaston, in a nerdy kind of way."

Menken said media coverage of the topic was "absurd" and "nuts," and called LeFou's sexual orientation "an utter non-issue." He also blamed the journalist from the gay magazine, who first broke the news, for creating smoke without fire.

"I know there's been this whole discussion, which is to me, absolutely absurd. It's just nuts," he said." As far as I can tell, some journalist in England decided to make it his cause célèbre to push this agenda. And it's really not really part of the movie in any overt way at all ... any more than it was in the original. To me, it's an utter non-issue. And I'd appreciate people realizing that it's a non-issue because it's just silly. But that's journalism, and I understand."

http://www.advocate.com/film/2017/3/14/alan-menken-says-lefou-isnt-gay

And Gad wants to have it both ways

LeFou has what Gad calls a ”subtle but incredibly effective" scene during the film's finale that hints at a happily ever after. Gad tells PEOPLE that the moment in the movie teaches an important lesson central to the theme of the film: ”Never judging a book by its cover."

”What I would say is that this film is one of inclusiveness," the 36-year-old says. ”It's one that has something to offer everyone."

http://people.com/movies/josh-gad-gay-moment-beauty-and-the-beast-inclusiveness/

"there was nothing in the script that said ‘LeFou is gay.'"

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/...josh-gad-lefou-beauty-and-the-beast/98679284/

And now the director is backtracking

Going back to Josh, where did the idea of his sexuality come in?
Can I just say, I'm sort of sick of this. Because you've seen the movie — it's such a teeny thing, and it's been overblown.

I was wondering what your interpretation of that was, because it's become this sort of —
Well, people haven't seen the movie. They have to see the movie, and they'll understand that it's not what it's about.

It is such a small part of the movie, but it doesn't feel insignificant.
Yeah, I guess so.

http://www.vulture.com/2017/03/bill-condon-on-directing-beauty-and-the-beast.html

Condon as a gay man should know that LGBT folk are always hoping for representation and that to essentially tease it and then go hey now it's actually not much, it's all overblown is fucking brutal.

Sad thing is Condon is right, the scene is fuck nothing, other than at most an aww cute moment maybe: Spoiler's for that scene

Spoiler

It's one of those old-timey dances, where the men twirl the women and they change partners. In a roughly three-second cut, LeFou twirls his partner, but instead of another woman twirling into his personal space, it's a man. And they look at each other. And then the camera moves away.

That's it.
If you had hopes and dreams about finally seeing gay inclusivity in a Disney film, you're furious.

And of course media writers love to flog fellow media writers

It exposes the giddy gusto with which the media will create a news vacuum, and suck us all into its void of hot takes and think pieces and talking-head arguments. Even after the film screened for critics and the gay emperor was exposed without his clothes, we still reported and debated that now-naked gay emperor.

Condon gave a statement regretting that so much ado had been made about the "exclusively gay moment." Actor Dan Stevens, who plays the Beast, decried to The Daily Beast that, ”I presume somebody somewhere thought it would drive a lot of traffic to their site, that's usually how these things start." For the love of god, even the voice actor who voiced LeFou in the animated film weighed in on the sexuality.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articl...-how-one-dumb-scene-sparked-global-furor.html

Because apparently being excited for a possibly gay moment and running stories of it based on the director calling it a gay moment. Like read that inital description that's 100% saying LeFou is at least questioning his sexuality (I'd argue t implies much more than that)

The scene though is fuck nothing and Condon should have kept is mouth shut because he hyped it up to a freaking Gay Magazine (which somehow it becomes their fault for quoting him)... This is basically Condon's fault, and everyone looks stupid (Condon, Gad, Disney) because of it.

 

[AntraxSuicide]

"Staying out of the debate" is also an inherently political act.

This is my favorite post so far. Inaction is itself action.

 

[Lil'DigiOp]

Ironic Disney wants to pimp a gay character as publicity for their movie but will gag comments on equal rights because of "politics"

 

[Particle Physicist]

Is he an expert in Australian politics? If not I'll give him a pass.

You need to be an expert in order to say something like, "I support equality for all" ?

 

[danm999]

Are AU's political gerrymanders even more ridiculous than the US's or something?

No our Prime Minister is just spineless. He supports it but is scared of pissing off the retro grades in his party.

Majority of the public wants it (confirmed in poll after poll), majority of parliament would likely vote for it. It's just a few dinosaurs holding it up.

 

[Flux]

I always thought he was gay so it really sounded extra cowardly. Turns out he's just been using the controversy to elevate himself.

 

[Madness]

You need to be an expert in order to say something like, "I support equality for all" ?

Do you really need to say anything? What is this absolutes stuff? Either you're with me or you're my enemy. He didn't want to say anything and so he didn't. You are free to criticize him sure, but come on. No one has any obligation to say anything they don't want or have to.

 

[lenovox1]

I'm not sure what to think - it seems obnoxious, the way he said it.

To be fair, he may be completely unfamiliar with the climate and not want to screw anything up.

The reality is, he could have condemned Turnbull in pretty strong language over marriage equality and got big applause for it.

As an American musical theatre actor with a gay brother, I'm sure he's in full support of marriage equality as a concept in general and was in full support of marriage equality in the States.

As an American musical theatre actor, he probably has no idea who Turnbull is and has no idea about the ins and outs this issue as it pertains to Australia.

 

[lenovox1]

Well, I think there's two possibilities in here.

One: He doesn't support equal rights for the LQTBQ community, and if so, fuck him.

Two: He does support them but with all the controversy, he is scared to speak for it because of the possible backslash he could get.

I don't necessarily fault him if it's the second, I'm not sure if I would be brave enough to speak my mind when I knew millions would hear me.

Or 3, he got roped into this situation completely unexpectedly and legitimately has no comment.

 

[Transhuman]

As an Australian, I also refuse to say whether I support marriage equality.

Spoiler

I do.

 

[johnsmith]

As an American musical theatre actor with a gay brother, I'm sure he's in full support of marriage equality as a concept in general and was in full support of marriage equality in the States.

As an American musical theatre actor, he probably has no idea who Turnbull is and has no idea about the ins and outs this issue as it pertains to Australia.

Why is this relevant? Human rights are human rights, no matter the country. Do Australian gays deserve to have less rights than American gays? Are they inferior in some way? It's not a political issue, it's a human rights issue. He should be saying he supports gay marriage no matter what, even if he's in Russia or Saudi Arabia.

 

[Transhuman]

Why is this relevant? Human rights are human rights, no matter the country. Do Australian gays deserve to have less rights than American gays? Are they inferior in some way? It's not a political issue, it's a human rights issue. He should be saying he supports gay marriage no matter what, even if he's in Russia or Saudi Arabia.

You should boycott the movie because of how pro-gay rights you are.

 

[johnsmith]

You should boycott the movie because of how pro-gay rights you are.

Quite the non sequitur there

 

[Transhuman]

Well if you're upset with Disney because they put a gag order on Gad because all this controversy is losing them ticket sales in foreign markets maybe you should boycott

 

[lenovox1]

Why is this relevant? Human rights are human rights, no matter the country. Do Australian gays deserve to have less rights than American gays? Are they inferior in some way? It's not a political issue, it's a human rights issue. He should be saying he supports gay marriage no matter what, even if he's in Russia or Saudi Arabia.

Okay. So consider the context and consider the actual question.

There is a zero percent chance that Josh Gad absolutely was in any way prepared or could even process someone asking him, "What do you have to say to Prime Minister Turnbull?", at a Disney press event for a movie that has nothing to do with gay rights or the gay experience.