In ‘Bros,’ Billy Eichner Subverts the Hollywood Status Quo - Vanity Fair

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“We haven’t gotten the chance to make many movies like this,” the gay rom-com’s star and screenwriter says. “And it turns out that I had a lot to say.”

By David Canfield

September 27, 2022

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As the release approaches for Universal’s Bros—the first studio-backed gay rom-com to receive theatrical distribution—let no one say Billy Eichner didn’t do everything he could for its success. The film’s star and cowriter, riding high off of excellent reviews and buzz out of its Toronto International Film Festival premiere, has been everywhere in support of the film, both virtually and literally. He’s gone on a bus tour, made the late-night rounds, returned to the streets of New York, relentlessly flogged the project on his social media channels. He’s not letting the moment pass him by. “It’s a very rare movie—just the existence of it is very rare,” Eichner tells me on this week’s Little Gold Men (listen to the episode below). “And I’m also really proud of it.”

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Bros stars Eichner and Hallmark hunk Luke Macfarlane as two single gay men in modern New York who find themselves improbably, gradually drawn to each other—left to navigate the familiar rom-com minefields of meet-cutes and insecurities and philosophical differences, as well as the more contemporary pitfalls of the hookup-app era. It’s a seamless blend of the kind of raunchy-sweet blockbusters that Judd Apatow has put out throughout his career—he’s a producer here, notably—and of what an authentic queer rom-com in 2022 must look like.

Both accessible and entirely fresh, Bros seems likely to make a dent on Friday at the box office, which has seen successful bows for The Woman King and Don’t Worry Darling over the past two weeks. In our interview, Eichner goes deep on the making and rollout of the Nicholas Stoller–directed movie, and striking that careful balance between a timeless story and a historic breakthrough. Eichner is right in arguing Bros is for everyone, not just the LGBTQ+ viewers understandably very excited about the film, and has made that a core part of his pitch: “I really hope straight people get out there to see this movie, the way they would see any other big hilarious comedy in a movie theater that Judd Apatow made, or anyone else—because it’s really no different.”

Vanity Fair: I feel like you have been quite literally everywhere in support of this movie. What has it been like, just getting the word out and also hoping people go see this movie?

Billy Eichner: It’s been a whirlwind, a true roller coaster of emotions. It's been thrilling though. I mean, I've never been a part of anything like this. It's a very rare movie. Just the existence of it is very rare. And I'm also really proud of it. I want people to see it. When we were first testing the movie, and seeing how positive even the earliest reactions to the movie were—a lot of people laughing out loud from start to finish, even at our earliest test screenings, but also surprisingly moved by it—I told Universal that I would do anything and everything I could to get the word out and try to get people to the movie theater, which can be a difficult thing these days if you're not a franchise film or a superhero movie or a horror movie. I love comedies and I miss going to see comedies in movie theaters. And I love romantic comedies. I miss going to see those in movie theaters.

It was really special to see the reaction out of Toronto specifically, because that’s one of the biggest movie festivals in the world. You got to have this huge crowd really laughing along with the movie. But I am really curious about that other element you were talking about, of moving people. What parts of the movie do you identify as having that effect on people, that you wanted to really hit in that particular way?

I'm always surprised by which moments affect people. It's not always the ones that you see coming…. As me and my love interest, Aaron, start to bond and our relationship is becoming more intimate and vulnerable and romantic, we see all those walls come down between us. It's very sweet and feels very real and honest to people. Our characters start revealing more about our lives. It's not always within a joke form. Sometimes it gets just earnest and honest. And I think that's important too, as important as the jokes, because we haven't gotten a movie like this, not one produced and being released and distributed at this scale that is an authentic gay romcom written by a gay man and starring LGBTQ people. I think that the movie needed to find a way to acknowledge both what's celebratory and joyous about this moment and the existence of this movie, but also speak to why it took so long and the frustrations and challenges that gay people, LGBTQ people have faced. And I didn't want to do it in a heavy handed way because it is a comedy 95% of the time.

Universal has put a lot behind it. How have you experienced the rollout decisions over marketing and how to position the movie—how much to play up the fact that it is historic versus making clear that it's just a really funny, heartwarming movie? What did that balance look like for you?

The whole team at Universal has always been so open in terms of communicating with me, very receptive to my ideas. At the same time, I've never released a movie like this at this scale, and they have a lot of experience releasing huge global franchises. So I put my faith and trust in their marketing team and what their gut instincts were telling them. I chimed in when I had something to say, but for the most part I really let them run with it.

From the first trailer they put out—the red-band trailer, when they sent it to me, they were not holding back. It was bold. It was as unapologetic as the movie itself. Same goes for the poster with Luke and I grabbing each other's asses. I mean, there are gigantic billboards of that all over LA and they're all over New York, and they're all over the internet. That was all Universal. I remember seeing the first cut of the red-band trailer, which we put out before the green-band, which is also unusual, but Universal said, “No, this is a bold, unapologetic movie. We're not trying to pretend anything otherwise. We're not trying to trick people into seeing some soft little thing which walks on eggshells about the gay experience, then get them into the movie theater and then oh, boom, it's actually R-rated and raunchy and a real Judd Apatow comedy for adults.” No. They said from the beginning, We are going to be bold.

You’re a cowriter on the movie and you mentioned not having as much experience with studio movies, especially as Judd or Nick. So I'm curious for you what that learning curve was like, because a lot of your humor, as someone who knows your humor pretty well, is in there, but it's still hitting those studio rom-commy beats that we all know and love. What was that evolution like for you?

