‘Hollywood took a century to make this movie’ – newsdubai

Billy Eichner’s new gay rom-com, Bros, making him the first openly gay man to co-write and star in any major studio film. It’s also the first gay rom-com ever made by a major studio, period, Eichner says.

“Hollywood took a century to make this movie,” said Billy Eichner Variety in its new cover story. “It’s not my fault — it’s Hollywood’s fault for taking so long.”

“It’s the first gay rom-com ever made by a major studio, the first with an all-out LGBTQ cast, and very, very strangely, I’m the first openly gay man to ever write and star in his own studio film of any genre,” Eichner said. “This is weird. It’s kind of f-ed up, although it’s also exciting.”

Netflix’s Disconnected starring Neil Patrick Harris and Searchlight’s Fire Island starring Bowen Yang were both very important advances for LGBTQ+ representation in film. But unlike them, the Eichners Bros does not go directly to streaming. It’s a rare example of a studio like Universal Pictures putting their money behind an LGBTQ+ film destined to hit theaters. And it is subject to the expectations that come with that area.

“I feel a responsibility that it goes well,” said Billy Eichner.

“To this day, I’m waiting for someone in the studio to call me and say, ‘You know, now that we think about it, you’ve gone too far.’ But that never happened,” he added. “There’s a part of me that realized some of this would be eye-opening for certain people in the audience, and I loved that, too. I thought, ‘Great! Let’s surprise people. Let’s shock them.’ Sacha Baron Cohen doesn’t care – why should I?”

That Billy on the street star is keenly aware of the double standards LBGTQ+ actors face in Hollywood.

“Universal has a rom-com with George Clooney and Julia Roberts [Ticket to Paradise] published a month later Bros” Eichner said. “I love Julia Roberts more than life itself, but nobody’s going to ask Julia Roberts and George Clooney, ‘Are you worried that gay people are going to relate?’ No straight movie star or straight director in major studio history has ever sat there and worried, ‘God, I hope gays show up in droves.’

Bros hits theaters on September 30. Watch the trailer here.

Main photo: Billy Eichner in Bros — photo credit: Universal Pictures