• Get Alma in Your Inbox

18 Things to Know About Jewish Comedian Billy Eichner

The writer and star of rom-com "bros" had a madonna-themed bar mitzvah.

billy eichner

So, here are  18 things to know about the gay Jewish comedian.

1. He was born in  Forest Hills, Queens  to Jewish parents. He has an older half-brother, but was raised “like an only child, and spoiled.” He did a parody of “Empire State of Mind” as “Forest Hills State of Mind” which includes the line: I was born in Forest Hills / to a Jewish yenta / had my circumcision / Forest Hills Jewish Center .

Just watch (it’s all about his childhood):

2.  His Madonna-themed bar mitzvah   was at Terrace on the Park, a banquet hall in Flushing Meadows. Here he is (OMG):

I'm not at the #MetGala but this was me at my Bar Mitzvah. cc @voguemagazine pic.twitter.com/7TGhIwaS7W — billy eichner (@billyeichner) May 5, 2015

And here he is at the party with a playboy bunny tattoo on his face:

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Billy Eichner (@billyeichner)

3. His first school production was in fourth grade, and he auditioned by singing “It’s Alright to Cry.” Billy recalls , “Everyone turned around and was like, ‘Whoa, this fat Jewish gay kid can really sing .’”

4. He attended  Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan, where he starred in “Guys & Dolls.”

A kid at Stuyvesant, where I went to HS, has made $17 million trading stocks. But when I was there I starred in GUYS & DOLLS so…I win. — billy eichner (@billyeichner) December 15, 2014

5. Billy graduated from Northwestern University  in 2000, where he studied acting. In 2017, he said he was  still paying off his student loans . He was also part of the Northwestern Jewish Theater Ensemble, nbd.

Well I've never produced a movie but I did direct a play for the NORTHWESTERN JEWISH THEATER ENSEMBLE … NOT TO BRAG! — billy eichner (@billyeichner) November 17, 2017

6. In 2011, he started “Billy on the Street” , a series where he asks New Yorkers questions on the street. It premiered on Fuse, then moved to truTv, and now it airs on Funny or Die.

7. Some episodes of BOTS are very Jewish. Here’s “Whistle-Blow That Jew!”  with Rashida Jones (she can’t keep a straight face):

7.5 He also did a “Billy on the Street” in Israel which was all about Madonna . (On Madonna, he said , “I just worship Madonna. As, like, a young gay kid growing up in the ’80s and ’90s… I was at the Blond Ambition tour with my parents vogue-ing up in the mezzanine at the Nassau Coliseum .”)

8.  Why does he shout ? “I had very loud parents, and you’re in New York — it’s loud outside . And I am someone who likes to hit a line very hard.”

This was the original title of Billy on the Street but we thought it was too long https://t.co/0vnDrXfg59 — billy eichner (@billyeichner) September 8, 2018

9.  He became a meme (does one become a meme?) when audio of him shouting “Let’s go, lesbians, let’s go! ” was overlaid on an “Avengers” scene.

10. From 2013 to 2015, he was on “ Parks and Recreation ” as Craig. This is the best YouTube clip you will ever watch. Craig saying “she DROVE ME HERE” will never get old.

Did you watch it? It’s only 30 seconds. Watch it.

11. He co-created and starred in  Difficult People  with Julie Klausner, a sitcom about two struggling comedians who hate everyone. Billy and Julie essentially play versions of themselves.

12.  He cares about politics! In 2018, Billy launched Glam Up the Midterms  as an effort to get millennials to the polls.

13.  He has the best Wikipedia entry of all time:

This is the entirety of the Personal Life section on my Wikipedia page. pic.twitter.com/WoUOWj35Cq — billy eichner (@billyeichner) August 10, 2021

14. And, how could we not include this? He voices Timon in the new  Lion King  – alongside Seth Rogen’s Pumba — and honestly, he steals the show.

Thank you yes I have Oscar buzz thank you https://t.co/PqbZB99sfT — billy eichner (@billyeichner) July 21, 2019
Did you hear that Hollywood??? EVERYTHING!!!!! https://t.co/uG99TX8OTD — billy eichner (@billyeichner) July 11, 2019

A lot of Billy and Seth’s scenes were improvised.

15. That also means he was on a song with Beyoncé, and he calls Seth Rogen and himself “ Destiny’s Jewish cousins.” 

On meeting Beyoncé at the premiere, he explains : “We were backstage before they announced the cast, and Seth and I were the first to arrive, and the next to arrive happened to be Beyoncé and Jay-Z. And Seth and I were very shy and didn’t know whether we were allowed to approach her, or whether she wanted to talk to us. But she came right up to us and introduced herself — not that she needed to — and gave us all a hug.”

16. Full circle moment: He was a bartender at the Lion King on Broadway when he was a struggling actor in 2002.

17. His gay rom-com “ Bros ,” coming out in 2022, also stars Latina Jewish actress Monica Raymund !

Check out the trailer here:

18.  And honestly, this is a joke (maybe), but we would 1000% watch his TV show “The Gay Jew.”

About to upload my TV sitcom pilot that NBC didn't pick up. No idea why they didn't want it, but get ready to enjoy "THE GAY JEW". — billy eichner (@billyeichner) October 23, 2013

billy eichner tour

23 Questions I Have After Watching the VeggieTales Purim Episode for the First Time

Are they really not going to say the word "jews" even once.

billy eichner tour

18 Things to Know About Jewish Actress Hadas Yaron

The "we were the lucky ones" star was working as a waitress when she won best actress at the 69th venice film festival..

Rabbi Sharon Brous next to the cover of her book

Rabbi Sharon Brous Wants To Mend Our Broken Hearts

Brous chatted with hey alma about her book "the amen effect" and what this particular moment in history demands of us as jews..

Billy Eichner: An Inside Look At The Funnyman's Life And Career

Billy Eichner relaxed "Bros" premiere

Most TV viewers became aware of Billy Eichner via a two-pronged comedy attack. Firstly, via his hilariously manic sidewalk interviews for " Billy on the Street ." Secondly, in his brief-but-memorable turn as an irrationally angry civil servant on the hit NBC sitcom, "Parks and Recreation." 

Since then, Eichner's star has risen considerably. As his IMDb  indicates, he went on to appear alongside Julie Klausner in the TV comedy, "Difficult People," voiced not one but two characters in "The Angry Birds Movie," became a series regular in the deliriously bonkers "Apocalypse" season of "American Horror Story,"  and played right-wing Internet personality Matt Drudge in the second season of "American Crime Story." In addition, he voiced Timon the meerkat in Disney's 2019 live-action remake of "The Lion King," was part of the ensemble cast of Netflix comedy, "Friends From College," and even played poet, Walt Whitman in an episode of Apple TV+ comedy, "Dickenson." 

Eichner made a big stride in his showbiz career in the fall of 2022 when he starred in the big-screen comedy, "Bros," heralded as Hollywood's first-ever big-budget rom-com. Featuring the meet-cute romance between two gay male characters, the film was as critically acclaimed as it was controversial . Still, there's no denying that the actor's fame has catapulted to the next level. Here's everything you didn't realize you needed to know about Billy Eichner's life and career.

His bar mitzvah celebrated Madonna and Broadway

As a child, Billy Eichner became obsessed with Broadway. How obsessed? According to a profile in The New Yorker , at 13, his parents took him to see a Broadway revival of "Guys and Dolls." When it was announced that star Faith Prince's role, Adelaide, would be played by an understudy for that performance, he had a meltdown in the theater lobby.

That same year, his parents celebrated Eichner's birthday with a lavish bar mitzvah celebration, in which the youngster's interests were integrated into the party. "I could not decide whether the theme should be Broadway, which I was very into at the time and still am, or pop music, which I was very into at the time and still am," he explained during an appearance on comedian Pete Holmes' "You Make it Weird" podcast. Torn between the two, he decided to smush them both together. "So, the theme became Broadway meets pop music," he said.

While some parents may have balked at such a theme, Eichner has credited his with continually buoying him with their unyielding support. "The way they encouraged me and just believed in me, that gave me a confidence to feel like I could go after my dreams," Eichner told People . "Their support meant everything, really. And I think it's carried me through to this day."

He appeared on SNL when he as a kid

Billy Eichner's acting ambitions were evident as a child. As The New Yorker pointed out, in the fourth grade he sang a solo on "It's All Right to Cry" from the musical, "Free to Be ... You and Me," and even took vocal lessons with the voice coach who taught pop star, Debbie Gibson, to sing. In 1993, when he was just 13, he landed a small role in a "Saturday Night Live" sketch. 

Reviewing his career highlights in a Vanity Fair  video, Eichner reminisced about how he came to "SNL." "I grew up in New York City and I really wanted to be on Broadway — which never happened," he said. However, he wound up being called in to audition for other acting gigs, and he still clearly remembers receiving the call from his manager. "She said, 'Guess what show that you watch every Saturday night you're gonna be on this week?' And I kid you not, I responded, 'The Golden Girls?'" Eichner recalled. "And she said, 'No, 'SNL.' And I was thrilled."

Eichner was one of many kids who appeared in a sketch with host, John Goodman (pictured above). However, his real regret was that he wasn't called the previous week when Madonna was a musical guest — Garth Brooks held the spot during the week Eichner was featured. "I just kept walking around thinking, 'Madonna walked in this hallway five days ago, and now I have to deal with Garth Brooks?'" he quipped.

He was college roommates with Gotham's Penguin

After graduating high school, Billy Eichner attended Northwestern University. It was there that he met fellow acting student, Robin Lord Taylor . As fans of Fox's Batman prequel series, "Gotham," will recall, the star sprang to fame on the TV show with his visceral portrayal of ambitious criminal, Oswald Cobblepot, aka The Penguin.

As the two explained in a joint interview with The New York Times , they formed an instant connection. "He was this quiet closeted gay boy in Iowa, and I was this louder closeted gay guy in New York City, but we were both locked in our rooms watching cable TV and sucking it all in," Eichner said of Taylor. "When we found each other, it was like, "Wait, you're interested in —— ?" After graduation, the two moved to New York, where they became roommates, as well as the co-creators of and performers in their stage show, "Creation Nation." The outlet notes, that in the early days of "Billy on the Street," Taylor would often be the one behind the camera, filming the insanity. 

Despite both being actors in a cutthroat and competitive profession, both insisted they were never anything but supportive of the other's career. "Our careers also never were a source of tension between us, ever. There was no friction," said Eichner, jokingly adding, "Maybe friction because I didn't clean the apartment." 

He was told he was 'too gay' to be on TV

As a child actor, getting cast in roles did not come easily for Billy Eichner. "I was too tall. I was too this. I was too that," he told NPR's "Fresh Air."  After graduating from college, he threw himself into acting and launched "Creation Nation," a stage show that garnered a lot of attention, and even a rave review in The New York Times . However, Eichner was baffled when all that acclaim didn't lead to any significant acting work. "I mean, I would get little gigs here and there but nothing substantial," he said.

He reflected on his struggle to land TV roles during an appearance on the "Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend"  podcast. "It was always, 'We don't know what to do with you.' Or, 'You're very New York,'" Eichner said. "And a lot of times, in both overt and subtle ways, I was sent the message that I was just too gay."

It was only when he began posting his videos online and they began racking up millions of views, that he began to garner the attention that had been eluding him until then. "These views aren't coming exclusively from gay people, watching in New York City," Eichner said. "Look at the comments, they're coming from all over the country and all over the world. That's when they finally put me on TV."

A Twitter DM led him to be cast in Parks and Rec

When Billy Eichner finally did land a network television role, he made a huge impression on viewers as the ridiculously intense staffer, Craig Middlebrooks in "Parks and Recreation." The actor landed the role, not via a casting call and audition process, but thanks to a social media DM he received from the show's co-creator, Mike Schur. The sitcom maestro told the rising comedy star there was a role that would be ideal for him and asked if he was interested in doing it. "Literally, that's how that happened," Eichner told Vanity Fair . "I have agents, and lawyers, and managers, but Twitter, ultimately, is how the deal went down." 

In that interview, he explained how his "Parks and Recs" character is both inspired by yet different from his "Billy on the Street" persona. "I got to play Craig Middlebrooks, who was almost a more intense and extreme version of 'Billy on the Street,' which is hard to imagine," he said.

While "Billy on the Street" had attracted him significant attention, "Parks and Recreation" was his first experience with scripted television. As a result, he faced a pretty steep learning curve regarding the ins and outs of working on a sitcom set. "I was so green when I did 'Parks and Rec,'" Eichner admitted in an interview with Pardon My Take . "... I mean, like, there were very basic things I did not understand."

Billy on the Street was spawned by his stage show

It was "Billy on the Street" that led Billy Eichner to be cast on "Parks and Recreation," but how exactly did Billy wind up on the street?  As Vulture recalled, the guerrilla-style TV show, in which he accosts unsuspecting passersby on the streets of Manhattan, initially sprang from the live stage show, "Creation Nation" — which he co-created and starred in with his roommate, Robin Lord Taylor . Describing the show to The New York Times , Eichner explained, "It's a land ruled by artists, celebrities, and people who like to talk about pop culture without necessarily contributing to it." 

In another interview with Vulture, Eichner explained that he'd begun incorporating videos into the stage show back in 2004. He eventually began posting these videos to YouTube, and their online success gained momentum. "['Billy on the Street' has] been a really slow burn in a way, but it's been really satisfying because, I mean, I'm pretty proud of the fact that we started so long ago, and yet there are still so many people discovering it ... for the first time."

In fact, Eichner was proud yet incredulous regarding the impressive list of A-list celebs who had joined him to yell at NYC pedestrians for "Billy on the Street." "People like Tina Fey and Will Ferrell and Sarah Jessica Parker, we did a video with the First Lady this year, Letterman — it's kind of outrageous and unbelievable," he marveled.

He credits social media for launching his career

Billy Eichner has made no secret of the fact that he'd be nowhere nearly as successful as he's become had it not been for his use of social media. That, he explained in an interview with  Vanity Fair , was particularly true of Twitter. "Twitter can be, you know, a horrible, anxiety-inducing war zone," he conceded. "But in many ways, it's also helped me." As of 2022, the star boasted over 2.3 million followers on the platform. 

For Eichner, the videos he shot for the cult TV show, "Billy on the Street," found a keen following on social media. And having access to these feeds was a game-changer — people who may have had no idea there even was a TV show were now able to watch quick clips from it on YouTube, Facebook, or Twitter. "I always say I would not have a career without social media in general," he told Vanity Fair.

