On Location: How ‘Bros’ Captured the Gay Scenes of NYC and Provincetown – Condé Nast Traveler

One has to assume that the film, co-written by Billy Eichner, is at least partially autobiographical. How location-specific was the original script?

The script that Billy and Nicholas wrote together was wonderful. And, of course, the final product is a pared down version of that original—there are so many cool scenes and sets that there just wasn’t time for. And a lot of it was very specific, you know, Billy is a New Yorker and he knows New York. I always laugh because Los Angeles–based writers love to talk about, oh, [these characters] run into a New York alleyway. There are no alleyways.

So, it automatically read very easily as New York. We really wanted it to feel like you were bopping around the city, with particular neighborhoods in mind. Billy’s character [a radio show host on the board of an LGBTQ+ museum on the verge of opening] lives near Lincoln Center and Columbus Circle, almost on the Upper West Side, and it makes sense for him to be surrounded by the arts as he’s developing this museum. When he goes to the [circuit party], we wanted that to be somewhere out in Brooklyn.

Bushwick?

Yes, exactly, or like Three Dollar Bill [in East Williamsburg]. Not necessarily a Meatpacking type of club, but something a little more local and in-the-know. We did get to do some exteriors where they are Citi Biking in Williamsburg as well—Citi dropped off a station for us. And then, for the museum itself, we wanted that to be around Central Park where a lot of museums are.

New York City is monumental in the romantic comedy canon. How did you draw on that history?

We hoped from the start that this movie would find its place in that canon—having that big gay romance in New York City. I can list off all the great New York rom-coms—Billy even watches You’ve Got Mail in Bros—that we wanted to reference. We wanted to capture that feeling of walking by the park with the seasons changing, of the serving the turkey and then carrying the Christmas tree and lighting the menorah.