No hate allowed! John Stamos was quick to fire back after conservative congressional candidate Omar Navarro criticized Cruella for having a queer character.
“The new Disney Cruella with Emma Stone just ruined my childhood with an openly flamboyant gay in the movie,” the politician tweeted on Sunday, May 30. “Disney persist shoving the LGBT agenda down our throat.”
The Big Shot star, 57, wouldn’t stand for the intolerant comment. “If that ruined your childhood, I hope you didn’t watch Full House,” Stamos teased in response to Navarro, who’s running against representative Maxine Waters in California. “Three single men, living under one roof raising kids in San Francisco….”
Stamos played Uncle Jesse on the beloved sitcom, which originally aired from 1987 to 1995. He reprised the role on the Netflix reboot, titled Fuller House, which came to an end in June 2020 after five seasons.
Cruella hit Disney+ on Friday, May 28. Set in 1970s London, the movie follows young Estella Miller (Stone) before she becomes 101 Dalmatians villain Cruella de Vil. British actor John McCrea portrays Artie, the first original character in a live-action Disney film to be openly gay.
“The thing I admired the most was his philosophy of not being normal,” the Olivier Award nominee told Pride magazine ahead of the movie’s debut. “He’s trying to live authentically. Be yourself and do what makes you happy, screw everybody else. As long as you’re not hurting anybody, why shouldn’t you be able to live your life in any way you want to?”
McCrea “very, very gladly” took the chance to bring an LGBTQ+ character to life for a broad audience.
“The thought that there might be some kid sitting in the cinema, maybe not even necessarily understanding why or how he identifies with Artie, but just it’s a feeling, isn’t it?” he added.
Artie owns a vintage fashion shop and sparks a connection with Cruella in the film, eventually joining her entourage. In earlier versions of the story, the character looked very different.
“In one of the original scripts, he was a drag queen,” McCrea told Attitude in May. “I think he was always intended to be queer-representing I suppose, or somehow a member of the LGBTQ community. I imagine that was always the case.”
Though some viewers (like Navarro) weren’t pleased with the decision to include a queer character, McCrea is hopeful that Artie’s story will make a difference.
“If I had a character growing up like that to watch on the screen I would’ve fallen in love,” he continued. “Also with the idea that he’s completely well-adjusted, very happy, and has a real lust for life. Those are things I’d find so exciting. He lives by his own rules. A wonderful line he says is, ‘Normal is the harshest insult of all.’ A wonderful mentality to have.”