In fact, had Eichner been 20 years older, coming of age in an era before social media existed, he believes that his life would have turned out significantly different. "I would have been one of those elderly, bitter gay ushers at a Broadway theater, holding a flashlight if you come in late to 'An American in Paris,' yelling at you that you can't bring the sodas in,"  he quipped in another Vanity Fair interview.

Starring in The Lion King fulfilled his circle of life

Billy Eichner hit the mainstream with a vengeance when he was cast as the voice of Timon, the meerkat, in Disney's live-action remake of its animated classic, "The Lion King." Taking on the voice role originally played by Nathan Lane in the 1994 animated feature, the actor was partnered with Seth Rogen's warthog, Pumbaa. 

As he told Us Weekly , Eichner had another connection with "The Lion King" that preceded his role in the 2019 movie, divulging, "I was a bartender at 'The Lion King' on Broadway." During an appearance on "Good Morning America,"  the "Bros" star elaborated, "This is a true full-circle moment." He noted that his bartending role was back in 2002 before he had yet to hit it big. "Circle of life!" he declared.

According to Eichner, the experience isn't one he's particularly proud of — from a drink-slinging perspective, at least. "I studied to be a bartender, but I couldn't get a real bartending job. So I started bartending at ... Broadway shows, and they moved me to 'The Lion King,' which is not a sign that you're a great bartender," Eichner told GQ . "... No one's drinking martinis at 'The Lion King' because it's all parents and their kids and so all you end up doing is pouring sodas and selling candy."

He's been kicked off Tinder — twice

In addition to such social media platforms as Twitter and YouTube, Billy Eichner has also been quite active on the dating app, Tinder. Interestingly, the comedy star's success on Twitter has been in direct disproportion to his failure on Tinder. "No joke, this is true, I was banned from Tinder," he revealed during an appearance on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!"  "They banned me all of a sudden. And I say, 'Why?' They didn't give me an explanation, they just said, 'You violated the terms of use.' And I said, 'I've been single for seven years, you violated the terms of use!' I didn't violate anything!"

The reason for his banishment from Tinder, he theorized, was that somebody came across his profile and reported him, believing it was a fake impersonator even though he was legitimately on there. Eichner was eventually reinstated. To apologize, Tinder sent him a gift basket that included such well-intentioned treats as a t-shirt that read, "World's greatest single." "It was honestly the most depressing gift I've ever received," he quipped during a " Late Night with Seth Meyers " appearance.

However, several years after his first ban, he revealed he'd been ousted from Tinder a second time, telling Variety that his account had been deleted. This time, he wasn't intending to be welcomed back into the fold. "I can't book a late-night talk show appearance just to get reinstated on Tinder," he said. "I'll stick to Hinge and Grindr and everything else."

An angry rant scored him the Angry Birds gig

In addition to voicing Timon in the "Lion King" remake, Billy Eichner also lent his voice to " The Angry Birds Movie ," based on the insanely popular mobile game. Interestingly enough, just as social media led him to be cast in "Parks and Recreation," he landed his "Angry Birds" role in a similarly unorthodox manner. 

He told Vanity Fair  that it all started when he welcomed "Ted Lasso" star, Jason Sudeikis , to "Billy on the Street." When his guest told him about his upcoming role in the animated "Angry Birds" movie, Eichner did some digging and saw the lengthy list of actors that had been tapped for the film — and was ticked off that he was not one of them. "Every actor in Hollywood was in the 'Angry Birds' movie," Eichner griped. "I was the only f***ing person not asked to be in 'The Angry Birds Movie,' and I'm known for basically being an angry bird."

He unleashed his disappointment in an epic "Billy on the Street" rant, explaining why he should have been cast in the movie. According to Eichner, the film's director saw his comedy bit, and said, "You know what, you're right, you should be in the 'Angry Birds' movie." They called and threw a couple of minor roles his way — Chef Pig and a bird called Phillip. Eichner subsequently confirmed the casting on Twitter , writing, "Justice at last!!"

Joan Rivers was his mentor

Some of Billy Eichner's fans may be surprised to learn that one of his biggest supporters was the late Joan Rivers. During an appearance on the "Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend"  podcast, Eichner discussed the important role that the legendary comedian played in both his career and his life. "She was the greatest," he proclaimed, revealing that he first got to know her when they worked together with Andy Cohen on a Bravo pilot that didn't get picked up. "She really became like a mentor to me," he said. "I could go on and on about how insanely supportive she was for no reason."

In a tribute he wrote for Entertainment Weekly , Eichner shared what is perhaps his most illustrative memory about Rivers' magnanimous nature – the comedy legend would leave DVDs of his videos with producers of David Letterman's and Jimmy Kimmel's late-night shows. He recalled that about a week before Rivers' death in 2014 at age 81 , he was invited to "The Late Show with David Letterman" for the very first time. "Would Joan be proud?" he wrote. "I think so."

Interviewed by Us Weekly , he offered another memory, this one demonstrating Rivers' thoughtfulness. "I once ran into my friend, the late, great Joan Rivers on a plane," he said. "I forgot my garment bag when we landed, and she walked me into the Admirals Club and had them escort me back to the plane to make sure I got it back."

Billy Eicher thinks culture can support activism

In 2022, Billy Eichner debuted "Bros," Hollywood's first mainstream, big-budget gay romantic comedy. Starring alongside Hallmark Channel favorite, Luke McFarlane, Eichner also co-wrote the screenplay, while Hollywood heavyweight Judd Apatow produced it. Speaking with Variety , Eichner insisted he was well aware of what's involved with blazing new trails to produce the first of anything. "I feel a responsibility for it to do well," he said. "I've worked so hard on it, I care so much about it, and I want it to do well for the sake of the LGBTQ stories getting greenlit. So there's a burden I feel..."

He was also keenly cognizant of the risks he was taking. "I want people to love [the movie]," he told GQ . "I want the box office to be decent. I don't know how much control I have over that. I'm doing the best I can. I'm not Ryan Reynolds."

As for his hopes for what "Bros" can achieve on a cultural level, he suggested his film could further push the envelope that "Will & Grace" had unsealed 20 years earlier. "I remember [President] Biden, years ago, saying that 'Will & Grace' probably did more for gay rights in America than certain activists — and activists obviously did a ton and they did the hard work — but there's also some truth in that [sentiment], too," Eichner explained, reasoning that culture is capable of influencing incredible change.

Backlash for his 'Bros' box office comments

When "Bros" was released in theaters in September 2022, it did not achieve the box office success that was anticipated. Per  IndieWire , it raked in just $4.8 million in its opening weekend, falling well short of the $10 million that had been predicted . In response to the lackluster ticket sales, Eichner turned to his favorite medium to share his two cents via a since-deleted Twitter thread (via Los Angeles Times ), which culminated with the tweet, "Everyone who isn't a homophobic weirdo should go see 'Bros' tonight!"

Eichner's tweet was immediately hit with backlash, with many pointing out that there are a lot of factors involved in why a movie doesn't experience a strong opening. Speaking with People , Eichner responded to the backlash and agreed that it wasn't necessarily fair to blame the film's earnings on homophobia when various other things had also contributed to the sluggish box office. Discussing how a confluence of factors ranging from the pandemic to the increasing number of comedy movies premiering on streaming services worked against "Bros," he conceded, "Obviously things change over time, and the way we consume culture evolved." 

However, Eichner explained that prior to the film's release, just the trailer alone had received homophobic backlash in certain parts of the country. However, he also noted that there was a reason Hollywood's biggest comedy stars have sidestepped the big screen for streaming deals. "That seems to be where people want to watch these movies," Eichner reasoned. 

He was blocked by Carrie Underwood -- and loved it

Given how active Billy Eichner has always been on Twitter, there's no denying that he's become a formidable foe when entering into a Twitter feud. That came through loud and clear when he was a guest on  "Watch What Happens Live"  in 2022, and a viewer asked why country music superstar,  Carrie Underwood had blocked him on Twitter .  A year earlier, Eichner had  tweeted a screenshot of the social media platform's evidence that he'd been blocked by the "Jesus Take the Wheel" singer, adding the caption, "Iconic."

Anyone who thought that Eichner would be chagrined to be dissed by the "American Idol" alum can guess again. "It was one of the great thrills of my life," Eichner proudly declared to host, Andy Cohen before explaining how he came to incur the wrath of Underwood.   "There was a thing where during the height of COVID, she retweeted a speech by some Republican guy saying that kids shouldn't have to wear masks in schools," he explained. "... I guess I made some jokes about that that went viral on Twitter. And I guess she didn't like that."

However, Eichner had already been yanking Underwood's chain on Twitter for years prior to that particular incident. The many jibes that he'd shared on Twitter concerning the singer included a 2012 tweet , where he quipped, "Which is worse, Carrie Underwood remaking 'The Sound of Music' or dying alone?"

  • Moscow concerts Moscow concerts Moscow concerts See all Moscow concerts ( Change location ) Today · Next 7 days · Next 30 days
  • Most popular artists worldwide
  • Trending artists worldwide

Drake live.

  • Tourbox for artists

Search for events or artists

  • Sign up Log in

Show navigation

  • Get the app
  • Moscow concerts
  • Change location
  • Popular Artists
  • Live streams
  • Deutsch Português
  • Popular artists

Billy Eichner

  • On tour: no
  • Upcoming 2024 concerts: none

7,454 fans get concert alerts for this artist.

Join Songkick to track Billy Eichner and get concert alerts when they play near you.

Find your next concert

Join 7,454 fans getting concert alerts for this artist

Past concerts

The Bell House

Find out more about Billy Eichner tour dates & tickets 2024-2025

Want to see Billy Eichner in concert? Find information on all of Billy Eichner’s upcoming concerts, tour dates and ticket information for 2024-2025.

Unfortunately there are no concert dates for Billy Eichner scheduled in 2024.

Songkick is the first to know of new tour announcements and concert information, so if your favorite artists are not currently on tour, join Songkick to track Billy Eichner and get concert alerts when they play near you, like 7454 other Billy Eichner fans.

Last concert:

Touring history

Most played:

  • New York (NYC) (1)

Distance travelled:

Similar artists

John Oliver live.

  • Most popular charts
  • API information
  • Brand guidelines
  • Community guidelines
  • Terms of use
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies settings
  • Cookies policy

Get your tour dates seen everywhere.

EMP

  • But we really hope you love us.

To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories .

How Billy Eichner Made the Best Rom-Com of the Year 

By Keaton Bell

How Billy Eichner Made the Best RomCom of the Year

We may earn a commission if you buy something from any affiliate links on our site.

Over the course of Billy on the Street ’s five-season run, Billy Eichner never strayed far from the madcap comedic persona he established in the very first episode. Scurrying down the sidewalks of New York City with a microphone and a cameraman in tow, Eichner made a name for himself assaulting unsuspecting pedestrians with hyper-specific pop-culture questions: Would you have sex with Paul Rudd? Do gay people care about John Oliver?

Intentionally brash and unapologetically queer, Eichner frequently mined viral gold with his cranked-up alter ego. But of all the clips to rack up millions of views, one has always stuck out to him. For a segment called Jason Sudeikis Bros Out With Billy, the comedian adopted an “alternative” persona: “I did my typical Billy on the Street thing, but I wore a jersey with a backward cap and spoke with this ridiculous deep voice,” Eichner says. “I’d run up to other guys on the street and go, ‘Hey, bro, for a dollar, which is better: Aladdin or Wicked ?’”

He conceived the segment as a tongue-in-cheek commentary on masculinity and the ways that men choose to present it. Some viewers didn’t really seem to get the message. “A very handsome gay friend of mine said, ‘Billy, you look really sexy in that bro costume—you should dress like that more!’” Eichner recalls. “I just laughed and said, ‘You mean I’d look hotter if I dressed completely differently and acted more masculine?’”

The interaction stayed with Eichner over the years, eventually forming the seed of an idea that became Bros . Cowritten by and starring Eichner, the new rom-com follows Bobby Leiber, a famous podcast-host-slash-queer-activist who is as intense as he is emotionally withholding. While he works on getting the first national LGBTQ history museum up and running in Manhattan, Bobby’s well-kept world is turned upside down when he meets Aaron, a hunky lawyer played by Luke Macfarlane. Aaron loves Garth Brooks and prefers group sex to monogamy, making him the polar opposite of anyone Bobby ever imagined ending up with. While attracted to Aaron, Bobby is frustrated by his commitment issues—and Aaron likes that Bobby challenges him but doesn’t know how to open up.

Image may contain Human Person Clothing Hat Apparel Billy Eichner Back and Skin

Luke Macfarlane and Billy Eichner in Bros

“Masculinity is still put on such a pedestal in the gay community, and that’s part of what this movie is about,” Eichner says. “What happens when two guys who pride themselves on being tough—physically and emotionally—fall in love with each other and have to learn to let their guards down?”

Bros functions as both a swoon-worthy romance and a gut-busting comedy—one Renée Zellweger joke is worth the price of admission alone—embracing rom-com tropes without feeling like any of the queer content is being watered down to appease mass (i.e. straight) audiences. It’s like When Harry Met Sally… on poppers or You’ve Got Mail with Grindr instead of email.

Before Bros hit theaters, Eichner caught up with Vogue to chat about the real-life relationship that inspired the script, finding the perfect actor to play his romantic lead, and how that one celebrity cameo happened.

Vogue : Talk me through how Bros came to be. Had you always wanted to write a romantic comedy?

Billy Eichner: It was all Nic Stoller. We had worked together a couple of times [on Neighbors and Friends From College ] and really clicked. He emailed me out of the blue, saying “Hey, I like working with you, and I wanna make a romantic comedy centered around a gay couple because that’s something no major studio has ever done before.” He acknowledged that he was a cis straight man, so he asked if I’d be interested in writing it with him. The idea seemed so impossible on some level, because I’m not a movie star and I’d never written a movie. But I knew what a great opportunity it was, so I said yes, not knowing what it would be about or if I had the skills to make it happen.

What did you want the film to communicate about queer life and love?

I wanted it to feel real to gay men while also being hilarious and accessible to all audiences. I also made it very clear that as much as I love When Harry Met Sally… , I didn’t just want to remake that movie and swap in two gay men. Because, yes, love is love is love in a very oversimplified sense of the phrase…the emotion may be the same, but the rules we establish around love and sex and monogamy can be very different from heterosexual relationships.

What are some of the ways you wanted Bros to update conventional rom-com tropes?

Nic and I talked about how rom-coms are often built around a character who’s falling apart. But I know a lot of smart, handsome, successful gay men who are all still single. I thought it’d be interesting to center a rom-com around someone closer to those queer people I know who have become extremely self-reliant as a means of navigating the bullshit we have to deal with in this world.

