Beauty and the Beast Will Feature the First Two Interracial Kisses in Disney History
By Christopher Rosa. Photos: Courtesy of Disney.
As details about Disney's live-action version of *Beauty and the Beast. Then, news broke that LeFou, Gaston's sidekick, has an "exclusively gay moment" in the movie. (This makes LeFou Disney's first openly gay character, in case you were wondering.) Beauty and the Beast's progressive themes don't end there, though: According to BBC Radio 4’s Front Row, the film will also feature the first two interracial kisses in Disney history.
The first kiss happens between the wardrobe, Madame de Garderobe (Audra McDonald), and a new character named Cadenza, the harpsichord (Stanley Tucci). The second smooch is a little more familiar: Lumiere (Ewan McGregor) and the feather duster, Plumette (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), have a moment after they turn back into humans at the end of the film.
"At the preview, the chairman [of Disney] told me that it is the first and second interracial kiss in a Disney movie," *Beauty and the Beast director Bill Condon told BBC. "...it shocked me, [that] it hadn’t happened before. They were excited by that."
We're excited, too. However, this is only a step in the right direction—not total progress. It's important that interracial romances don't just become token moments in pop culture. True diversity happens when relationships involving every race, gender, and sexual orientation are represented equally. It's so wonderful that Beauty and the Beast is blazing the trail, but here's hoping actual change comes of it. It's about time movies and television really represent the millions of people watching.
Beauty and the Beast hits theaters March 17.
This story originally appeared on Glamour.
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