Bros cut a sex scene with a “$30,000 butt rig” because, well, The White Lotus

Nice guys really do always finish last, even in the queer movies. According to some members of the Bros crew, a simulated rimming scene that involved a “$30k butt rig” was cut from the film, in part because of its similarities to a memorable The White Lotus’ love scene between off-the-deep-end Armond (Murray Bartlett) and Dillon (Lukas Gage.)

Bros follows a budding relationship between Aaron (Luke MacFarlane) and Bobby (Billy Eichner) as they explore each other both emotionally and physically. That physical exploration leads to an out-to-there sex scene where the duo each gives into the other’s kinks—which at one point, included rimming.

“We were going to shoot a rim job moment, but then White Lotus beat us to the punch, so we cut that,” Eichner jokes to Entertainment Weekly, expanding on director Nicholas Stoller’s confirmation that “there was a $30,000 butt rig [that] Aaron goes down on.” According to Eichner, they created the effect by using “two puppeteers” to maneuver the butt around Aaron’s mouth— Eichner also asserts that “there was some spitting” cut from the final scene as well.

Eichner says that he hopes the “physical comedy” of the sex scene plays well with audiences as much as the vulnerability it introduces into the central romance between Luke and Bobby, both perpetually emotionally unavailable men.

“Sex can be funny, awkward, silly, and absurd, but also romantic and sweet, but it also serves the story, because the sex that these guys have, it evolves over the course of the movie as their relationship becomes more intimate and vulnerable,” Eichner muses. “Both of these guys are trying so hard to be strong at the beginning of the movie, and I say at the end the movie that I’m sick of being angry and I’m sick of being strong, and we watch that story unfold—sex is part of that.”