Did the writing process serve as a way of working through some of your own internal conflicts about love and relationships?

It definitely comes from a very personal place. The script was partially inspired by a real experience from about seven years ago. I was always the type of person who secretly judged my friends in codependent relationships. But then I met someone who I developed really strong feelings for very unexpectedly. That relationship did not pan out the way Bobby and Aaron’s does in the movie. It didn’t even really become a real relationship. But it’s so rare that I make romantic connections to the point that when it did happen, I didn’t know what to do with those feelings. Nic and I thought there was a lot of comedy to be mined from someone who has their shit together but then slowly starts to unravel after meeting someone they love.

How Billy Eichner Made the Best RomCom of the Year

The film opens with Bobby pitching a romantic comedy to a studio executive who wants him to write something that “even a straight guy might like.” I’m curious as to how similar that interaction was to your experience making Bros .

I don’t know what internal conversations Universal may have had, but I never once heard “this is too gay.” I think it really helped that I made this with [coproducer] Judd [Apatow] and Nic, two straight men who don’t necessarily have a granular understanding of gay culture but are responsible for some of the most successful and relatable comedies in recent memory. We wanted to make sure that the story felt clear to audiences who may not have a ton of gay men in their lives, while at the same time not spoon-feeding anyone. I had Nic and Judd to turn to and ask, “Is it clear what I’m trying to say?”

Can you think of anything specific that you needed to elaborate on for them?

Aaron and Bobby have a couple of different group-sex scenes, but the second one happens when they’re very much in a committed relationship. Nic said, “I don’t understand: If they’re dating and in love, why are they having a foursome?” I had to explain to him and Judd that the rules are different for a lot of gay men. One of my favorite lines in the movie is when Bobby says that gay relationships these days are like clown cars—“Oh look, there’s another one, another one, another one….”

How Billy Eichner Made the Best RomCom of the Year

What about Luke Macfarlane made him the ideal romantic lead?  

We had some really wonderful actors come in, including some friends of mine. There aren’t a lot of openly gay actors in Hollywood, so a lot of us know each other. I knew who Luke was and that he’d been on Brothers & Sisters , but I’d never actually met him. The first words we spoke to each other were when we read the scene at his first audition. There was just an immediate spark. I think Luke really understands Aaron. They’re not identical by any means, but I think he understood some of Aaron’s struggle, in addition to aesthetically looking the way that character was supposed to look.

A rom-com lives or dies by the chemistry of its leads, and your connection with Luke feels so effortless. What can you tell me about developing that sense of camaraderie with each other?

Luke is Canadian and loves hockey, so the first time we hung out, he took me to an L.A. Kings game. He has season tickets but also went to Juilliard and loves theater, so we sat there in the middle of the game talking about The Inheritance and Angels in America the whole time.

That sounds like it could be a scene out of Bros .

It felt very similar to our dynamic in the movie. Luke was really helpful because both of these characters needed to feel multidimensional. I didn’t want the relationship to feel lopsided. As someone coming in with a bit more distance from the script who hadn’t worked on it for five years, Luke could say, “This part doesn’t quite make sense to me. Can we clarify what Aaron is feeling here?” He made the movie much better.

Image may contain Clothing Apparel Footwear Shoe Human Person Billy Eichner Pants Luke Macfarlane and Boot

That just speaks to the significance of having queer actors play queer roles and how that informs the material. Part of the joy of Bros is getting to see so many LGBTQ+ icons in the spotlight—the audience at my screening got so excited when Harvey Fierstein shows up.

And Harvey is an openly gay man who got Torch Song Trilogy made into a film at the height of the AIDS epidemic in the ’80s. People like Ts Madison and Dot-Marie Jones have been working in the business for decades but rarely get the chance to shine on a big screen. Amanda Bearse was a star on prime-time television and came out in 1993 before Rosie O’Donnell! Before Ellen DeGeneres! But they’re not just historical figures, they’re thriving artists who should still be given opportunities.

One of the biggest laughs in Bros is when Debra Messing shows up, playing a very broad version of herself. How did that cameo happen?  

I met her when did a really funny segment on Billy on the Street called It’s Debra Messing, You Gays! I remember cold-calling her and saying, “I know you don’t know who I am, but I do this thing on the street and you’re so prominent among gay men who’ve been watching Will & Grace for years. I think it would be funny to poke fun at your image and celebrate that!” She was one of the first celebrities to appear on the show before we had any big viral clips. We ran up to people in Chelsea, and I would just scream, “It’s Debra Messing, you gays!” We had so many celebrities on the show doing absurd things, and I’m grateful to them all, but some got very scared. Most celebrities aren’t used to interacting with the public, but Debra was so game. She immediately agreed to poke fun at herself again in Bros , and I’m thrilled because she’s hysterical.

What do you hope queer audiences take away from Bros ?  

It’s very important to me that other people in the queer community relate to it and see that I made best efforts to create something authentic about our lives. I’m not someone who shies away from a bold political statement, but Bros is not meant to be a bold political statement. Our priority was always just to make a hilarious movie. And this movie should’ve been made years ago. There are so many more talented people than me in the LGBTQ community who should’ve gotten this opportunity. On some level I’m just in the right place at the right time, and that’s not lost on me. 

Ts Madison Billy Eichner Miss Lawrence Eve Lindley Jim Rash and DotMarie Jones in Bros

Ts Madison, Billy Eichner, Miss Lawrence, Eve Lindley, Jim Rash, and Dot-Marie Jones in Bros

What’s one type of queer content you want to see more of moving forward?

I started writing this movie in my late 30s, and when it comes out, I’m gonna be 44. I’m a middle-aged guy, and there isn’t much out there about LGBTQ folks in my age range. We’re not old exactly, but we’re not 20-somethings out partying every night trying to figure out who we are. I think all of the YA stuff is incredible, and I wish we had it when I was a kid. I’m thrilled LGBTQ kids have it now because it’s making the world a better place. But I would love to see more LGBTQ stories about adults. Bros was just one opportunity to tell my story, but now I want Ts Madison, Bowen Yang, and Miss Lawrence to make their own movies. We are not a monolithic group, and there are so many more stories to tell. 

Bros is in theaters now.

More Great Culture Stories from Vogue

The Cast of Feud: Capote vs. The Swans Their Real-Life Counterparts

Why Do So Many Millennials Look and Seem So Much Younger Than They Are?

The Best True-Crime Podcasts to Listen to Now

The Best Books of 2024 So Far

The True Story of Catherine Dior, Christian Dior’s Renegade Younger Sister

Listen to The Run-Through with Vogue , a weekly podcast featuring the most exciting stories and hot takes from the worlds of culture, politics, sports and–of course–fashion

Vogue Daily

By signing up you agree to our User Agreement (including the class action waiver and arbitration provisions ), our Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement and to receive marketing and account-related emails from Architectural Digest.. You can unsubscribe at any time. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Billy Eichner made a great rom-com. Now its audiences’ turn.

Billy Eichner poses for a portrait at the Crosby Street Hotel to promote his film "Bros" on Monday, Sept. 19, 2022 in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)

  • Show more sharing options
  • Copy Link URL Copied!

At the Toronto International Film Festival world premiere of “Bros,” Billy Eichner exhorted the crowd to keep cheering.

“Keep it going!” implored Eichner. “I want a longer ovation than ‘The Whale! ’”

In the whistle-stop lead-up to the release of “Bros,” Eichner has worked tirelessly to whip audiences into a frenzy for a film unlike any Hollywood has before produced . A lot is riding on the movie, and not just because Eichner, the 44-year-old “Billy on the Street ” comedian, has been working five years on what is his big-screen breakthrough. “Bros” is the first major-studio gay rom-com and the first studio movie starring and co-written by an openly gay man.

In drumming up excitement, Eichner has promoted these distinctions, lamented that they’ve lasted this long, and parodied his role in trying to pitch his movie to America. Revisiting his “Billy on the Street” persona, Eichner has run through Hollywood with Jack Black shouting, “I need allies!” Sprinting around New York’s Flat Iron Building with Paul Rudd, he exclaimed, “I’ve been working 20 years for this! I need a straight person to go see ‘Bros!’”

At the MTV VMAs , Eichner put the stakes in more dramatic terms, urging people to see “Bros” because “we need to show all the homophobes like Clarence Thomas and all the homophobes on the Supreme Court that we want gay love stories and we support LGBTQ people and we are not letting them drag us back into the last century because they are past and ‘Bros’ is the future.”

“Bros,” directed by Nicholas Stoller and produced by Judd Apatow, is a bid to challenge a Hollywood status quo that’s been more comfortable making gay characters sidekicks, roommates or fodder for straight-actor transformation than protagonists in love stories. And by all accounts — a celebrated reception at TIFF, glowing reviews ( 95% fresh on Rotten Tomatoe s) and even the endorsement of hard-to-impress “Billy on Street” regular Elena — Eichner has made the movie of the moment. Now, it’s the audience’s turn to prove Eichner’s prediction of a “Bros” future correct.

In a recent interview while the “Bros-Mobile,” a 44-seat mobile theater, was passing through Philadelphia on a national tour, Eichner said he’d like everyone to see “Bros.” Sylvester Stallone? “I think Sylvester Stallone would love ‘Bros.’” Meryl Streep? “My God. She’s number one on my list.”

Made with an almost entirely LGBTQ cast, “Bros,” which stars Eichner and Hallmark Channel veteran Luke Macfarlane, is an uncommonly intimate, R-rated view of gay life that’s funny, moving and a little furious about how LGBTQ characters have usually been portrayed in studio films.

“We’re so often depicted as something so over-simplified and I think it’s because that’s what audiences have gotten used to, it’s what Hollywood’s gotten used to, and that’s what everyone decided people were comfortable with, that version of us,” says Eichner. “You didn’t really have to deal with us as actual, complicated human beings.”

“What I said to Judd and Nick was: I grew up with all those great romantic comedies, like ‘Moonstruck’ and ‘Working Girl’ and ‘Broadcast News,’ which is my favorite movie of all time. These movies were about adults,” adds Eichner. “We have no gay equivalent of that. And they barely make straight movies like that anymore.”

Even the broadest comedies have struggled to find a foothold in theaters in recent years. Stoller, the director of “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and “Neighbors,” has been mystified by that trend, and by the sluggish pace of inclusion in big-screen comedies.

“Before ‘Bridesmaids’ came out, the whole industry was saying: ‘A comedy? Starring women? That’s not going to work,’” says Stoller. “Of course it worked! Half the people are women!”

Stoller initially reached out to Eichner about collaborating after being impressed by his performance on “Friends From College,” a sitcom Stoller created with his wife, Francesca Delbanco. The two worked on a screenplay for two years, beginning with conversations Stoller compares to therapy sessions. As he did with Jason Segel in “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and Russell Brand for “Get Him to the Greek,” Stoller peppered Eichner with questions about his life.

“He really wanted to do these monologues, which I thought was risky but also really interesting,” says Stoller. “He comes from a kind of quasi-stand-up. Before ‘Billy on the Street’ he was doing off-Broadway stuff. So he’d write these monologues that were self-aware and kind of explaining to the audience. I think it’s based on him having to explain over and over again to Hollywood who he is and what makes him funny.”

In the five seasons of “Billy on the Street,” in which Eichner quizzed and chastised New York passersby on their pop culture knowledge, the Queens native channeled his love-hate relationship with Hollywood into hysterical, rage-fueled encounters. But in writing “Bros” with Stoller, he wanted to make something more sincere.

“When I thought about what I wanted the movie to be, I realized it was a huge and unique opportunity for me and for LGBTQ folks and also for straight audiences to get a sense of who we really are,” says Eichner. “Because it’s a Judd Apatow movie, and straight people love Judd Apatow movies.”

Eichner and Stoller aimed for something that would navigate the love life of a commitment-phobic New Yorker (not unlike Eichner, himself) while honoring the unique complexities of gay love and commenting on its usual media portrayals. The result is a movie with a lot on its mind that still seeks to be a crowd-pleaser.

“This movie tested higher than any movie I’ve worked on in its first test screenings,” says Stoller. “Immediately, the audience loved it. It was interesting because you feel like the gay audience will laugh at certain jokes that the straight audience doesn’t get, but then everyone’s laughing at certain things together.”

Stoller recalls some of his favorite test-audience comments. A gay man responded: “I don’t know if I want our secrets getting out.” A straight guy said on the film’s sex scenes: “It made me uncomfortable, but I liked it.”

Some have suggested Eichner has overplayed the historical nature of “Bros.” A Gawker headline read: “Billy Eichner is the first gay man ever.” There have been some recent films that centered on gay romance, like the more dramatic “Love, Simon” (2018), and streaming releases like Netflix’s “Happiest Season” (2020) and Hulu’s “Fire Island” from earlier this year.

But “Bros” is trying to reach mainstream audiences in theaters within the very recognizable vehicle of an Apatow-produced comedy — to be 2022’s answer to “Knocked Up.” There’s already been some evidence of trolling on the film. IMDB this week removed hundreds of one-star reviews for “Bros” in an apparent bid to review-bomb the film before it was released.

To Jim Rash, the “Descendants” writer and “Community” actor who plays a colleague of Eichner’s in the movie, the set of “Bros” was unlike any he had been on before.

“I’ve played characters that were straight. I’ve played gay. I’ve played in the closet. I’ve played might-be-gay. But ‘Bros’ was a movie where what you see on the screen is the entire representation of it,” says Rash. “There’s a safe space that comes with knowing that at the helm is someone who’s very much focused on the diversity of the environment that he was creating. It inherently had that because you were with your community.”

There are raunchy comic scenes in “Bros” and some of the genre’s tried-and-true romantic moments. But one thing that may surprise fans of “Billy on the Street” is how earnest it can be. One scene is set on a beach in Provincetown, Mass., in which Eichner performs a tender monologue about opening himself up to love is part of the “Bros” revolution, too.

“Just as much of an influence on ‘Bros’ as ‘Bridesmaids’ was was ‘The Way We Were.’ I miss that about movies,” says Eichner. “For gay men, especially, the romance of our lives is just nowhere to be found. There’s a lot to be cynical about in the world. But I think this is an opportunity for people to stop and say: Let’s take love stories and great comedies about life and the human condition as seriously as we take stories about a man dressed up as a bat saving Gotham City.”

Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP

Get U-T Arts & Culture on Thursdays

A San Diego insider’s look at what talented artists are bringing to the stage, screen, galleries and more.

You may occasionally receive promotional content from the San Diego Union-Tribune.

