Film's gay moment has been overblown: Beauty and the Beast director Bill Condon

Washington DC: Speaking out about the controversy surrounding Disney's first openly gay character, director of 'Beauty and the Beast' Bill Condon now says the whole thing has been blown out of proportion.

The director, in an interview with ScreenCrush, said the public's reaction to character LeFou's (played by Josh Gad) questioning of his sexuality was stronger than he had anticipated, reports The Hollywood Reporter.

"Oh, God. Can I just tell you? It's all been overblown. Because it's just this - it's part of just what we had fun with," Condon told the outlet. "I love the way it plays pure when people don't know and it comes as a nice surprise."

He further said that he hopes audiences don't "make a big deal of it. Why is it a big deal?"

Now that the film has made headlines for its homosexual undertones, a drive-in theater in Henagar, Alabama has refused to show the movie.

On Saturday, BBC News reported that Russia was considering banning the live-action adaptation for violating a law prohibiting gay propaganda directed toward minors.