To those who have followed American comedian Billy Eichner’s career — chiefly, his anarchic game show Billy on the Street (sample rounds: “Name a Woman” and “Would You Have Sex With Paul Rudd,” guest-starring Paul Rudd) — his main-stream breakthrough will come as small surprise. The vehicle is, of all things, a romcom: Bros, which has Judd Apatow (The 40-Year-Old Virgin) as producer and Nicholas Stoller (Forgetting Sarah Marshall) as director and co-writer with Eichner. It makes history as the first major studio film about two gay men and with an all LGTBQIA+ cast.
“When Nick [Stoller] told me he wanted to do a gay romcom, I said to him,‘If you think we can just do When Harry Met Sally and swap out the man and woman for two men, then I’m not interested,’” says 43-year-old Eichner. “While I wanted the story to be accessible to everyone, it also had to be authentic to gay audiences. To his credit, Nick immediately said ‘Whatever is honest will be best.’”
Eichner plays Bobby, a 40-something podcast presenter with an aversion to relationships. That is, until he meets the hunky Aaron, played by Canadian actor Luke Macfarlane (“he’s like a gay Tom Brady”), and solitude seems suddenly less appealing. Bros is celebratory, but also honest, about gay relationships.
“For so many years, the world turned a blind eye to LGBTQ people and the way we live our lives,” says Eichner. “And, as offensive and traumatising as that is, it can also be liberating. If you didn’t consider us part of ‘normal society’, then we didn’t have to operate by your old-fashioned, heteronormative rules. We made up our own rules. Our friendships, sex lives and relationships are different.”
The film goes there. Steroids, poppers and group sex all get airtime. “I thought it was important to show these two men being physical with each other,” says Eichner. “I think sex is hilarious, absurd and awkward. I understand there is a shock value to it, because people have been so scared to go there in the past.”
A big-studio comedy is new ground for Eichner, who came up through New York’s theatre and comedy scenes. Getting Bros off the ground was daunting. “Nick and Judd, as straight white men, I guess, have a certain confidence,” he says. “But, although I’ve had success, I’ve never been able to make something at this level. I’ve never even starred in an indie movie. A lot of that is because, up until very recently, Hollywood did not embrace openly gay actors and comedians.
“I overprepared as I always do, and essentially performed the movie for all the higher-ups,” he remembers. “Much to my surprise, they essentially bought it in the room. One of the execs called me later that day and said, ‘There’s about three times a year when everyone agrees that we should make a movie, and today was one of them.’