More in this section

National Entertainment

As speculation about the next Bond grows, here’s how some actors have responded to casting rumors

Speculation about the actor who will be tapped as the next James Bond grew this week with reports that the role would go to Aaron Taylor-Johnson

March 22, 2024

FILE - Taylor Swift fans wait for the doors of the Nilton Santos Olympic stadium to open amid a heat wave in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Nov. 18, 2023. A stifling heat wave was sweeping across southeast Brazil the day of Swift’s concert last November, just before the start of summer in the Southern Hemisphere. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo, File)

The ‘Taylor Swift effect’ aims to provide water during Brazil’s life-threatening heat waves

Brazilian climatologist Núbia Beray Armond for years had been sounding the alarm about Rio de Janeiro’s need for an extreme heat plan including water distribution

FILE - Joana Vicente attends the 2024 Sundance Film Festival's Opening Night Gala on Jan. 18, 2024, in Kamas, Utah. Vicente is stepping down as the CEO of the Sundance Institute, the nonprofit behind the annual Sundance Film Festival, after two and a half years. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, File)

Joana Vicente steps down as Sundance Institute CEO

Joana Vicente is stepping down as the CEO of the Sundance Institute, the nonprofit behind the annual Sundance Film Festival, after two and a half years

Diane Foley, left, and Colum McCann, co-authors of "American Mother."

A book celebrates James Foley and confronts a man involved in his murder

Irish author Colum McCann and Foley’s mother, Diane, questioned one of journalist’s kidnappers and co-wrote a book about both men

Pattie Boyd poses next to the original artwork by E. Frandsen De Schomberg, used for the cover of Derek and the Dominoes album 'Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs' as part of The Pattie Boyd Collection at Christie's, in London, Thursday, March 14, 2024. The artwork is estimated to sell £40,000-60,000. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

Auction of Pattie Boyd’s trove of treasures surpasses expectations as it nets $3.6 million

The online auction of a trove of letters, photos and other items that Pattie Boyd, who was at the heart of the Swinging 60s, has surpassed all expectations

Top 20 Global Concert Tours from Pollstar

Top 20 Global Concert Tours from Pollstar for Week of March 25, 2024

an image, when javascript is unavailable

  • facebook-rs

Billy Eichner on ‘Bros’ — and Why He’s ‘Beyond’ ‘Billy on the Street’

By Brian Hiatt

Brian Hiatt

“I never thought a major studio would do an authentically gay film,” says Billy Eichner , “and treat it the same way they would treat Bridesmaids or 40-Year-Old Virgin or Forgetting Sarah Marshall .” Eichner is the star of Bros , the groundbreaking, hilarious gay rom-com he also co-wrote, which — defying his initial doubts — is due in theaters Sept. 30, with a big push from Universal Studios.

In the movie, co-written and directed by Nick Stoller (who also directed Sarah Marshall ) and co-produced by Judd Apatow (who directed 40-Year-Old Virgin and produced the other two films Eichner mentions), Eichner plays Bobby, a media personality who finds his neurotic self-sufficiency disrupted when he falls in love with Aaron (Luke Macfarlane), a guileless lawyer. 

For Eichner, arguably still best known for the daredevil comedy of his pedestrian-accosting, celebrity-razzing series Billy on the Street , becoming a leading man at 43 feels like a belated return to a path he always meant to pursue, and the next step after well-received dramatic turns in American Horror Story and Impeachment: American Crime Story . “You don’t sit there as a kid thinking, ‘Oh, I could be the star of this movie, if only I wasn’t gay,'” he says. “I went to see Steve Martin and Tom Hanks movies and I thought, ‘Oh, I could do something like that.’ It was only when I was in my mid-twenties when I started to think, ‘Oh, I guess I’ll be lucky if I can just play the neighbor on a sitcom.’ Because that’s what Hollywood was telling me.”

Bobby’s opening rant, excerpted in the movie’s first trailer , is a brilliantly meta attack on the idea of making a gay movie that’d make straight guys comfortable. How did you come up with it? It’s one of the first things I wrote for the movie. And it’s something that’s always been on my mind. We’re getting so much queer content, and all great and it’s a sign of progress. But we’ve spent a lot of our time as queer people telling stories about ourselves while being concerned that we’re palatable to straight audiences. For me, and a lot of my friends, when we watch some of those shows, although there are gay characters, we don’t recognize those people. They’re a two-dimensional sitcom character, wearing cutesy little outfits, and it’s all done with this satirical veil. There’s an archness to so many of the gay male characters we get. And one of my goals with Bros was, I wanted to be as funny as I’ve been before, or funnier, but funny in a different way. I wanted to lose that archness. I wanted the characters to feel like fully fleshed-out, complicated, funny, sad, three-dimensional people.

Editor’s picks

The 250 greatest guitarists of all time, the 500 greatest albums of all time, the 50 worst decisions in movie history, every awful thing trump has promised to do in a second term.

Sexuality aside, a big, lush, urbane studio comedy about grown-ups is actually a throwback at this point. I’m in my forties, and I look around at movies in general — about straight people, about gay people, especially comedies — and say, “Where are the adults? What happened to the adults?” [ Laughs. ] I grew up with those great James L. Brooks movies and Nora Ephron movies and Woody Allen movies. Those movies have disappeared entirely. I at least wanted to hold [ Bros ] to a higher standard than what’s passing for rom-coms these days. But as much as I love all those movies – Broadcast News , Moonstruck , Annie Hall , Tootsie – LGBTQ people are literally completely ignored and erased in those worlds. We weren’t even the best friend!

A rom-com that’s not about straight people opens the door for an incredible amount of fresh material. Were you aware of that immediately? Honestly, there’s an excitement to the reaction we’re getting from straight audiences who’ve seen the movie at early screenings, because it feels like you’re getting a little peek behind the curtain at a culture of dating and relationships and sex that straight people maybe think they understand, but they don’t. Two men together is a very unique, specific romantic situation. Because yes, we’re gay. But we’re still men. I think straight people think we’re basically women. We are men! And I always say to my straight male friends, “Think about all the weird, fucked-up male shit you have in your brain, about sex and monogamy and being vulnerable, and now times that by two.” That’s going to be a very complicated situation sometimes, and we’ve really never seen it explored.

Nick Stoller is a straight guy; you said that he taught you how to write a movie and you taught him about gay culture. Did you two hit any rough spots in the process? Nick has been in a marriage a very long time. Marriage and family, in the very heteronormative sense, are very, very important to him. Whereas gay men make up our own rules, we create our own families. The one time I got mad at Nick, and I hope he’s OK with me saying this, we were thinking about Bobby’s arc in the movie. He said to me, “If you’re 40, and you’re single, there has to be something wrong with you.” And I exploded. I got so mad! I think that’s an old-fashioned notion even for younger straight couples. They’re polyamorous, and they’re this and they’re that. So even if you were going to remake When Harry Met Sally about a straight couple, it wouldn’t apply. As much as I love those movies, for gay people, especially gay men, they never applied and they certainly don’t apply now. 

Tony Awards Behind the Scenes: All the Tea You Didn’t See on TV

Did ‘bros’ deserve to flop decide for yourself by streaming it now, 'bros' is billy eichner's bid to revolutionize the rom-com. mission accomplished.

Had you really never made an attempt at writing a screenplay before Bros ? I have never written a spec, not even for a half-hour sitcom. Writing, though, was my savior. I wrote a stage show in New York for myself, called Creation Nation , which was my version onstage, with my friend Robin Taylor, of what Letterman did, or Conan. And I wrote original songs. And what evolved in that show would now be referred to as the Billy on the Street persona. In fact, the first Billy on the Street videos were made for that stage. I wrote all the segments, and they were very topical — they took on politics and pop culture, and I was very open about being gay. There was a sketch that got very specific about gay sex, and straight sex, it was called “Sex Talk.” To get onstage in 2003 and talk explicitly about gay sex, even in New York City, was really pushing people outside of their comfort zones. You just didn’t see that very much. But the audience was thrilled by it, because it felt fresh. 

You’ve said that you never experienced homophobia until you entered the entertainment business. What form did that take? In 2006, I had a manager who represented a lot of Broadway talent. She’s a fairly well known manager who represents a lot of famous people. And she was trying to get me agents. And she said, “I’m inviting big agents to your next stage show. Can you make it a little less gay this month?” And I was shocked. It was insulting, and also impractical, because that would be like literally changing my entire personality. I said, “You don’t really know what you’re dealing with, because I have a little bit of a rebellious streak, and I’m not going to deal with that shit.” And they signed me anyway. 

What was it like coming to terms with your identity growing up? My perspective on these things has always been so skewed, because I was born and raised in New York City, with very liberal, accepting parents. I mean, my parents, at different points in their lives when they were single, both lived in the West Village, like in the Sixties and Seventies. And I’m not saying they were dying for me to be gay, or absolutely thrilled that I was gay, but they knew who I was really early on. And they were so supportive and so encouraging.

There’s a part in Bros where a teacher questions whether elementary-school kids are old enough to learn about gay history. Did that end up being more timely than you expected given what’s going on in Florida with the “Don’t Say Gay” law? I could not have anticipated that. I remember writing that and thinking, “I hope people don’t think that this is unrealistic,” because it seemed that we were making progress. But we were never taught our own history as LGBTQ people, even in a threadbare, overly generalized way, the way they teach history in elementary school. We didn’t even get that version of it. We have no sense of ourselves historically. And I don’t think that we realize what that did to us, [to] know nothing about ourselves.

What’s the closest experience you’ve had in real life to the romance in the movie, where your self-reliant character finds himself falling in love for the first time relatively late in life? I had an experience in my mid-thirties where I had not seriously dated anyone in a long time and all of a sudden, I met someone who really shook me up, who I really fell for very quickly. It did not lead to the type of relationship that Bobby and Aaron have in the movie. It was more short-lived. But it did open my eyes in terms of relationships and love, and made me think, “Oh, maybe I shouldn’t completely ignore that part of my life.” I was talking to friends about it, and they said, “Wow, Billy has feelings!” Anyway, that didn’t work out and then I put the wall right back up! [ Laughs. ] 

You’re also working with Paul Rudnick on a movie for Amazon called Ex-Husbands . What’s going on with that? It’s in the early stages. We’re just starting to write it right now. But I’m very excited about that. During Covid, when everyone was sitting around and had nothing to do, I was thinking of ideas. And, I thought, “What if we did a gay version of [the 1989 Michael Douglas-Kathleen Turner film] The War of the Roses ?” Because we see so many happy gay couples. We get gay people falling in love and gay teenagers falling in love, and everything is beautiful and hunky-dory. So this is almost like the other side of Bros . Just because we can get married doesn’t mean that marriage is the answer to everything for gay people, and that all those marriages are gonna work out. And I think there’s a certain pressure on LGBTQ people who get married to really try to work it out. So I thought the idea of a gay divorce would be really funny. I just liked the idea of two gay men really being able to go at it, you know, emotionally and physically. It’s gonna be really fun.

You stopped doing Billy on the Street in 2017, but it feels like it’s never left. It’s had a whole new life over the course of the pandemic. It’s on streaming services, and the biggest thing of all became TikTok — which, I don’t have a TikTok page! I should have made one. But I just couldn’t handle another social media page in my life. [ Ed note : In mid-July, Eichner finally launched a TikTok page.] Billy on the Street fans started to rip the clips, and there are multiple Billy on the Street pages on TikTok with millions upon millions of views. I took a look the other day, [and] there was one clip with 50 million views. There are these clips that are like 15 years old that people are just discovering! There are probably 12-year-olds watching them who were literally not born when I first started doing them, which is really shocking. It just keeps having this crazy afterlife. I’ve had people come up to say to me, “Oh my God, Billy on the Street! I know you from TikTok!” which is just very bizarre.

How do you see the future of Billy in the Street , if any? In terms of the future of it, the vast majority of it is behind me. Maybe for special occasions we’ll bring it back. Obviously, it was not Covid-friendly. It’s a big part of my life, and it’s most likely why I’m getting the opportunities that I’m getting now, and I’m proud of it. But I’m never going to do half-hour episodes of Billy on the Street again, and I don’t ever see it coming back as a regular thing. I’ve just moved beyond it creatively. I did it for so long. People don’t realize but the first Billy on the Street -style video I made was for my live show in September of 2004. It predates YouTube! So it was a very, very slow burn of a success story. I’m not saying never ever, but I’m never gonna do it regularly again.

It seems like its success led to some misconceptions about who you are as a performer. I never even considered myself a comedian. I was a theater kid growing up in New York. I just wanted to do Broadway and off-Broadway. I was a really good singer, I wanted to do musicals. And I went to Northwestern, [where] I was a theater major doing Chekhov and Shakespeare and Angels in America . When Billy on the Street took off, people would describe me as “comedian Billy Eichner.” And I always thought, “Comedian? I’m not a comedian.” Now I’m used to it — and being a comedian is a fantastic thing. It’s just not what I was really going for. So I’m trying to get back to doing what I really wanted to do. And Bros is a big part of that. 

You had an amazing Billy on the Street moment years ago with Chris Pratt. You tell him something like, “Someday you’re gonna play gay and win an Oscar, and I’m still gonna be on the street doing this shit.” It was kidding. And it wasn’t kidding. Although, look at me now! [ Laughs. ] So I mean, he’ll still win an Oscar for playing gay, but I’m not on the street anymore.At least I get to be in a movie playing gay also. So that is progress.

'Wizards of Waverly Place' Sequel Lands on Disney Channel, Selena Gomez to Guest Star

  • By Tomás Mier

Kevin Bacon Will Return to 'Footloose' School After Students Rally for Him to Come for Prom

  • Back to 1984

Colin Farrell Dreams of Mob Boss Immortality in New Teaser for 'The Penguin'

  • By Jon Blistein

'Shirley': Regina King Gives Us the Queen of Underdog Political Campaigns

  • MOVIE REVIEW
  • By David Fear

Gwyneth Paltrow Says Bill Clinton Snored Through 1996 ‘Emma’ Screening

Most popular, over 1,000 jewish creatives and professionals have now denounced jonathan glazer’s 'zone of interest' oscars speech in open letter (exclusive), james marsden, taran killam and stars who signed brian peck letters of support "devastated" drake bell, says dan schneider, rose hanbury just broke her silence on the prince william affair rumors, kobe bryant's parents face backlash after putting championship ring on the auction block, you might also like, ai spending to surpass $13 billion by 2028, media analysts predict, hermès’ and mason rothschild’s legal battle over ‘metabirkins’ nfts continues, the best yoga blocks to support any practice, according to instructors, a fake snuff film for anne hathaway: how ‘be my cat’ ruined the reputation of a genre genius, ivy league basketball is peaking during the transfer portal era.

Rolling Stone is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2024 Rolling Stone, LLC. All rights reserved.

