Ewan McGregor Responds to 'Beauty and the Beast' Outrage Over Gay Character

Ewan McGregor is shutting down those who’ve expressed outrage over a gay character in Disney’s live-action remake “Beauty and the Beast.”

“He’s a gay character — it’s 2017, for f—- sake!” the actor, who voices Lumiere in the film, said during his appearance to promote the film on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” on Monday.

“There is a lot of gay sex in it,” he joked. “There is a lot of gay sex in this cartoon. If you live anywhere near Alabama, you should not go see this film. What would Jesus think?”

Also Read: 'Beauty and the Beast' Shelved in Malaysia Despite Cut of 'Gay Moment'

Of course, McGregor was referring to an Alabama theater that decided to pull its scheduled screenings of Disney’s live-action “Beauty and the Beast” remake because of the film’s inclusion of a “homosexual character.”

The theater’s decision came after director Bill Condon told Attitude Magazine that “Beauty and the Beast” would feature an “exclusively gay moment” involving Josh Gad’s character, LeFou, the buddy of vain villain Gaston (Luke Evans).

“LeFou is somebody who on one day wants to be Gaston and on another day wants to kiss Gaston,” Condon told the magazine. “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. 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.”

Also Read: YouTube Star Davey Wavey Hilariously Mocks 'Beauty and the Beast' Gay Outrage

Due to the “exclusively gay moment,” Russia gave the film an age restriction although it initially proposed a ban in the country, and the movie was shelved in Malaysia although a cut of a gay scene had been approved.

During McGregor’s visit, he also told Colbert that he has never seen the 1991 original “Beauty and the Beast,” but this actually helped him prepare for the role of Lumiere given that he could really make the character his own.

Watch the clip above.

20 Facts You Didn't Know About 1991's 'Beauty and the Beast' (Photos)

Nov. 22 marks the 25th anniversary of 1991's "Beauty and the Beast," so TheWrap teamed up with IMDb to give you these 20 facts you may not have known about the Oscar-winning film.
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Belle (played by Paige O'Hara), the "beauty" in the tale, was the first brown-haired Disney princess.
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The smoke during the transformation of the Beast is not animated -- it was real smoke originally used in 1985's "The Black Cauldron," TheWrap confirmed.
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Although Angela Lansbury is famous for singing the "Beauty and the Beast" ballad, she originally thought another actor would be more suited. The director asked her to make at least one recording of her singing the song, which ended up in the film.
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Before "Up," "Beauty and the Beast" was the only animated film that was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1992.
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While Belle sits at the fountain during the first song and flips though the book, you can see a dark-haired maiden, a monstrous male figure and a regal castle.
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Julie Andrews was considered for the role of Mrs. Potts before Angela Lansbury was cast.
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Lansbury recorded her lines during her breaks on the set of "Murder, She Wrote."
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When the writers wrote the part of Cogsworth, they had John Cleese specifically in mind, but he turned down the role (it then went to David Ogden Stiers).
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This was the first Disney animated film to have a final and fully-developed script before animators started their work on it.
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Laurence Fishburne, Val Kilmer and Mandy Patinkin were considered for the role of the Beast, which was eventually played by Robby Benson.
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Every line of the title song has exactly five syllables.
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The dance between Belle and the Prince in the finale is reused animation from "Sleeping Beauty" (1959), where Princess Aurora and Prince Phillip dance in the ballroom.
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The sign post that Belle's father, Maurice, walks by in the woods reads "Valencia, Anaheim and Burbank."
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Belle is the only one in her town who wears blue, meaning to show how different she is from everyone else.
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"Beauty and the Beast" was the first Disney animated film to cross the $100 million box office mark.
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The finished product consisted of 7,000 feet of hand-drawn film, 1,100 painted backgrounds and 150,000 individually-rendered frames.
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"Beauty and the Beast" took over three-and-a-half years to complete.
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Walt Disney considered making "Beauty and the Beast" four decades prior, but it was sidelined because they couldn't figure out how to deal with the story's "claustrophobic" second half.
Glen Keane was the supervising animator in charge of designing the Beast. The creature became a hybrid with the mane of a lion, the beard and head structure of a buffalo, the tusks and nose of a wild bear, the heavily muscled brow of a gorilla, the legs and tail of a wolf and the big body of a bear.
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According to director Gary Trousdale, "Be Our Guest" was supposed to have been sung by Maurice. They then decided it would be more meaningful if directed at Belle.

You can find more trivia, goofs and quotes on IMDb.
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Here’s some trivia you may not have known about how Disney’s adaptation of the classic fable came to be

Nov. 22 marks the 25th anniversary of 1991's "Beauty and the Beast," so TheWrap teamed up with IMDb to give you these 20 facts you may not have known about the Oscar-winning film.

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