Billy Eichner Makes LGBT+ History With Upcoming Gay Romantic Comedy
Billy Eichner is making movie history! The actor and comedian, 42, is set to star in, co-write and executive produce the forthcoming Universal Pictures film ‘Bros’.
The film, which is scheduled to hit theaters next summer on Aug. 12, will center around “two gay men with commitment issues who attempt a relationship,” 'Variety' reported. The actor who will star opposite Eichner as his love interest has not yet been announced.
Alongside Eichner, the movie's director, Nicholas Stoller, will help co-write the script, while Judd Apatow will lend his talents as a producer, alongside Stoller, 44, and Joshua Church.
Reacting to the news of his upcoming project on social media, Eichner shared his excitement in a series of posts on social media.
On Twitter, the actor shared The Hollywood Reporter's article about the feature, writing, “I honestly can't believe it.... move over Julia Roberts, there's a new rom com QUEEN in town! BROS, prod by @JuddApatow and dir by @nicholasstoller hits theaters AUG 12, 2022! (Twitter, we wanted to give you a year to figure out why you already hate it!).”
In another post, replying to a tweet from Universal Pictures stating, “We stan our new romcom queen,” Eichner joked, “Oh good they mean me. For a second I thought they were talking about The Rock. Thank you @UniversalPics!!! Let's go make history!!!”
And on Instagram, Eichner also shared a screenshot of The Wrap's reporting on Bros, writing alongside the post, “I'M MAKING A MOVIE!!!!”
“In shocking news, BROS will be the first rom com about gay men ever produced by a major studio and, apparently, I'm the first openly gay man to ever write and star in their own studio film," he added. "Only took 100 years! THANKS HOLLYWOOD!!! 💫.”
Eichner's other acting credits include ‘American Horror Story’, ‘The Lion King’ and ‘Noelle’, as well as the comedy game show series, ‘Billy on the Street’.
Back in 2019, while chatting with ‘PEOPLE’, Eichner spoke candidly about the project that was in the process of coming to fruition at the time.
“I look forward to making that movie and finding as many openly LGBT actors as possible in gay roles, in straight roles,” he said. “We not only need to start supporting LGBT actors theoretically, but we actually need to start casting them as well.”
Eichner added, “In a perfect world, gay actors can play gay roles and gay actors can play straight roles, and straight actors can play straight roles and play gay roles, and we're all mixing and matching because part of the fun and the challenge of being an actor or an actress is to play someone who you're not. We can do it all.”
The actor also pointed out that straight stars often receive praise for playing LGBT+ parts, such as the Oscar-winning performance given by Sean Penn in ‘Milk’ and the Oscar-nominated performances of Jake Gyllenhaal in 'Brokeback Mountain’ and Eddie Redmayne in ‘The Danish Girl’.
“I think people really love the spectacle of a straight actor 'playing gay,’” Eichner said. “You so, so rarely see it work in the reverse. It's such an uneven ratio right now, and that is what I'm determined to fix.”
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