Verify it's you

Please log in.

logo

Billy Eichner Tickets

Looking for Billy Eichner tickets? Anytickets.com has seats for each concert on Billy Eichner ’s latest tour.

The concerts dates are listed below so find the show nearest you and use the venue map to find a great Billy Eichner ticket at an even better price.

Billy Eichner Ticket Prices & Tour Details

Billy Eichner is touring and that means it is time to find Billy Eichner tickets. Unfortunately, Billy Eichner concerts are very popular and the shows always seem to be sold out. Or, if you are fortunate to have found seats to purchase, the very best locations have been claimed.

Fortunately, Anyytickets.com provides the opportunity to purchase THE concert tickets you want to any and every show, including those to see Billy Eichner perform live.

Full Customer Support

Each individual artist/event page includes a schedule of the concerts with the tickets available for purchase. If you require assistance while shopping, call Anytickets.com at 866.516.0200 or click the Live Chat link. Our customer service agents will be able to answer questions and assist with your order.

Secure Transactions

Your personal billing and shipping information will always remain private on a secure server monitored daily by the most trusted online security providers.

On-time Delivery

Once the seller has confirmed the order, your tickets are guaranteed to arrive before the event.

Ticket Prices

Billy Eichner prices fluctuate based on many factors, including inventory and demand. Still, Anytickets.com always has great deals and is the destination whether you just want to get in the door with the cheapest ticket price or find a seat close to the action.

Please note the following :

  • The price listed is for a single ticket and includes tax.
  • A map of the venue is available so you can see where seats are located.
  • Tickets are mailed directly to the address specified during checkout.
  • Anytickets.com is not affiliated with performers, teams or venues, so tickets are listed above face value.
  • Ticket sales are final, unless an event is canceled. If the event is canceled, you will be refunded the cost of the ticket minus the shipping costs.
  • Tickets cannot be replaced, so keep them in a safe place.

Concerts Near You

Upcoming concerts.

billy eichner tour

  • Entertainment

Billy Eichner made a great rom-com. Now its audiences’ turn.

NEW YORK (AP) — At the Toronto International Film Festival world premiere of “Bros,” Billy Eichner exhorted the crowd to keep cheering.

“Keep it going!” implored Eichner. “I want a longer ovation than ‘The Whale! ’”

In the whistle-stop lead-up to the release of “Bros,” Eichner has worked tirelessly to whip audiences into a frenzy for a film unlike any Hollywood has before produced. A lot is riding on the movie, and not just because Eichner, the 44-year-old “Billy on the Street ” comedian, has been working five years on what is his big-screen breakthrough. “Bros” is the first major-studio gay rom-com and the first studio movie starring and co-written by an openly gay man.

In drumming up excitement, Eichner has promoted these distinctions, lamented that they’ve lasted this long, and parodied his role in trying to pitch his movie to America. Revisiting his “Billy on the Street” persona, Eichner has run through Hollywood with Jack Black shouting, “I need allies!” Sprinting around New York’s Flat Iron Building with Paul Rudd, he exclaimed, “I’ve been working 20 years for this! I need a straight person to go see ‘Bros!’”

At the MTV VMAs, Eichner put the stakes in more dramatic terms, urging people to see “Bros” because “we need to show all the homophobes like Clarence Thomas and all the homophobes on the Supreme Court that we want gay love stories and we support LGBTQ people and we are not letting them drag us back into the last century because they are past and ‘Bros’ is the future.”

“Bros,” directed by Nicholas Stoller and produced by Judd Apatow, is a bid to challenge a Hollywood status quo that’s been more comfortable making gay characters sidekicks, roommates or fodder for straight-actor transformation than protagonists in love stories. And by all accounts — a celebrated reception at TIFF, glowing reviews ( 95% fresh on Rotten Tomatoe s) and even the endorsement of hard-to-impress “Billy on Street” regular Elena — Eichner has made the movie of the moment. Now, it’s the audience’s turn to prove Eichner’s prediction of a “Bros” future correct.

In a recent interview while the “Bros-Mobile,” a 44-seat mobile theater, was passing through Philadelphia on a national tour, Eichner said he’d like everyone to see “Bros.” Sylvester Stallone? “I think Sylvester Stallone would love ‘Bros.’” Meryl Streep? “My God. She’s number one on my list.”

Made with an almost entirely LGBTQ cast, “Bros,” which stars Eichner and Hallmark Channel veteran Luke Macfarlane, is an uncommonly intimate, R-rated view of gay life that’s funny, moving and a little furious about how LGBTQ characters have usually been portrayed in studio films.

“We’re so often depicted as something so over-simplified and I think it’s because that’s what audiences have gotten used to, it’s what Hollywood’s gotten used to, and that’s what everyone decided people were comfortable with, that version of us,” says Eichner. “You didn’t really have to deal with us as actual, complicated human beings.”

“What I said to Judd and Nick was: I grew up with all those great romantic comedies, like ‘Moonstruck’ and ‘Working Girl’ and ‘Broadcast News,’ which is my favorite movie of all time. These movies were about adults,” adds Eichner. “We have no gay equivalent of that. And they barely make straight movies like that anymore.”

Even the broadest comedies have struggled to find a foothold in theaters in recent years. Stoller, the director of “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and “Neighbors,” has been mystified by that trend, and by the sluggish pace of inclusion in big-screen comedies.

“Before ‘Bridesmaids’ came out, the whole industry was saying: ‘A comedy? Starring women? That’s not going to work,’” says Stoller. “Of course it worked! Half the people are women!”

Stoller initially reached out to Eichner about collaborating after being impressed by his performance on “Friends From College,” a sitcom Stoller created with his wife, Francesca Delbanco. The two worked on a screenplay for two years, beginning with conversations Stoller compares to therapy sessions. As he did with Jason Segel in “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and Russell Brand for “Get Him to the Greek,” Stoller peppered Eichner with questions about his life.

“He really wanted to do these monologues, which I thought was risky but also really interesting,” says Stoller. “He comes from a kind of quasi-stand-up. Before ‘Billy on the Street’ he was doing off-Broadway stuff. So he’d write these monologues that were self-aware and kind of explaining to the audience. I think it’s based on him having to explain over and over again to Hollywood who he is and what makes him funny.”

In the five seasons of “Billy on the Street,” in which Eichner quizzed and chastised New York passersby on their pop culture knowledge, the Queens native channeled his love-hate relationship with Hollywood into hysterical, rage-fueled encounters. But in writing “Bros” with Stoller, he wanted to make something more sincere.

“When I thought about what I wanted the movie to be, I realized it was a huge and unique opportunity for me and for LGBTQ folks and also for straight audiences to get a sense of who we really are,” says Eichner. “Because it’s a Judd Apatow movie, and straight people love Judd Apatow movies.”

Eichner and Stoller aimed for something that would navigate the love life of a commitment-phobic New Yorker (not unlike Eichner, himself) while honoring the unique complexities of gay love and commenting on its usual media portrayals. The result is a movie with a lot on its mind that still seeks to be a crowd-pleaser.

“This movie tested higher than any movie I’ve worked on in its first test screenings,” says Stoller. “Immediately, the audience loved it. It was interesting because you feel like the gay audience will laugh at certain jokes that the straight audience doesn’t get, but then everyone’s laughing at certain things together.”

Stoller recalls some of his favorite test-audience comments. A gay man responded: “I don’t know if I want our secrets getting out.” A straight guy said on the film’s sex scenes: “It made me uncomfortable, but I liked it.”

Some have suggested Eichner has overplayed the historical nature of “Bros.” A Gawker headline read: “Billy Eichner is the first gay man ever.” There have been some recent films that centered on gay romance, like the more dramatic “Love, Simon” (2018), and streaming releases like Netflix’s “Happiest Season” (2020) and Hulu’s “Fire Island” from earlier this year.

But “Bros” is trying to reach mainstream audiences in theaters within the very recognizable vehicle of an Apatow-produced comedy — to be 2022’s answer to “Knocked Up.” There’s already been some evidence of trolling on the film. IMDB this week removed hundreds of one-star reviews for “Bros” in an apparent bid to review-bomb the film before it was released.

Most Read Entertainment Stories

  • Kate, Princess of Wales, reveals she has cancer and is undergoing chemotherapy WATCH
  • PBS’ ‘Invisible Shield’ examines lifesaving responses to COVID pandemic WATCH
  • 14 things to do in the Seattle area this weekend
  • New MoPOP ‘Massive’ exhibit asks, ‘What is pop culture?’ VIEW
  • WA’s Yogesh Raut wins 2024 ‘Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions’

To Jim Rash, the “Descendants” writer and “Community” actor who plays a colleague of Eichner’s in the movie, the set of “Bros” was unlike any he had been on before.

“I’ve played characters that were straight. I’ve played gay. I’ve played in the closet. I’ve played might-be-gay. But ‘Bros’ was a movie where what you see on the screen is the entire representation of it,” says Rash. “There’s a safe space that comes with knowing that at the helm is someone who’s very much focused on the diversity of the environment that he was creating. It inherently had that because you were with your community.”

There are raunchy comic scenes in “Bros” and some of the genre’s tried-and-true romantic moments. But one thing that may surprise fans of “Billy on the Street” is how earnest it can be. One scene is set on a beach in Provincetown, Mass., in which Eichner performs a tender monologue about opening himself up to love is part of the “Bros” revolution, too.

“Just as much of an influence on ‘Bros’ as ‘Bridesmaids’ was was ‘The Way We Were.’ I miss that about movies,” says Eichner. “For gay men, especially, the romance of our lives is just nowhere to be found. There’s a lot to be cynical about in the world. But I think this is an opportunity for people to stop and say: Let’s take love stories and great comedies about life and the human condition as seriously as we take stories about a man dressed up as a bat saving Gotham City.”

Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP

GREG IN HOLLYWOOD

WATCH: Boy George and Drew Barrymore each recall when they met Princess Diana

Randy Rainbow digs into photo archives to pay tribute to Broadway legend Bernadette Peters

Joel Kim Booster says being a leap year baby makes him “a little more special than the average gay guy”

Thursday Round-Up: Danny Roberts on Pedro Zamora; Ryan Gosling; Sam Champion; Andy Cohen; JoJo Siwa

GREG YOUR WAY

Greg on flickr:.

billy eichner tour

  • back issues

Billy Eichner’s “Bros” world tour!

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Billy Eichner (@billyeichner)

(All comments are reviewed before being published, and I review submissions several times per day.)

Leave a Reply

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

  • Advocate.com
  • Another Guy Blog
  • Boy Culture
  • Broadway World
  • Dennis Anyone? with Dennis Hensley
  • Huff Post Queer Voices
  • Joe. My. God.
  • Kenneth In the 212
  • LGBTQ Nation
  • Los Angeles Blade
  • Metrosource
  • PrideSource
  • Q Voice News
  • The Mad Professah Lectures
  • The Randy Report
  • The WOW Report

SEARCH GREGINHOLLYWOOD

Latest greginhollywood.

Today’s Morning Man: Grant Show!

WATCH: “Attitude” icon Graham Norton wants Brad Pitt to visit his show; dishes on other guests

FRIENDS OF GIH

  • Beantown Cuban
  • Die Alone With Me

top | contact | about | copyright © Greg Hernandez 2024 | design: Kate and Val Cohen

wjxt logo

  • River City Live
  • Newsletters

WEATHER ALERT

A river flood warning in effect for Glynn County

Entertainment, billy eichner made a great rom-com. now its audiences' turn..

Associated Press

2022 Invision

Billy Eichner poses for a portrait at the Crosby Street Hotel to promote his film "Bros" on Monday, Sept. 19, 2022 in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)

NEW YORK – At the Toronto International Film Festival world premiere of “Bros,” Billy Eichner exhorted the crowd to keep cheering.

“Keep it going!” implored Eichner. “I want a longer ovation than ‘The Whale! ’”

Recommended Videos

In the whistle-stop lead-up to the release of “Bros,” Eichner has worked tirelessly to whip audiences into a frenzy for a film unlike any Hollywood has before produced . A lot is riding on the movie, and not just because Eichner, the 44-year-old “Billy on the Street ” comedian, has been working five years on what is his big-screen breakthrough. “Bros” is the first major-studio gay rom-com and the first studio movie starring and co-written by an openly gay man.

In drumming up excitement, Eichner has promoted these distinctions, lamented that they've lasted this long, and parodied his role in trying to pitch his movie to America. Revisiting his “Billy on the Street” persona, Eichner has run through Hollywood with Jack Black shouting, “I need allies!” Sprinting around New York’s Flat Iron Building with Paul Rudd, he exclaimed, “I’ve been working 20 years for this! I need a straight person to go see ‘Bros!’”

At the MTV VMAs , Eichner put the stakes in more dramatic terms, urging people to see “Bros” because “we need to show all the homophobes like Clarence Thomas and all the homophobes on the Supreme Court that we want gay love stories and we support LGBTQ people and we are not letting them drag us back into the last century because they are past and ‘Bros’ is the future.”

“Bros," directed by Nicholas Stoller and produced by Judd Apatow, is a bid to challenge a Hollywood status quo that's been more comfortable making gay characters sidekicks, roommates or fodder for straight-actor transformation than protagonists in love stories. And by all accounts — a celebrated reception at TIFF, glowing reviews ( 95% fresh on Rotten Tomatoe s) and even the endorsement of hard-to-impress “Billy on Street” regular Elena — Eichner has made the movie of the moment. Now, it's the audience's turn to prove Eichner's prediction of a “Bros” future correct.

In a recent interview while the “Bros-Mobile,” a 44-seat mobile theater, was passing through Philadelphia on a national tour, Eichner said he'd like everyone to see “Bros.” Sylvester Stallone? “I think Sylvester Stallone would love ‘Bros.’” Meryl Streep? “My God. She’s number one on my list.”

Made with an almost entirely LGBTQ cast, “Bros,” which stars Eichner and Hallmark Channel veteran Luke Macfarlane, is an uncommonly intimate, R-rated view of gay life that’s funny, moving and a little furious about how LGBTQ characters have usually been portrayed in studio films.

“We’re so often depicted as something so over-simplified and I think it’s because that’s what audiences have gotten used to, it’s what Hollywood’s gotten used to, and that’s what everyone decided people were comfortable with, that version of us,” says Eichner. “You didn’t really have to deal with us as actual, complicated human beings.”

“What I said to Judd and Nick was: I grew up with all those great romantic comedies, like ‘Moonstruck’ and ‘Working Girl’ and ‘Broadcast News,’ which is my favorite movie of all time. These movies were about adults," adds Eichner. "We have no gay equivalent of that. And they barely make straight movies like that anymore.”

