Interview with ‘Bros’ Stars, Billy Eichner & Luke Macfarlane
In a massive win for the queer community, ‘Bros’ is the first LGBTIQ+ romantic comedy from a major studio (Universal Pictures) to be released globally in theatres. Starring an all-LGBTIQ+ cast (including Eichner himself, alongside Luke Macfarlane, TS Madison, Monica Raymund, Bowen Yang, Drag Race’s Symone, and a host of others), ‘Bros’ has been praised for its realistic representation of the LGBTIQ+ community and for stepping outside of the traditional romcom mould.
In anticipation of the theatrical debut of ‘Bros’ down under, co-stars Billy Eichner and Luke Macfarlane sit down with the Gay’s Guide team to chat about the film, about making gay history, about gay sex, and about what Australian audiences need to know before booking their tickets.
MGG: Congrats on being able to get this over the line. It really is such a big win for the LGBTIQ+ community.
Billy: I hope so. I mean, it’s been really gratifying to see the reaction from other LGBTQ folks who’ve seen the movie. You know, obviously we want it to be relatable to straight people, and we want everyone to go and see it, but this is our community and it’s important to us that it feels authentic (in addition to being funny).
MGG: Bros deviates slightly from the average romantic comedy in that it tackles some queer issues and explores queer culture and history. What was the decision behind doing that?
Luke: There was a double burden with that, you know, like we don’t have to explain the world to straight people, but we want them to understand [our] world because they haven’t had to live in it. So we had to set all that up very early in the movie.
Billy: We never really sat down and said, ‘okay we’re gonna write this for gay people and then we’re gonnawrite a scene for straight people’. We just wanted to keep it honest and funny. And we trusted that if we were honest with the audience that they would understand what’s going on, even if they’re not overly familiar with the day-to-day working of being a gay man and dating and navigating relationships.
MGG: And it turned out to be very honest – from the accurate Grindr messages to using poppersduring sex. Knowing that straight audiences were inevitably going to watch Bros, did either of you have reservations about being too honest and adding so much gay sex into the film?
Luke: I can’t think of anything that I was like, ‘no I don’t wanna do that, it’s going to scare the straight people away’. And let’s be honest, I think that anyone who’s going to see an R-rated movie kinda wants it on some level.
Billy: Those scenes get a great reaction. You know, the other ones that are meant for comedic purposes get some of the biggest laughs of the movie. And then as those scenes get more romantic and intimate in the movie, you can also feel – in a positive way – the audience responding to that, because straight or gay, we don’t get that any romantic movies in movie theatres anymore. Everything’s an action movie or a superhero movie or a horror movie. So I think for people who liked this genre, it’s really satisfying to see that.
MGG: Did you ever consider taking a page out of ‘White Lotus’s book and adding a rimming scene (…or was that where you drew the line)?
Luke: Well, it’s funny you should say that.
Billy: We did have a moment during the first sex scene where there was rimming, but which ultimately got cut. And because ‘White Lotus’ beat us to the punch, it was never going to have the same impact.
Luke: They [‘White Lotus’] did it so well.
Billy: They did. They perfected it.
MGG: That must’ve been such a disappointing moment, though, to cut that out of the scene.
Billy: I mean, [that sex scene] is already pretty long. So there were things that needed to be cut. But we did a lot of funny shit. We were just trying to be funny, and I think we were trying to push people’s boundaries a little bit, because that’s fun and that’s what makes art exciting. Because otherwise, it’s just the same old thing you’ve seen a million times, and what’s the point in that?
MGG: Speaking of things that didn’t make it into the final cut, ‘Bros’ is full of celebrity appearances (from Ben Stiller to Kristin Chenoweth and even Bowen Yang), but were there any that didn’t make it across the line?
Luke: There was, actually.
Billy: On our first date in the movie, [Luke and I] go to see a movie called ‘The Treasure Inside’ which is one of those typical Oscar bait movies where famous straight actors are playing tragic gay men in a really tortured relationship with each other. And Liam Hemsworth had actually agreed to be in the movie within the movie playing himself playing an unfortunate closeted frontiersman during the gold rush. But then you guys went back into lockdown, and eventually we decided that we actually didn’t need the scenes from that movie. But, yeah, at one point it was going to be Liam Hemsworth and Nick Jonas together playing the guys in that movie.
MGG: Of the scenes that did make it into the final cut, which is your favourite?
Luke: This is like weird for me to say this – and it’s not because of my performance – but it’s the moment where my character is looking into the empty case at the LGBT museum, and he realises that he isn’t adding to the greater story. And even now talking about it, it’s making me choke up because it’s that thing of not knowing your story.
Billy: I’ve seen the movie so many times, but the beach scene is so important to me because so often in my life professionally, I’ve been asked (or have volunteered or been relied on) to be the delivery system for jokes. And I love doing that. I mean, I’m a comic actor, y’know? I love writing jokes, I love being funny, and I love making people laugh. That’s a really joyful thing. But you also want to be seen as a multi-dimensional person, and that scene allowed me to do that. It allowed me to show both Bobby and myself as being more than meets the eye; more than what you’re seeing on the surface…and then after that scene, there’s a ‘sex scene’ (for lack of better word) and it feels very romantic to me in a way that we barely see scenes play out with straight people (let alone gay men) and that moment really hits me. And you can feel it in the audience, too, because it is purely romantic. There are no jokes, and we just lean into a meaningful, earnest, romantic moment where these guys are falling in love in a very palpable, intimate way. I always find that to be very moving.
MGG: Speaking of having seen the movie a million times, Australian audiences are yet to see it at all. However, you, Billy, have publicly expressed disappointment over the film’s performance at the box office in the US. If there was one thing you’d say to Australian audiences in the lead up to ‘Bros’ being released here, what would it be?
Billy: It’s a really funny movie. If you love romantic comedies, I think that it’s a very special and exciting and fun experience to see a movie like this in the movie theatre. So, whatever your sexual orientation, we just want as many people to go out and see it as possible, because we love the movie, we’re really proud of the movie, and I think it’s important to support LGBTIQ+ stories. But beyond that, we’re just proud of the movie. We worked really hard on it and we want people to see it. It’s as simple as that. And I think it’s important to say that the people who do see the movie love it. The vast majority really enjoy it. So we just want more people to have that experience.
Luke: So much of the queer experience is having to have a different expectation of where this wild world is going to take us. So, in a way, it’s not a surprise that the most logarithmic measure of success – box office –is going to be different. And that’s what the queer experience has always been: hopes and dreams and fantasies that we were going to be the ones to turn the tides. But, y’know, it’s just really exciting to take it to the rest of the world.
FAST FACTS WITH BILLY & LUKE
MGG: This is joked about in ‘Bros’, but what is your favourite film of all time?
Billy: favourite film of all time? That’s really hard. For my favourite comedy, I’d say is a movie called ‘Broadcast News’ from the ‘80s.
Luke: I’ve said this for years – ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’.
MGG: What is your favourite rom com?
Luke: I’m gonna say ‘Annie Hall’.
Billy: Favourite rom com? ‘Annie Hall’ is a very good one, but I would say ‘Moonstruck’.
MGG: What is your go-to song to sing in the shower?
Billy: Well…I do sing in the shower in ‘Bros’. I sing ‘She’s Like the Wind’ from ‘Dirty Dancing’, so I’m gonna say that.
Luke: For the past like three, four, six months, I’ve been listening to Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Tougher Than the Rest’.
MGG: And finally, what’s your favourite part about being gay?
Billy: Gay sex.
Luke: It still feels more interesting and provocative than being straight. And I like to stand out from the crowd.
