The actor who plays Disney's first gay character in the live action remake of Beauty and the Beast says the uproar has all just been a storm in a chipped teacup.
Beauty and the Beast opens in cinemas across the country on Thursday, and Josh Gad, who plays the ghastly Gaston's loyal offsider Le Fou, says the drama "has avalanched into this thing that it's really not".
The movie has faced controversy, with anti-gay groups throwing a fit, Russia considering banning it, and one US cinema refusing to release it.
But Gad says "I think a little too much has been made of all of it."
"Now the film is actually been seen by audiences, there's not a lot of there."
The film has been a massive hit for Disney in the United States. Gad says the experience has been an emotional one for him as an actor.
"You pinch yourself because I remember being 10 years old, seeing Beauty and the Beast for the first time in a theatre in South Florida, and the moments that ring out to me, are these moments where the audience started applauding these animated characters singing this instantaneously iconic song," he said.
"And now seeing the audience applaud in the same places...[it's] everything you hope for and more.
"I feel blessed, the whole thing is crazy."
Newshub.