Even the broadest comedies have struggled to find a foothold in theaters in recent years. Stoller, the director of “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and “Neighbors,” has been mystified by that trend, and by the sluggish pace of inclusion in big-screen comedies.

“Before ‘Bridesmaids’ came out, the whole industry was saying: ‘A comedy? Starring women? That’s not going to work,’” says Stoller. “Of course it worked! Half the people are women!”

Stoller initially reached out to Eichner about collaborating after being impressed by his performance on “Friends From College,” a sitcom Stoller created with his wife, Francesca Delbanco. The two worked on a screenplay for two years, beginning with conversations Stoller compares to therapy sessions. As he did with Jason Segel in “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and Russell Brand for “Get Him to the Greek," Stoller peppered Eichner with questions about his life.

“He really wanted to do these monologues, which I thought was risky but also really interesting," says Stoller. "He comes from a kind of quasi-stand-up. Before ‘Billy on the Street’ he was doing off-Broadway stuff. So he’d write these monologues that were self-aware and kind of explaining to the audience. I think it’s based on him having to explain over and over again to Hollywood who he is and what makes him funny."

In the five seasons of “Billy on the Street," in which Eichner quizzed and chastised New York passersby on their pop culture knowledge, the Queens native channeled his love-hate relationship with Hollywood into hysterical, rage-fueled encounters. But in writing “Bros” with Stoller, he wanted to make something more sincere.

“When I thought about what I wanted the movie to be, I realized it was a huge and unique opportunity for me and for LGBTQ folks and also for straight audiences to get a sense of who we really are,” says Eichner. “Because it’s a Judd Apatow movie, and straight people love Judd Apatow movies.”

Eichner and Stoller aimed for something that would navigate the love life of a commitment-phobic New Yorker (not unlike Eichner, himself) while honoring the unique complexities of gay love and commenting on its usual media portrayals. The result is a movie with a lot on its mind that still seeks to be a crowd-pleaser.

“This movie tested higher than any movie I’ve worked on in its first test screenings,” says Stoller. “Immediately, the audience loved it. It was interesting because you feel like the gay audience will laugh at certain jokes that the straight audience doesn’t get, but then everyone’s laughing at certain things together.”

Stoller recalls some of his favorite test-audience comments. A gay man responded: “I don’t know if I want our secrets getting out." A straight guy said on the film’s sex scenes: “It made me uncomfortable, but I liked it.”

Some have suggested Eichner has overplayed the historical nature of “Bros.” A Gawker headline read: “Billy Eichner is the first gay man ever." There have been some recent films that centered on gay romance, like the more dramatic “Love, Simon" (2018), and streaming releases like Netflix's “Happiest Season” (2020) and Hulu's “Fire Island” from earlier this year.

But “Bros” is trying to reach mainstream audiences in theaters within the very recognizable vehicle of an Apatow-produced comedy — to be 2022's answer to “Knocked Up.” There's already been some evidence of trolling on the film. IMDB this week removed hundreds of one-star reviews for “Bros” in an apparent bid to review-bomb the film before it was released.

To Jim Rash, the “Descendants" writer and “Community” actor who plays a colleague of Eichner's in the movie, the set of “Bros” was unlike any he had been on before.

“I’ve played characters that were straight. I’ve played gay. I’ve played in the closet. I’ve played might-be-gay. But ‘Bros’ was a movie where what you see on the screen is the entire representation of it,” says Rash. “There’s a safe space that comes with knowing that at the helm is someone who’s very much focused on the diversity of the environment that he was creating. It inherently had that because you were with your community."

There are raunchy comic scenes in “Bros” and some of the genre's tried-and-true romantic moments. But one thing that may surprise fans of “Billy on the Street" is how earnest it can be. One scene is set on a beach in Provincetown, Mass., in which Eichner performs a tender monologue about opening himself up to love is part of the “Bros” revolution, too.

“Just as much of an influence on ‘Bros’ as ‘Bridesmaids’ was was ‘The Way We Were.’ I miss that about movies,” says Eichner. "For gay men, especially, the romance of our lives is just nowhere to be found. There’s a lot to be cynical about in the world. But I think this is an opportunity for people to stop and say: Let’s take love stories and great comedies about life and the human condition as seriously as we take stories about a man dressed up as a bat saving Gotham City."

Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

Click here to take a moment and familiarize yourself with our Community Guidelines.

Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes

Trouble logging in?

By continuing, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes.

Email not verified

Let's keep in touch.

Rotten Tomatoes Newsletter

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

  • Upcoming Movies and TV shows
  • Trivia & Rotten Tomatoes Podcast
  • Media News + More

By clicking "Sign Me Up," you are agreeing to receive occasional emails and communications from Fandango Media (Fandango, Vudu, and Rotten Tomatoes) and consenting to Fandango's Privacy Policy and Terms and Policies . Please allow 10 business days for your account to reflect your preferences.

OK, got it!

Movies / TV

No results found.

  • What's the Tomatometer®?
  • Login/signup

billy eichner tour

Movies in theaters

  • Opening this week
  • Top box office
  • Coming soon to theaters
  • Certified fresh movies

Movies at home

  • Netflix streaming
  • Prime Video
  • Most popular streaming movies
  • What to Watch New

Certified fresh picks

  • Love Lies Bleeding Link to Love Lies Bleeding
  • Problemista Link to Problemista
  • Late Night with the Devil Link to Late Night with the Devil

New TV Tonight

  • X-Men '97: Season 1
  • Nolly: Season 1
  • In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon: Season 1
  • The Long Shadow: Season 1
  • 3 Body Problem: Season 1
  • Palm Royale: Season 1
  • Alice & Jack: Season 1
  • Davey & Jonesie's Locker: Season 1
  • Photographer: Season 1
  • Top Chef: Season 21

Most Popular TV on RT

  • Shōgun: Season 1
  • The Gentlemen: Season 1
  • Manhunt: Season 1
  • Halo: Season 2
  • Apples Never Fall: Season 1
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender: Season 1
  • Invincible: Season 2
  • Best TV Shows
  • Most Popular TV
  • TV & Streaming News

Certified fresh pick

  • X-Men '97: Season 1 Link to X-Men '97: Season 1
  • All-Time Lists
  • Binge Guide
  • Comics on TV
  • Five Favorite Films
  • Video Interviews
  • Weekend Box Office
  • Weekly Ketchup
  • What to Watch

Marvel TV Ranked by Tomatometer

Best TV Shows of 2024: Best New Series to Watch Now

Women’s History

Awards Tour

The Most Anticipated TV and Streaming Shows of 2024: New and Returning Shows We Can’t Wait to See

Renewed and Cancelled TV Shows 2024

  • Trending on RT
  • Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
  • Play Movie Trivia
  • Late Night with the Devil
  • 3 Body Problem

Billy Eichner

Billy Eichner

Highest Rated: 88% Bros (2022)

Lowest Rated: 44% The Angry Birds Movie (2016)

Birthday: Sep 18, 1978

Birthplace: New York, New York, USA

Boisterous comedic personality Billy Eichner took the DIY approach to his craft from early on, often creating his own shows to star in, rather than wait around to be cast in someone else's project. The New York native had an energy and volume that couldn't be contained, even as a child. His parents allowed him to test the waters of show business, resulting in a small but memorable appearance on "Saturday Night Live" (NBC, 1975- ) when he was 12 years old, playing one of John Goodman's sons. Though the appearance was far from glamorous, it didn't put Eichner off from performing in the slightest. He would go on to major in theater when he enrolled at Northwestern University in 1996. After graduating, Eichner returned to New York. Within a year, he and four friends from college found themselves itching to put together their next creative outlet, and they collaborated on an off-Broadway musical entitled "I Sing!" in which Eichner starred in 2001. Additionally, Eichner decided to continue his education, this time in the form of improv classes which he took from the famous Upright Citizens Brigade. He would go on to complete the UCB's rigorous theater program before getting the urge to collaborate with some other like-minded performers on yet another project. This time, he and friend Robin Taylor put together a live variety show called "Creation Nation," which combined stand-up comedy, scripted sketches, interviews with celebrities, and original musical numbers. The show went up in the basement of the independent book store the Drama Book Shop in 2003 and soon gained a substantial cult fan base, which followed the show even as it moved from one location to another. SNL's own Rachel Dratch came to a performance and was so entertained that she bonded with the cast after it was over, going out drinking with them and ultimately agreeing to appear in an upcoming performance. "Creation Nation" also featured video segments written by Eichner and directed by his friend Benjamin Salka, which helped Eichner develop his talent for man-on-the-street style interviews. He began being offered more opportunities as the show began to wind down around 2007, such as when Radar Online commissioned the comedian to produce a series of satirical segments that same year. Eichner was even cast in a talk-show pilot alongside legendary comedian Joan Rivers in 2006 called "Joan Rivers' Straight Talk," though the series wasn't picked up. Nonetheless, Eichner still had the drive to create his own projects, and he parlayed his street-interview persona into a web game show called "Billy on the Street," which found him surprising largely unimpressed New York pedestrians on the sidewalk to quiz them on pop culture facts. Eichner's trademark manic scream when surprised pedestrians took too long to answer quickly became the comic hallmark of the series. The improvised game show was picked up by the comedy website Funny or Die and he began shopping it around to TV networks, hoping it could find a place in television. In the meantime, Eichner starred in a one-man off-Broadway show at the UCB Theater called "Billy Eichner Goes Pop!" in 2009. Finally, in 2011, "Funny or Die's Billy on the Street" (Fuse, 2011-2014) was picked up by the cable network Fuse, elevating Eichner's visibility almost overnight. He was soon offered a recurring role as easily exasperated city employee Craig Middlebrooks on the hit Amy Poehler series "Parks and Recreation" (NBC, 2009-2015), as well as a voice acting appearance on the animated series "Bob's Burgers" (Fox, 2011-). Eichner was also nominated for a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Game Show Host in 2013. While continuing "Billy on the Street," Eichner began starring in his first situation comedy, playing a version of himself on "Difficult People" (Hulu 2015- ) opposite fellow comedian Julie Klausner.

Highest rated movies

Filmography.

Billy Eichner

IMDbPro Starmeter See rank

Billy Eichner at an event for The Oscars (2015)

  • Contact info
  • 1 win & 12 nominations total

Kate Berlant and Billy Eichner in Kate Berlant & Billy Eichner (2022)

  • Timon (voice)

Jason Sudeikis, Danny McBride, and Josh Gad in The Angry Birds Movie (2016)

  • Phillip (voice)

Bill Hader and Anna Kendrick in Noelle (2019)

  • Gabriel Kringle
  • In Production

H. Jon Benjamin, Kristen Schaal, Eugene Mirman, Dan Mintz, and John Roberts in Bob's Burgers (2011)

  • Mr. Ambrose (voice)
  • 14 episodes

Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Dan Castellaneta, and Yeardley Smith in The Simpsons (1989)

  • Billy (voice)

Hailee Steinfeld in Dickinson (2019)

  • Walt Whitman

Beanie Feldstein in American Crime Story (2016)

  • Matt Drudge

Green Eggs and Ham (2019)

  • Bigman (voice)

Friends from College (2017)

  • Billy on the Street (voice)

Emma Roberts in American Horror Story (2011)

  • Harrison Wilton
  • Mutt Nutter ...
  • 12 episodes

Vincent Kartheiser, Adam Pally, and Rachel Bloom in Most Likely to Murder (2018)

  • Billy Epstein
  • 28 episodes

Harvey Fierstein, Martin Short, Kristin Chenoweth, Jennifer Hudson, Garrett Clayton, Derek Hough, Ephraim Sykes, Ariana Grande, Dove Cameron, Maddie Baillio, and Shahadi Wright Joseph in Hairspray Live! (2016)

  • 44 episodes

Colman Domingo, Stephen Guarino, Nicol Paone, and Jonny McGovern in The Big Gay Sketch Show (2006)

  • executive producer
  • 33 episodes
  • In-development projects at IMDbPro

Burning Questions With 'Bros'

Personal details

  • Bill Eichner
  • 6′ 3″ (1.91 m)
  • September 18 , 1978
  • New York City, New York, USA
  • No Children
  • Relatives Jerome Eichner (Grandparent)
  • 3 Interviews
  • 14 Articles
  • 1 Magazine Cover Photo

Did you know

  • Trivia He received his bachelors degree in theater at Northwestern University in 2000.
  • Quotes [to the question whether he ever felt threatened by the reaction to his impromptu street interviews] Nine times out of ten, people are game. You know, pardon the pun. But they are. They might not want to participate, they might just walk by me, but they're not angry. Once on a while I've had a handful of occurrences where they are. An old lady slapped me across the face really hard.
  • How old is Billy Eichner?
  • When was Billy Eichner born?
  • Where was Billy Eichner born?

Related news

Contribute to this page.

  • Learn more about contributing

More to explore

Product image

Add demo reel with IMDbPro

Demo reel thumbnail

How much have you seen?

Poster

Recently viewed

To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then   View saved stories .

  • What Is Cinema?
  • Newsletters

Billy Eichner Breaks Down His Career, from Parks and Recreation to The Lion King

Released on 08/05/2019

There was a plan B in that.

Yes, once in awhile, I did have to ponder,

if this doesn't happen, what the hell are you gonna do

'cause you have to do something.

I still think sometimes maybe I should go to law school.

[man laughs]

That's being an actor.

It's a terrible business.

[light upbeat guitar music]

I'm Billy Eichner and this is my career timeline.

Boy, between Jeremy Todd Ellis,

Bryan Margaret, and Steven having fights,

and Harol Criss Quan Lee and Mitch

not making the football team,

I've got a full night's work.

[man chuckles]

Well, that's fatherhood.

My first IMDB credit should be Saturday Night Live.

I don't know why it's not.

I grew up in New York City and

I really wanted to be on Broadway, which never happened,

but I ended up getting auditions for other things

and I remember vividly after school,

I got a call from my manager, she said,

guess what show that you watch every Saturday night

you're gonna be on this week?

I kid you not, I responded, The Golden Girls?

She said, no, SNL, and I was thrilled.

It was very surreal.

There were 20 of us kids in the sketch

and we all kind of looked like John Goodman

'cause we were supposed to be playing his children

and the musical guest was Garth Brooks I remember,

who was huge at the time,

but I was so pissed off because the week before,

the musical guest was Madonna and I was,

still am, an obsessive Madonna fan,

but especially back then when I was a kid

and I just kept walking around thinking,

Madonna walked in this hallway five days ago

and now I have to deal with Garth Brooks?

Not that he's not great, but Madonna.

Ladies and gentlemen, for the first time,

Mr. and Mrs. Jack Fuller.

