Actor Ewan McGregor has responded to the criticism directed at the live action remake of Beauty and the Beast for its inclusion of a gay character.

Disney’s live-action adaptation – a remake of the 1991 animated version of Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont’s fairy tale – will hit screens worldwide this Friday (March 17). Read NME‘s review.

The film’s director, Bill Condon, recently revealed that Josh Gad’s character LeFou will be at the centre of “a nice, exclusively gay moment in a Disney movie.” While the news was well-received by many, there were some negative headlines about Condon’s revelation notably surfaced when Russian authorities announced that they would investigate the film in relation to its possible violation of the country’s 2013 law against “gay propaganda”.

Now McGregor, who plays Lumière in the film, has told Stephen Colbert on the Late Show: “It’s just like, he’s a gay character and it’s 2017 for fuck’s sake.”

He also joked: “There’s a lot of gay sex in this cartoon, and I think if you live anywhere near Alabama you should not go and see this film. What would Jesus think?”

Watch below:

In our review of the movie, NME‘s Nick Levine writes: “Beauty And The Beast is hardly a masterpiece, but it’s not faint praise to say it does its job nicely. Fans of the original won’t be disappointed and many others will leave with ‘Be Our Guest’ stuck in their heads.”

The post Watch Ewan McGregor respond to ‘Beauty and the Beast’ backlash over gay character appeared first on NME.

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