Jim Rash says Billy Eichner’s LGBTQ+ teasing is in the best of fun

There are few things more vital to a thick skin than the ability to laugh at yourself—nobody’s perfect, and sometimes a good skewer is the best medicine. But when it comes to keeping things truly all in good fun, ribbing within your own community is key. It’s also something Community standout Jim Rash, who also stars alongside Billy Eichner in the new rom-com Bros, says he feels the film nails.

In an interview with The A.V. Club’s own Manuel Betancourt, Rash lauds Eichner—who co-wrote the film with Nicholas Stoller— for creating a send-up of the queer community that feels uniquely (and hilariously) true to life.

Rash saw an especially accurate tease in the plot line surrounding feuding board members attempting to dedicate a museum wing to the queer community. Each member, focused on their own “letter” along the LGBTQ+ spectrum getting the focus it deserves, ends up sparring with each other and making any kind of decision difficult.

“I think that for Billy and all of us—but Billy in particular in writing this— [it] was crafting something that allows us to have fun at our own expense. In a good way,” Rash says. “Because I think the humor of, “I’m the most important! I’m not being seen!” fits into the larger idea of the group itself wanting to be seen as a community.”

Bros partially achieves its deliciously apt comedic edge by using an all-LGBTQ+ cast. It’s something Eichner has spoken proudly about, and Rash says stepping onto a set like that felt like a “celebration.” After all, no one knows you like your own—and no one else knows quite how to lovingly lampoon you.

Rash’s biggest hope for Bros is that it won’t be the last film of its kind, and in fact will only spur the industry to have more layered (and transparent) conversations about queer visibility onscreen. (After all, there has to be a balance between burying your gays and whitewashing them.)

“Obviously we have seen the ebbs and flows of high visibility on TV and film. And what I hope will happen, with Bros coming from a major studio, is more consistency,” Rash explains. “That this, if it’s not the start of conversation, that it will at least continue from here. Because there are many more stories that need to be told. So hopefully, it is the beginning of that.”