[guests clap]

I remember my agents called me

and told me I got it as if I had

gotten a huge part in something and

I literally had one line.

I think I only got it because the

guy they originally cast had another work commitment.

At the time, it felt cool 'cause it was

Cameron Diaz and Ashton and they were stars.

Miss, have you gotten your Madonna tickets yet?

'Cause I can't afford them.

Because I live in New York and

I'm gonna be 64 and I have no health insurance.

I didn't ask for you whole life story.

[bleep] you.

I got to New York after college

and then I started to write my own live comedy show

for the stage and it was called Creation Nation.

I did it with a friend of mine, Robin Lord Taylor,

who is also a successful actor now.

There was a screen and the theater and I thought,

we can show videos.

I had been developing kind of organically

this larger than life, irrationally passionate stage persona

of this guy who was very intensely

into the entertainment industry

to an extreme, absurd degree.

I was ranting and raving on stage.

Then I thought, what if I do some version of this outside?

We used to make these little on the street videos

to play on the screen in these small

theaters I would do my show in and then YouTube came along.

Eventually, they went viral and that's Billy on the Street.

I've been shooting some version of Billy on the Street

since the summer of 2004 and it's now the summer of 2019.

This is literally the 15th year I have been shooting

Billy on the Street.

For me, it is a character.

It's totally a persona.

For me, it's always been a satire at the end of the day

of my own obsession with the entertainment industry

and the minutia of it since I was a kid.

I have a medical condition all right.

It's called caring too much, and it's incurable!

Also, I have eczema.

I got a DM on Twitter from Mike Schur one day saying,

I think I have a role for you on Parks and Rec.

Would you wanna do it?

Literally, that's how that happened.

I have agents and managers and lawyers,

but Twitter ultimately is how the deal went down.

Twitter can be a horrible, anxiety-inducing war zone,

but in many ways, it's also helped me.

I always say, I would not have a career without

social media in general.

I got to play Craig Middlebrooks,

who was almost a more intense and

extreme version of Billy on the Street,

which is hard to imagine.

I came in with a very different energy

than the rest of the show.

Fans either thought it was the

greatest thing that they've ever seen on the show,

or the worst thing that's ever been on the show,

which was interesting.

It was kind of fascinating.

I had a blast and it was wonderful.

Wake up Tina!

Witches are everywhere!

Here, you can try a spell.

It might work, it might not.

Not everyone is able to do it.

Bob's Burgers was certainly my first

significant recurring voiceover roll.

That came to be because my agent

repped the creators of Bob's Burgers

and he kind of sold them on me.

I had a following at this point, but not what it is now,

and I think he had to educate people on who I was

or maybe they knew some of my videos,

but didn't necessarily know that

I wanted to do something beyond Billy on the Street.

I love Bob's Burgers and I think that character,

Mr. Ambrose the librarian,

who hates books and hates the kids on some level,

is just hilarious and I love it.

Whenever they call me in to do it,

I'm so pleased, I'm so happy.

It gives me great joy to do that role.

Can you believe this?

A free concert.

What a gift.

I don't like the same kind of music you like.

You're not singing, Judy Collins.

You only like Judy Collins.

Julie and I were mutual fans of each other,

kind of discovered each other online actually.

People think we knew each other for years, but we didn't.

When Billy on the Street was sold as a TV show,

I had very little time to throw a crew together and Julie,

who was literally one of the first people I called,

had to have people writing for me

'cause I couldn't generate all the material by myself

so I needed some help,

but it's weird because it's so specific to my voice

and who I am, Billy on the Street, and I thought,

who is someone who's gonna get that?

Julie was the first person I thought of

and I'm so thankful that she said yes.

She worked on Billy on the Street as a writer

and a producer and then she created a show for us.

She wrote the Difficult People pilot

for me and her to star in,

and Amy Poehler came on board as an Executive Producer.

Julie and I always said we were

playing dumber versions of ourselves.

The Julie and Billy on Difficult People,

they really wanna be rich and famous,

but they are very stupid and they are

always getting in their own way and

they're so short-sighted.

I think there were aspects of it

who were influenced by who we were

as younger struggling actors, but beyond that,

I think they're very much characters

living in their own weird, demented world.

Things are looking sunny side up!

[chuckling]

I had Jason Sudeikis on Billy on the Street and Jason,

when he did Billy on the Street,

talked about how he was going to be

starring as the main voice of the Angry Birds movie.

It had a list of 50 actors in it.

Every actor in Hollywood was in the Angry Birds movie.

Jason, and Maya Rudolph, Josh Gad,

and all of these people, the list went on and on,

and I was the only [bleep] person

not asked to be in the Angry Birds movie

and I'm known for basically being

an Angry Bird, essentially.

I was very, very hurt that I wasn't considered.

On Billy on the Street,

I went off about why I was not asked

to be in the Angry Birds movie and sure enough,

the creator of the Angry Birds movie saw it

and was like, you know what, you're right.

You should be in the Angry Birds movie.

Then they called and gave me two small parts.

They kind of threw me into it.

The best part of it was how it came about.

I was like, that's how I get cast?

I just have to go on Billy on the Street

and say what role I want and then I get it?

They're your best friends for some reason.

You're right, you're right.

They are really great people.

I didn't say that.

When I got the script,

my inclination was that this character

was very different than the other characters I've played.

It seems to me like Fred Savage's character,

who played my long-term boyfriend.

Fred was the one who was the bit of the show-off,

who was the bit of the life of the party,

and Fred himself had such a big personality.

I thought it shouldn't be two big personalities together.

Someone has to be the quieter, shyer, more awkward one,

and I thought it would be a good opportunity

and a good challenge for me to play that.

I loved doing that character because

it's just the opposite of what I'm usually asked to do.

Of course I watched The Wonder Years.

I watched it every week with my parents.

I didn't wanna bother Fred with that too much,

but I think once we got more comfortable with each other,

I think at one point I did say, Fred,

do you understand how weird it is

that if we went back in time and you

told the 12 year old me watching The Wonder Years,

not only am I going to be doing a show with that person,

with Kevin Arnold, but that I'm going to be playing

his gay husband, I truly would not have believed it.

I'm a murderer.

[bleep], I murdered someone!

I'm going to jail, forever!

Do you understand?

Ryan Murphy came up to me at a pre-Emmy's party.

I loved him from afar,

but didn't know him at all and of course, I revered him.

He came up to me and said, I'm a fan,

I think you're very funny.

Then we started chatting and that led

to a meeting where I basically gave him

my background and said,

I know people know me as Billy on the Street,

but I went to Northwestern and I was a theater major

and I wanted to be a real actor and

I think you're one of the few people

who might understand that and might understand

the challenges of that and maybe be

turned on by giving me a chance to branch out

because he's done that for other people

and he's also been so supportive of LGBT actors

in a way that the industry usually is not, unfortunately.

He told me in the room in this meeting, he said,

maybe American Horror Story.

I said, sure, but people promise you things all the time

and then the call never comes,

but Ryan is a man of his word and I think one season later,

I saw him at another party and he said,

I have a role for you on American Horror Story.

Again, I said, sure, okay, I'll believe it when I see it,

but he wasn't lying.

When I started to read the Horror Story scripts,

I remembered, my goal here is not to figure out

how to make this funnier, which is usually my job.

On Horror Story, it's almost the opposite challenge

where you already have these very over-the-top,

larger than life, hard to believe scenarios

'cause it's horror and you have to

figure out how to ground it and make it seem real.

Not only that, you're with Sara Paulson

and you're with Kathy Bates and

you better not fuck it up.

You have to kind of rise to the occasion,

but they were all great and very supportive.

I loved it.

I was so happy not to have to be funny.

Oh no, it's a little lion.

That is not a lion.

Well then go check it out.

What is it?

That is not a lion, it's a furry bird.

It looks like a lion.

That's not a lion.

Let me get a closer look.

Let me see what we're dealing with here.

It's a lion!

Run for you life Pumba!

Hey Timon, wait Timon, wait, it's a little lion.

It was very surreal, a full circle moment

in a number of ways 'cause I wanted to do musicals

and I grew up in New York City

going to a lot of Broadway shows.

Nathan Lane is a huge Broadway star.

Even before he did The Lion King,

I had seen Nathan Lane on Broadway growing up

and really worshiped him so to get the call

to do the role that he made famous originally,

that was just shocking and obviously very flattering

and surprising and very exciting.

There were no chemistry tests for The Lion King,

there were no auditions.

John Favreau I guess heard our voices in his head

when he was thinking about who he

wanted to put in the movie.

In a way, that made it easier because when the

process did get intimidating, you'd think to yourself,

John put me in this for a reason

and he could have had anyone,

literally anyone he wanted in this movie,

and he picked us so we'll have to

trust that we'll do a good job.

We had a big London premiere for The Lion King.

We met Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

The first thing she said was,

I've always loved Billy on the Street.

I said, thank you and she said congrats

on everything that's happening in your career.

I said, same to you.

She said, yes, things took an interesting turn,

which was funny.

She was great.

They were both very down to Earth.

I think they go out of their way to be cool

and they wanna be chill and normal,

as normal as possible in a very abnormal environment.

[Interviewer] Were you chill and normal?

I'm always chill and normal.

Honestly, my goal with The Lion King was

just to try to rise to the occasion of both

who I was working with and who did it originally

and the size and scope and expectation

of the movie in general,

which was unlike anything I was ever involved in.

I went in to record more than anyone else.

Sometimes it was because I would call John and say,

I need to come in again, I think we can get a better line,

I think I can find a better joke.

I knew the pressure was on.

I think people were worried about

Timon and Pumba in this version because

the originals are so beloved.

The fact that people seem to like what I've done

and like what Seth and I have done together,

it's very cool, it's very gratifying.

If I get nominated for an Oscar, then so be it.

It's been a long journey,

but that's how it is for actors and comedians sometimes,

especially for outside the box types of people.

I'm very ambitious.

I've always wanted to do a million things.

I'm probably always gonna wanna do a million things.

That's just how I operate.

Not bad for a 40 year old gay meerkat.

Starring : Billy Eichner

Hans Zimmer Breaks Down His Legendary Career

Hans Zimmer Breaks Down His Legendary Career

Jeff Goldblum Breaks Down His Career, From “Jurassic Park” to “Isle of Dogs”

Jeff Goldblum Breaks Down His Career, From “Jurassic Park” to “Isle of Dogs”

Jodie Foster Breaks Down Her Career, from “Silence of the Lambs” to “Hotel Artemis”

Jodie Foster Breaks Down Her Career, from “Silence of the Lambs” to “Hotel Artemis”

Hank Azaria Breaks Down His Career, from “The Simpsons” to “Brockmire”

Hank Azaria Breaks Down His Career, from “The Simpsons” to “Brockmire”

Jada Pinkett Smith Breaks Down Her Career, from “True Colors” to “Girl's Trip”

Jada Pinkett Smith Breaks Down Her Career, from “True Colors” to “Girl's Trip”

Michael Douglas Breaks Down His Career, From "Wall Street" to "Ant-Man"

Michael Douglas Breaks Down His Career, From "Wall Street" to "Ant-Man"

Jason Bateman Breaks Down His Career, From "Arrested Development" to "Ozark"

Jason Bateman Breaks Down His Career, From "Arrested Development" to "Ozark"

Jeff Goldblum Is Not Afraid to Express Himself Through Fashion

Jeff Goldblum Is Not Afraid to Express Himself Through Fashion

Atlanta’s Lakeith Stanfield “Does What Feels Right” with His Red Carpet Style

Atlanta’s Lakeith Stanfield “Does What Feels Right” with His Red Carpet Style

Drew Barrymore Breaks Down Her Career, from "E.T." to "Flower Beauty"

Drew Barrymore Breaks Down Her Career, from "E.T." to "Flower Beauty"

Natalie Portman Breaks Down Her Career, from “The Professional” to “Jackie”

Natalie Portman Breaks Down Her Career, from “The Professional” to “Jackie”

Laura Dern Breaks Down Her Career, from “Jurassic Park” to “The Last Jedi"

Laura Dern Breaks Down Her Career, from “Jurassic Park” to “The Last Jedi"

Richard Linklater Breaks Down His Career, from Dazed and Confused to Boyhood

Richard Linklater Breaks Down His Career, from Dazed and Confused to Boyhood

Lupita Nyong'o Breaks Down Her Fashion Looks, From the Red Carpet to the Met Gala

Lupita Nyong'o Breaks Down Her Fashion Looks, From the Red Carpet to the Met Gala

Wu-Tang’s RZA Breaks Down 10 Kung Fu Films He’s Sampled

Wu-Tang’s RZA Breaks Down 10 Kung Fu Films He’s Sampled

Maggie Gyllenhaal Breaks Down Her Career, from 'Donnie Darko' to 'The Dark Knight'

Maggie Gyllenhaal Breaks Down Her Career, from 'Donnie Darko' to 'The Dark Knight'

Jessica Lange Breaks Down Her Career, from King Kong to American Horror Story

Jessica Lange Breaks Down Her Career, from King Kong to American Horror Story

Miranda Lambert Breaks Down Her Career, from First Shows to Superstardom

Miranda Lambert Breaks Down Her Career, from First Shows to Superstardom

Rob Lowe Breaks Down His Career, from 'Austin Powers' to 'Parks & Recreation'

Rob Lowe Breaks Down His Career, from 'Austin Powers' to 'Parks & Recreation'

Scarlett Johansson Breaks Down Her Career, from 'Her' to 'Avengers: Endgame'

Scarlett Johansson Breaks Down Her Career, from 'Her' to 'Avengers: Endgame'

Jamie Lee Curtis Breaks Down Her Career, from 'Halloween' to 'Freaky Friday'

Jamie Lee Curtis Breaks Down Her Career, from 'Halloween' to 'Freaky Friday'

Michael B. Jordan Breaks Down His Career from 'The Wire' to 'Black Panther'

Michael B. Jordan Breaks Down His Career from 'The Wire' to 'Black Panther'

Kathy Bates Breaks Down Her Career, from 'Titanic' to 'American Horror Story'

Kathy Bates Breaks Down Her Career, from 'Titanic' to 'American Horror Story'

Jude Law Breaks Down His Career, from 'The Holiday' to 'The New Pope'

Jude Law Breaks Down His Career, from 'The Holiday' to 'The New Pope'

Willem Dafoe Breaks Down His Career, from 'The Boondock Saints' to 'Spider-Man'

Willem Dafoe Breaks Down His Career, from 'The Boondock Saints' to 'Spider-Man'

