Billy Eichner’s upcoming gay rom-com Bros makes history with all-LGBTQ principal cast
The cast includes Zola's TS Madison and recent RuPaul's Drag Race winner Symone
Aux News Billy Eichner
Comedian and actor Billy Eichner’s upcoming film will make history for many reasons. The romantic comedy, titled Bros, is the first gay rom-com from a major studio, and it marks the first time an openly gay man will co-write and star in his own film, as per The Hollywood Reporter. To further push the envelope, the Universal Pictures film has brought on an all-LGBTQ+ principal cast. It’s almost shocking none of these things have ever been achieved in any major studio film, but there’s no time like the present to make it all happen.
In Hollywood, it’s unfortunately all too common for straight and/or cisgender actors to play LGBTQ+ characters in films. Bros will further subvert blockbuster standards by bringing on some of the openly LGBTQ+ actors to play all of the heterosexual roles. In addition to Eichner and Macfarlane, the cast for Bros includes Zola’s TS Madison; gender nonconforming entertainer Miss Lawrence (The United States vs. Billie Holiday); Symone, the most recent winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race; veteran actor Guillermo Diaz (Scandal, Weeds), and comedian Guy Branum, who previously wrote for Eichner’s Billy On the Street.
Bros is described as a “smart, swoony and heartfelt comedy about two gay men (played by Eichner and Luke Macfarlane) maybe, possibly, probably, stumbling toward love. Maybe. They’re both very busy.” Eichner co-wrote the script alongside Nicholas Stoller, who he previously worked with for Netflix’s Friends From College. Stoller is set to direct and executive produce Bros alongside Judd Apatow, Eichner, and Josh Church (Trainwreck).
“I could not be more proud or excited about the historic nature of the all openly LGBTQ+ cast of Bros. After queer actors have spent decades watching straight actors capitalize both artistically and professionally by playing LGBTQ+ characters, it is a long overdue dream come true to be able to assemble this remarkable, hilarious cast,” Eichner says. “And while Bros may be the first of its kind in several ways, my real hope is that it is only the first of many opportunities for openly LGBTQ+ ensembles to shine and show the world all we are capable of as actors, beyond just being the wacky sidekick, token queer or a straight movie star’s ‘gay best friend.’ And beyond all of that, this cast is fucking hysterical and you’re going to love them.”
Bros is scheduled for release August 12, 2022.
22 Comments
Well, I guess I may have found the answer as to what Cobie Smulders is going to do.
According to the article, Billy on the Street had writers? I would have thought the total extent of preparation for that show was Eichner throwing back four 5 Hour Energys and snorting some crushed Adderall.
I just want to be on the team that makes the ridiculous prizes they give out. Getting paid to make a snow globe of Octavia Spencer learning to ski sounds like a dream job.
Legit thought that was Rivers Cuomo.
Bowen Yang is starring in the upcoming Fire Island and it seems to fit the same description. They finished filming a few weeks ago.
It’s true. I wonder which will debut first?
I think the distinction is that Fire Island was made by Searchlight, which isn’t considered a major studio (even if it is currently owned by Disney. But Disney isn’t sticking its name on it).
Interesting! Searchlight sounds pretty “major” to me considering they’ve distributed five Best Picture winners in past 20ish years. But despite that I guess they would still be more “indie.”Either way – yay more LGBT movies with LGBT casts!
It’s an industry term. There are currently five majors — Disney, Warner Bros., Universal, Paramount, and Sony.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_film_studios
Joel Kim Booster did write and stars in Fire Island with Yang. Following this interaction between him and Eichner I am hoping they team up for a project soon!!! Another unfortunate detail about Fire Island aside from she Searchlight snafu is it will only release on Hulu :/
You know it’s a movie because in real life, MacFarlane is too cute for Eichner.I’m kidding! But seriously, he’s a good looking man.
Billy Eichner is 6’3″ and his chest hair is always popping out above his shirt. …Simply typing those words upped my heartrate.
Billy Eichner is aging like wine. He gets hotter every year.
Sucks for all the closeted gay actors who can’t get cast in it unless they come out!
it marks the first time an openly gay man will co-write and star in his own filmI’m guessing the “in a major studio film” qualifier is supposed to be here, no? Because otherwise it’s not true. See: Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Marlon Riggs, Xavier Dolan, etc.
“…it marks the first time an openly gay man will co-write and star in his own film”This is actively untrue and frankly insulting towards multiple gay filmmakers, going back as far as Rainer Werner Fassbinder in 1975, and possibly others even earlier. Sure, the previous sentence says that this is the first gay rom-com from a major studio, but the major studio qualifier was not used in the quoted sentence, meaning that the implication is that Eicher is the first to do this at all, which is not the case. I think we can celebrate new films without erasing what came before, and frankly, co-opting the idea of this movie being “the first” just feels like a way for big studios to get a nice marketing boost off of representation when they don’t actually care about it.
Gay filmmaker here, about to make his first feature film next summer, and I’ve been getting a lot of flak for wanting to cast straight actors in gay roles. It comes down to who’s best for the job to me and not whose background most-closely matches the fictitious characters’ and also literally every gay-themed film I’ve ever loved (God’s Own Country, Moonlight, Supernova) has hetero actors playing gay characters. A potential lead turned the film down because as a straight man he knew too many gay guys who could also play the part, which I supported (seems like a perfectly reasonable rationale). The entire creative team and a number of the crew are LGBTQ+ and I’d rather have another gay story in the universe with straight actors in some of the gay roles than to not have another gay story in the universe because some of the actors don’t (as far as I know) also happen to be gay. I don’t know. I admire what Eichner is doing, regardless.
I look forward to your work. We can’t have too many QUALITY LGBTQ+ stories on screen.
I HOPE ITS REALLY SHOUTY AND FAST AND STRESSFUL AND ANNOYING AND SHOUTY SHOUTY SHOUTY
“Billy on the Street” is not all he can do. Watch “Difficult People.” Really, do yourself a favor. It’s excellent! (AND NOT SHOUTY.)
the Universal Pictures film has brought on an all-LGBTQ+ principal cast. It’s almost shocking none of these things have ever been achieved in any major studio film,
You mean its never been achieved where everybody (or anybody) in the all-LGBTQ+ principal cast was out. Because I’m confident in the long history of movies there have been at least a few times where all or most of the principle cast was LGBTQ+.
I like Billy Eichner so I had to stop following him on Twitter so I could continue to like him. He didn’t really do anything terrible he’s just one of those “Vote blue no matter who” guys and would get into dumb arguments defending that stance. I already had Michael Ian Black ruined for me because of Twitter and I sure as shit wasn’t going to let the same happen to ol’ Billy on the Street.