Luke MacFarlane & Billy Eichner “Bro” Out with Preston & Steve
Billy Eichner and Luke MacFarlane dropped by the studio ahead of the worldwide release of the rom-com Bros, “a smart, swoony, and heartfelt comedy about how hard it is to find another tolerable human being to go through life with.” Featuring an entirely LGBTQ+ cast, the film was co-written by Eichner, making him the first openly gay man to co-write and star in his own major studio film.
Despite not spending much time in Philly, Billy loves the area and quickly made a friend in fellow New York native Steve, who had gotten the chance to see Bros early. The film was produced by Judd Apatow, who Billy and Luke describe as one of the straightest men ever. Apatow came to Billy with the idea for Bros, wanting it to be hilarious and honest in its portrayal of a gay romance. Billy told us that Bros retains the best components of Apatow’s films, with some new, different elements.
Luke, a veteran of the Hallmark Channel’s film catalog who, like Kathy, you may know from Brothers & Sisters, was officially christened the Canadian Captain America of the “Hallmark Cinematic Universe” during the interview. He will be playing the character Aaron, who has been described by Billy as “a gay Tom Brady.”
Billy never thought that Bros would get support from Universal Studios, and to him, it serves as a great comedy to escape from the world with. As we came to learn, Metallica’s Lars Ulrich is a huge fan of Judd Apatow movies, as he attended the American premiere of Bros at The Castro in San Francisco and shared the experience on Instagram.
One of the film’s major goals was to show a different side of gay actors like Billy and Luke, portraying the multi-dimensional gay characters that they want to have represented. Nick identifies the television series The Bear as having achieved something similar, somewhat spoiling the series for Billy. Whoops!
With that goal comes the endgame of wanting to work towards making “gay rom-coms” simply rom-coms. A critical part of achieving that was the casting of multiple comedic LGBTQ+ actors, courtesy of Apatow.
By the way, Billy’s celebrity crush: Richard Gere. He thinks he is hot in any movie and was very jeaalous that Kathy got to meet him. “[This photo] looks like a cardboard cutout.”
Every year on Richard Gere’s birthday we post this prom shot of him & @kathyromano11. But… pic.twitter.com/cD3oETOYHB
— The Preston & Steve Show (@PrestonSteve933) August 31, 2021
Bros will be theatrically released worldwide by Universal Studios on September 30th.
