Comedian Billy Eichner is best known for shouting questions at unwitting and, at times, unwilling contestants on the game show, Billy on the Street.
But in the groundbreaking Bros, the first Hollywood-backed rom-com featuring gay men in the lead roles, we see Eichner – who also co-wrote it with director Nicholas Stoller – in a whole new way.
Luke Macfarlane plays Eichner’s love interest, and the film sees the pair navigate a new relationship and learn to trust.
WHO caught up with the jet-lagged duo, who have been touring the world promoting the project, in Sydney.
Eichner says, “The film’s characters need to admit they want love, which is hard to do in your 40s and you’re set in your ways.”
Was the chemistry between the two of you as real as it looked?
Billy Eichner: It’s hard to define or explain. I didn’t know Luke at all before he auditioned for the movie. There was a tension there and a spark, luckily it read on camera.
Like your characters in the movie, have you found yourselves putting up walls in life?
Luke Macfarlane: Absolutely. Especially as a public person. You’re always a little bit afraid of revealing or saying too much.
BE: Gay men, men in general, value being self-reliant. We don’t want to be defined by whether we’re in a relationship or not. Sometimes you take that too far. You’re not willing to open up and give a relationship, or intimacy, a chance. You don’t want to become that person who needs that.
LM: And you wake up one day, and you’re alone and old.
BE: You’re dead.
Dating in the 21st century is tough, especially with dating apps, right?
BE: It’s confusing – it’s allowed everyone to be incredibly passive aggressive with each other and cater to their momentary whims without thinking about the human being on the end of that DM exchange.
LM: The privilege of these apps is that you get to meet people, then you have to put down the phone and actually go out and meet them. There’s a bizarre discipline that’s required because of that.
Why do we want to impress aesthetically?
BE: I’ve questioned things aesthetically about myself. You get into spirals in your head about things that aren’t right, you would change, and the other person doesn’t care about that at all. We’re all trying to meet some physical ideal. We all do that. Maybe not Luke, but the rest of us!
Which message would you hope audiences take away from the film?
LM: My character Aaron, he’s putting up walls, this masculine thing. He learns that a real man is all the things. The sensitive, the creative, the supportive. Don’t cover yourself up with ideals about masculinity.
BE: We have a version of the person we think we want – we shouldn’t let that define who we choose ultimately.
Bros is in cinemas now.
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