‘Bros’ Star & Scribe Billy Eichner On Breaking Barriers With Studio Gay Rom-Com & Paying Respect To The Trailblazers – Toronto Studio – Deadline
“It didn’t start with me,” exclaims Bros star and co-writer Billy Eichner about his groundbreaking major studio romantic comedy hitting screens September 30 from Universal.
“It started with (director and co-writer) Nic Stoller, who is straight unfortunately, but there’s nothing he can do about it — he was born that way,” Eichner quipped at Deadline’s Toronto Studio.
The duo, after working together on a series in 2017, began hatching the idea for a gay romantic comedy.
“He told me he wanted his next movie to be a romantic comedy, but he thought it would be cool if it was a gay couple because we don’t get many of those,” added Eichner.
And it was an even trade: “I educated him on gay culture and he educated me on writing a screenplay,” adds the Billy on the Street host.
The Judd Apatow-produced comedy, which makes its world premiere tonight at the Toronto Film Festival, has echoes of the comedy filmmaker’s previous comedian-centric movies which riff off their respective personal lives, i.e., Amy Schumer in Trainwrecked, and Pete Davidson in The King of Staten Island.
Eichner acknowledges he drew from his personal life and that of his friends, but Bros isn’t all auto-biopic.
Of utmost importance was honoring those LGBTQ forefathers in entertainment in Bros; creators and actors who were fearlessly out at a time when it wasn’t common in Hollywood. That includes Torch Song Trilogy playwright and thespian Harvey Fierstein, who aappears in the film alongside Amanda Bearse who was out during the early ’90s. In addition, there’s the new generation, as Eichner calls it, in performers like SNL‘s Bowen Yang.
“I think it’s important for those of us who are fortunate enough to be creating queer-centric content now in a very different era when there is is more of a space for it, that we take the time to acknowledge the real groundbreaking people who paved the way for all of that and Harvey is at the top of that list with Torch Song Trilogy,” said Eichner.
“It’s important that the movie represent all of us, and does take time to nod to past generations who had to break new ground.”
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