We never sat down and said, “This is what would happen in a studio rom-com now, so let's put that in.” I think all that stuff is in my blood, in my bones, both from the very specific pop culture references and the details about gay dating and gay life, which come very natural to me. I am 44-year-old gay man who's been out of the closet both professionally and personally since I was 19 or 20 years old. That's over two decades. All that information has been stored up. The one thing I did tell Nick from the very beginning is it has to be really funny and it has to be very relatable to everyone, but it still has to be authentic to the gay audience and the gay characters that it's about. I just had no interest in doing something that sanded off the edges or something that was working over time to be super palatable to straight people.

The balance I wanted to strike here—and Nick and Judd agreed, that I thought would actually be cool and subversive in its own way, which actuall—is that we are presenting what might be considered to a more heteronormative audience, subversive elements of gay life: the lack of monogamy sometimes even between a gay male couple that is in love, or at least a conversation about it, or the more somewhat liberated sex lives that we lead. Even down to specific pop culture references, which one might connect to a gay sensibility that you might not find in the Julia Roberts, George Clooney movie—I wanted to present all of those with that same warm glow that you got in Sleepless in Seattle or You've Got Mail, because there's no reason those two things can't and shouldn't coexist. There's no reason that our lives in a way shouldn't be considered traditional. I wanted to present an authentic version of gay life that still felt warm, that treated a four-way sex scene with the same warmth that a traditional sex scene or comedic sex scene might have—I like that it’s this combination of orgies and When Harry Met Sally witty banter walking around the Upper West Side.

There's a section of the movie that is set in Provincetown, and your character has one extremely moving monologue. I know you don't want to spoil too much, but broadly, what was the process for you of both writing that, because it did feel personal, and acting it, because it is a very dramatic scene to play?

That's actually one of the first scenes we shot for the movie. And it was scary to be that vulnerable. That's obviously a very personal piece of writing and it's not identical to my real life existence, but it's obviously drawn from my real life in many ways. In my previous work, so often my job was just to be a joke machine. Just to say funny things and be funny and be loud and be crazy and just make people laugh. I love doing that. I'm not an example of a sad clown or anything. I never had any of that. I love Billy on the Street. I love the other roles I've gotten to play. But 90% of the time with a couple of exceptions, I've been there to just be as funny as possible and run away, literally and figuratively. Like any human being, I'm more than that. And before I was Billy on the Street, I was a theater major at Northwestern and I was doing Chekhov and Angels in America and Shakespeare and all these things.

I wanted to create a more expansive feeling character. That required me to speak a bit more earnestly and with more vulnerability about who I really am underneath all the jokes and the confidence and the boldness and the brashness. I also, with that particular moment in the movie, felt a need not only to speak to my own personal story, but I felt like the movie needed to acknowledge that, yes, again, this is a celebratory moment, but let's think about all the people that came before us. LGBTQ folks, especially in Hollywood, who were so often punished for coming out, or never came out, and had to deal with that crazy, odd double life and whatever trauma comes along with that. I wanted to acknowledge that: Why did it take so long?

The other element of the movie that I find really interesting is its thorough, intra-Hollywood critique of the way that LGBTQ+ people have been treated in the industry. There's some commentary on certain queer-baiting awards movies that don't actually feature gay actors, and there's the Hallmark universe, and the heteronormative qualities of that. I'm curious for you how important it was to include that stuff, given what you just said about your own experiences in this industry.

My character is very outspoken and he does like to really get to the heart of what's going on in a funny way, and also deliver a fun pop culture zinger. So part of that is just how he expresses himself. And like me in real life, he has passionate thoughts about culture and pop culture and some of the hypocrisies within it and some of the bullshit and all of that. I think that Bros is not a political movie. But again, we haven't gotten the chance to make many movies like this. And it turns out that I had a lot to say. And it is rare that a gay person is getting so much creative control over a mainstream high profile movie about gay people, which historically, 90% of the time, those stories have been told by straight people for us.

Some of those movies are fantastic, and some of those performances are fantastic. But as Tom Hanks recently said, if Philadelphia was made today, he probably wouldn't get cast in that role, and that would make sense for where we are now in the middle of this cultural evolution in Hollywood. It made sense for 1992, but it might not make sense now. I'm not even saying gay should only play gay and straight should play straight. I don't think that, because it's art and it's acting and the whole fun of it is that we all get to play each other. It's art, but it's not made in a vacuum. This is a big business—especially major studio movies.

How are you feeling about Friday? Do you feel nervous? Do you feel like you have cleared that kind of hurdle after such an incredible launch in Toronto? It is a vulnerable thing, I think, to also then put this movie out into the world.

I truly do think this is the best thing I've ever done because I think it's as funny as my funniest work, but also so much more. I'll always be proud of it. I don't know about box office this or box office that. I have gone out there, as I always do when I really care about something I've done and I have worked my ass off. I have been everywhere. I told Universal to run me into the ground to promote this movie because I love it so much, and they have. And I'm still out here doing it and I'll continue to do it. I really hope straight people get out there to see this movie, the way they would see any other big hilarious comedy in a movie theater that Judd Apatow made, or anyone else, because it's really no different.

For years, since I was a child, I went to the movies and watched romantic comedies that were about straight couples and straight people, and I loved them. I laughed. I related to it. I was moved. It was aspirational, it was hopeful, made me feel warm, made me feel good walking out of the movie theater. And there's no reason it shouldn't work in the reverse for straight folks who love a great comedy, love a great love story, to see one about a gay couple and still feel all those same feelings. That's the world that we need to move to. That's where we need to be.

This interview has been edited and condensed.