With Bros, BillyEichner wanted to present “an authentic version of gay life that still felt warm”—and is ready for the world to see it. “I truly do think this is the best thing I've ever done,” he tells V.F.
seems likely to make a dent on Friday at the box office, which has seen successful bows forover the past two weeks. In our interview, Eichner goes deep on the making and rollout of the–directed movie, and striking that careful balance between a timeless story and a historic breakthrough.
Eichner is right in arguingis for everyone, not just the LGBTQ+ viewers understandably very excited about the film, and has made that a core part of his pitch: “I really hope straight people get out there to see this movie, the way they would see any other big hilarious comedy in a movie theater that Judd Apatow made, or anyone else—because it’s really no different.”I feel like you have been quite literally everywhere in support of this movie. What has it been like, just getting the word out and also hoping people go see this movie?It’s been a whirlwind, a true roller coaster of emotions. It's been thrilling though. I mean, I've never been a part of anything like this. It's a very rare movie. Just the existence of it is very rare. And I'm also really proud of it. I want people to see it. When we were first testing the movie, and seeing how positive even the earliest reactions to the movie were—a lot of people laughing out loud from start to finish, even at our earliest test screenings, but also surprisingly moved by it—I told Universal that I would do anything and everything I could to get the word out and try to get people to the movie theater, which can be a difficult thing these days if you're not a franchise film or a superhero movie or a horror movie. I love comedies and I miss going to see comedies in movie theaters. And I love romantic comedies. I miss going to see those in movie theaters. It was really special to see the reaction out of Toronto specifically, because that’s one of the biggest movie festivals in the world. You got to have this huge crowd really laughing along with the movie. But I am really curious about that other element you were talking about, of moving people. What parts of the movie do you identify as having that effect on people, that you wanted to really hit in that particular way? I'm always surprised by which moments affect people. It's not always the ones that you see coming…. As me and my love interest, Aaron, start to bond and our relationship is becoming more intimate and vulnerable and romantic, we see all those walls come down between us. It's very sweet and feels very real and honest to people. Our characters start revealing more about our lives. It's not always within a joke form. Sometimes it gets just earnest and honest. And I think that's important too, as important as the jokes, because we haven't gotten a movie like this, not one produced and being released and distributed at this scale that is an authentic gay romcom written by a gay man and starring LGBTQ people. I think that the movie needed to find a way to acknowledge both what's celebratory and joyous about this moment and the existence of this movie, but also speak to why it took so long and the frustrations and challenges that gay people, LGBTQ people have faced. And I didn't want to do it in a heavy handed way because it is a comedy 95% of the time.
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