Exclusive Interview: Billy Eichner and Luke Macfarlane on Being in the First Big Studio Gay Romantic Comedy
Raunchy romantic-comedies are a dying genre that we very rarely seen, but thanks to Nicholas Stoller who contacted Billy Eichner to let him know that he wanted his next big romantic comedy to feature an openly gay couple the idea of BROS came to life. Billy Eichner is known for his improvisational street level comedy within BILLY ON THE STREET and his coster, Luke Macfarlane is known as one of the go-to actors for the subgenre of Hallmark movies. When combined, this duo creates one of the most relatable and heartfelt couples that audiences will be cheering for to stay together all the way through the film.
Bros is a brand new romantic comedy featuring an openly gay couple, and you can imagine the impact of such a film, as massive studios, up until UNIVERSAL have never tackled this before. Directed by Nicholas Stoller, Written By Stoller and Billy Eichner and produced by Judd Apatow, the story is a smart and heartfelt comedy about how hard it is to find another tolerable human being to go through life with.
Billy Eichner and Luke Macfarlane took the time to sit down with Zach Pope to discuss BROS and how pivotal this movie is for the romantic comedy universe. When asked what was the process or challenges of getting this film made, Eichner told FilmSpeak “It actually started with Nicholas Stoller who is a great director, he directed Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Neighbors and he’s written so many funny movies and he came to me even though he is a straight man and said I want my next movie to be a romantic comedy but I think it would be cool to feature a gay couple because we haven’t gotten many of those on the big screen and he asked me if I wanted to write it with him and said I could star in it and that he would direct it and Judd Apatow would hopefully come on and produce it which he did and that was the beginning of it and you know their are historical statistics attached to the movie which is very exciting but at the end of the day we never sat down and we just said ‘let’s write the funniest movie that we can’ and an honest movie - we wanted it to be an honest depiction of the lives of these characters which I think is very exciting for not only LGBQ but for straight people because your kinda getting a look behind the curtain at a culture you may think you know from having seen a few gay guys on sitcoms but you don’t really know. That’s what’s exciting what’s new and fresh about BROS.”
In addition, Eichner and Macfarlane let it known what is the best romantic comedy companion piece to watch with the film when doing a double feature. Billy said “I love romantic comedies there are the ones I loved growing up like a Moonstruck and Working Girl, Tootsie, Annie Hall, When Harry Met Sally, and then the newer ones like a lot of Judd Apatow movies Bridesmaids, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which Nick Stoller also directed.” - but what makes a great companion piece? Macfarlane Jumps in and says “ This is just coming to me and I think it falls into romantic comedies, but The Big Sick. It’s a great movie and it’s also about sort of people who are sorta surprising themselves in love and I think that is what our movie is.”
Bros premiered at the Toronto international film festival to huge accolades throughout the festival an even on social media, and will undoubtedly continue to draw audiences.