Kerry Washington Breaks Down Her Career, from Django Unchained to Scandal

Kerry Washington Breaks Down Her Career, from Django Unchained to Scandal

Kristen Stewart Breaks Down Her Career, from Panic Room to Twilight

Kristen Stewart Breaks Down Her Career, from Panic Room to Twilight

Billy Eichner Breaks Down His Career, from Parks and Recreation to The Lion King

Julia Louis-Dreyfus Breaks Down Her Career, from Seinfeld to Veep

The Russo Brothers Break Down their Career from "Arrested Development" to "Avengers: Endgame"

The Russo Brothers Break Down their Career from "Arrested Development" to "Avengers: Endgame"

Richard Dreyfuss Breaks Down His Career, from Jaws to Daughter of the Wolf

Richard Dreyfuss Breaks Down His Career, from Jaws to Daughter of the Wolf

John Turturro Breaks Down His Career, from "The Big Lebowski" to "The Night Of"

John Turturro Breaks Down His Career, from "The Big Lebowski" to "The Night Of"

Terry Crews Breaks Down His Career, from 'White Chicks' to 'Brooklyn Nine-Nine'

Terry Crews Breaks Down His Career, from 'White Chicks' to 'Brooklyn Nine-Nine'

Kumail Nanjiani Breaks Down His Career, from 'Silicon Valley' to 'The Big Sick'

Kumail Nanjiani Breaks Down His Career, from 'Silicon Valley' to 'The Big Sick'

Harrison Ford Breaks Down His Career, from 'Star Wars' to 'Indiana Jones'

Harrison Ford Breaks Down His Career, from 'Star Wars' to 'Indiana Jones'

Anthony Mackie Breaks Down His Career, from 'Avengers: Endgame' to '8 Mile'

Anthony Mackie Breaks Down His Career, from 'Avengers: Endgame' to '8 Mile'

Martin Freeman Breaks Down His Career, from 'The Hobbit' to 'Black Panther'

Martin Freeman Breaks Down His Career, from 'The Hobbit' to 'Black Panther'

Mark Wahlberg Breaks Down His Career from 'Boogie Nights' to 'Ted'

Mark Wahlberg Breaks Down His Career from 'Boogie Nights' to 'Ted'

Richard E. Grant Breaks Down His Career, from 'Downton Abbey' to 'Star Wars'

Richard E. Grant Breaks Down His Career, from 'Downton Abbey' to 'Star Wars'

Kristen Bell Breaks Down Her Career, from 'Gossip Girl' to 'Frozen'

Kristen Bell Breaks Down Her Career, from 'Gossip Girl' to 'Frozen'

James Marsden Breaks Down His Career, from 'X-Men' to 'Westworld'

James Marsden Breaks Down His Career, from 'X-Men' to 'Westworld'

Justin Roiland Breaks Down His Career, from 'Rick and Morty' to 'Adventure Time'

Justin Roiland Breaks Down His Career, from 'Rick and Morty' to 'Adventure Time'

Kristen Bell, Terry Crews, Jeff Goldblum & More Break Down Their First IMDb Credit

Kristen Bell, Terry Crews, Jeff Goldblum & More Break Down Their First IMDb Credit

Anna Kendrick Breaks Down Her Career, from 'Pitch Perfect' to 'Twilight'

Anna Kendrick Breaks Down Her Career, from 'Pitch Perfect' to 'Twilight'

Simon Pegg Breaks Down His Career, from 'Shaun of the Dead' to 'Star Trek'

Simon Pegg Breaks Down His Career, from 'Shaun of the Dead' to 'Star Trek'

Judd Apatow Breaks Down His Career, from 'Superbad' to 'Freaks and Geeks'

Judd Apatow Breaks Down His Career, from 'Superbad' to 'Freaks and Geeks'

Seth Green Breaks Down His Career, from 'Family Guy' to 'Austin Powers'

Seth Green Breaks Down His Career, from 'Family Guy' to 'Austin Powers'

Wu-Tang's RZA Breaks Down His Career From Music to Movies

Wu-Tang's RZA Breaks Down His Career From Music to Movies

Joseph Gordon-Levitt Breaks Down His Career, from '10 Things I Hate About You' to 'Inception'

Joseph Gordon-Levitt Breaks Down His Career, from '10 Things I Hate About You' to 'Inception'

Cinematographer Robert Richardson Breaks Down His Career, from 'Kill Bill' to 'The Hateful Eight'

Cinematographer Robert Richardson Breaks Down His Career, from 'Kill Bill' to 'The Hateful Eight'

Ralph Macchio Breaks Down His Career, from 'Karate Kid' to 'Cobra Kai'

Ralph Macchio Breaks Down His Career, from 'Karate Kid' to 'Cobra Kai'

Black Lives Matter Co-Founder Alicia Garza Breaks Down Her Career

Black Lives Matter Co-Founder Alicia Garza Breaks Down Her Career

Michael K. Williams Breaks Down His Career, from 'The Wire' to 'Lovecraft Country'

Michael K. Williams Breaks Down His Career, from 'The Wire' to 'Lovecraft Country'

Obama's White House Photographer Breaks Down His Photojournalism Career

Obama's White House Photographer Breaks Down His Photojournalism Career

Jim Parsons Breaks Down His Career, from 'The Big Bang Theory' to 'Young Sheldon'

Jim Parsons Breaks Down His Career, from 'The Big Bang Theory' to 'Young Sheldon'

Gerard Butler Breaks Down His Career, from '300' to 'Law Abiding Citizen'

Gerard Butler Breaks Down His Career, from '300' to 'Law Abiding Citizen'

'Joker' Make-Up Artist Breaks Down Her Career

'Joker' Make-Up Artist Breaks Down Her Career

Frank Langella Breaks Down His Career, from 'Dracula' to 'The Americans'

Frank Langella Breaks Down His Career, from 'Dracula' to 'The Americans'

Aaron Sorkin Breaks Down His Career, from 'The West Wing' to 'The Social Network'

Aaron Sorkin Breaks Down His Career, from 'The West Wing' to 'The Social Network'

Dolly Parton Breaks Down Her Career, from '9 to 5' to 'Hannah Montana'

Dolly Parton Breaks Down Her Career, from '9 to 5' to 'Hannah Montana'

Glenn Close Breaks Down Her Career, from 'Fatal Attraction' to '101 Dalmatians'

Glenn Close Breaks Down Her Career, from 'Fatal Attraction' to '101 Dalmatians'

David Oyelowo Breaks Down His Career, from 'Selma' to 'Come Away'

David Oyelowo Breaks Down His Career, from 'Selma' to 'Come Away'

Gillian Anderson Breaks Down Her Career, from 'The X-Files' to 'The Crown'

Gillian Anderson Breaks Down Her Career, from 'The X-Files' to 'The Crown'

BTS Breaks Down Their Music Career

BTS Breaks Down Their Music Career

Louis Vuitton's Nicolas Ghesquière Breaks Down His Fashion Career

Louis Vuitton's Nicolas Ghesquière Breaks Down His Fashion Career

Justin Theroux Breaks Down His Career, from 'Mulholland Drive' to 'The Leftovers'

Justin Theroux Breaks Down His Career, from 'Mulholland Drive' to 'The Leftovers'

Zack Snyder Breaks Down His Career, from 'Watchmen' to 'Justice League'

Zack Snyder Breaks Down His Career, from 'Watchmen' to 'Justice League'

Eric Bana Breaks Down His Career, from 'Hulk' to 'Dirty John'

Eric Bana Breaks Down His Career, from 'Hulk' to 'Dirty John'

Kathryn Hahn Breaks Down Her Career, from 'Bad Moms' to 'WandaVision'

Kathryn Hahn Breaks Down Her Career, from 'Bad Moms' to 'WandaVision'

Tom Hiddleston Breaks Down His Career, from 'The Avengers' to 'Loki'

Tom Hiddleston Breaks Down His Career, from 'The Avengers' to 'Loki'

Mary J. Blige Breaks Down Her Career, from 'What's the 411?' to 'Respect'

Mary J. Blige Breaks Down Her Career, from 'What's the 411?' to 'Respect'

Gael García Bernal Breaks Down His Career, from 'Y Tu Mamá También' to 'Coco'

Gael García Bernal Breaks Down His Career, from 'Y Tu Mamá También' to 'Coco'

Sandra Oh Breaks Down Her Career, from 'Grey's Anatomy' to 'Killing Eve'

Sandra Oh Breaks Down Her Career, from 'Grey's Anatomy' to 'Killing Eve'

Jay Duplass Breaks Down His Career, from 'Transparent' to 'The Chair'

Jay Duplass Breaks Down His Career, from 'Transparent' to 'The Chair'

Regina King Breaks Down Her Career, from 'Friday' to 'Watchmen'

Regina King Breaks Down Her Career, from 'Friday' to 'Watchmen'

Rebecca Ferguson Breaks Down Her Career, from 'Mission: Impossible' to 'Dune'

Rebecca Ferguson Breaks Down Her Career, from 'Mission: Impossible' to 'Dune'

Jeff Daniels Breaks Down His Career, from 'Dumb & Dumber' to 'The Newsroom'

Jeff Daniels Breaks Down His Career, from 'Dumb & Dumber' to 'The Newsroom'

Kirsten Dunst Breaks Down Her Career, from 'Jumanji' to 'Spider-Man'

Kirsten Dunst Breaks Down Her Career, from 'Jumanji' to 'Spider-Man'

Jeremy Renner Breaks Down His Career, from 'The Hurt Locker' to 'The Avengers'

Jeremy Renner Breaks Down His Career, from 'The Hurt Locker' to 'The Avengers'

Jared Leto Breaks Down His Career, from 'Dallas Buyers Club' to 'House of Gucci'

Jared Leto Breaks Down His Career, from 'Dallas Buyers Club' to 'House of Gucci'

Halle Berry Breaks Down Her Career, from 'X-Men' to 'Bruised'

Halle Berry Breaks Down Her Career, from 'X-Men' to 'Bruised'

Mahershala Ali Breaks Down His Career, from 'Moonlight' to 'Swan Song'

Mahershala Ali Breaks Down His Career, from 'Moonlight' to 'Swan Song'

Javier Bardem Breaks Down His Career, from 'No Country for Old Men' to 'Dune'

Javier Bardem Breaks Down His Career, from 'No Country for Old Men' to 'Dune'

Priyanka Chopra Breaks Down Her Career, from 'Kaminey' to 'The Matrix Resurrections'

Priyanka Chopra Breaks Down Her Career, from 'Kaminey' to 'The Matrix Resurrections'

Succession's Brian Cox Breaks Down His Career

Succession's Brian Cox Breaks Down His Career

John Goodman Breaks Down His Career, From 'The Big Lebowski' to 'The Righteous Gemstones'

John Goodman Breaks Down His Career, From 'The Big Lebowski' to 'The Righteous Gemstones'

Sebastian Stan Breaks Down His Career, from 'Captain America' to 'Pam & Tommy'

Sebastian Stan Breaks Down His Career, from 'Captain America' to 'Pam & Tommy'

David Duchovny Breaks Down His Career

David Duchovny Breaks Down His Career

Tony Hawk Breaks Down His Skateboarding Career

Tony Hawk Breaks Down His Skateboarding Career

Jake Gyllenhaal Breaks Down His Career

Jake Gyllenhaal Breaks Down His Career

Jane Fonda Breaks Down Her Career, from '9 to 5' to 'Grace and Frankie'

Jane Fonda Breaks Down Her Career, from '9 to 5' to 'Grace and Frankie'

Lily Tomlin Breaks Down Her Career, from '9 to 5' to 'Grace and Frankie'

Lily Tomlin Breaks Down Her Career, from '9 to 5' to 'Grace and Frankie'

Chris Hemsworth Breaks Down His Career, from 'Thor' to 'Spiderhead'

Chris Hemsworth Breaks Down His Career, from 'Thor' to 'Spiderhead'

Dakota Johnson Breaks Down Her Career, from 'Fifty Shades of Grey' to 'The Lost Daughter'

Dakota Johnson Breaks Down Her Career, from 'Fifty Shades of Grey' to 'The Lost Daughter'

Julie Andrews Breaks Down Her Career, from 'The Sound of Music' to 'The Princess Diaries'

Julie Andrews Breaks Down Her Career, from 'The Sound of Music' to 'The Princess Diaries'

Jeff Bridges Breaks Down His Career, from 'The Big Lebowski' to 'The Old Man'

Jeff Bridges Breaks Down His Career, from 'The Big Lebowski' to 'The Old Man'

Sean Combs Introduces Sean "Love" Combs

Sean Combs Introduces Sean "Love" Combs

Johnny Knoxville Breaks Down Every Injury of His Career

Johnny Knoxville Breaks Down Every Injury of His Career

Susan Sarandon Breaks Down Her Career, from 'Thelma & Louise' to 'Rocky Horror Picture Show'

Susan Sarandon Breaks Down Her Career, from 'Thelma & Louise' to 'Rocky Horror Picture Show'

Mila Kunis Breaks Down Her Career, from 'That '70s Show' to 'Black Swan'

Mila Kunis Breaks Down Her Career, from 'That '70s Show' to 'Black Swan'

Andrew Scott Breaks Down His Career, from 'Fleabag' to 'Sherlock'

Andrew Scott Breaks Down His Career, from 'Fleabag' to 'Sherlock'

Eddie Redmayne Breaks Down His Career, from 'Fantastic Beasts' to 'The Good Nurse'

Eddie Redmayne Breaks Down His Career, from 'Fantastic Beasts' to 'The Good Nurse'

Bill Nighy Breaks Down His Career, from 'Love Actually' to 'Pirates of the Caribbean'

Bill Nighy Breaks Down His Career, from 'Love Actually' to 'Pirates of the Caribbean'

Song Kang-Ho Breaks Down His Career, from 'Parasite' to 'Broker'

Song Kang-Ho Breaks Down His Career, from 'Parasite' to 'Broker'

Jean Smart Breaks Down Her Career, from '24' to 'Hacks'

Jean Smart Breaks Down Her Career, from '24' to 'Hacks'

Michelle Williams Breaks Down Her Career, from 'Blue Valentine' to 'The Fabelmans'

Michelle Williams Breaks Down Her Career, from 'Blue Valentine' to 'The Fabelmans'

Black Panther's Costume Designer Ruth E. Carter Breaks Down Her Iconic Costumes

Black Panther's Costume Designer Ruth E. Carter Breaks Down Her Iconic Costumes

Russell Crowe Breaks Down His Career, from 'Gladiator' to 'The Pope's Exorcist'

Russell Crowe Breaks Down His Career, from 'Gladiator' to 'The Pope's Exorcist'

Ben Affleck & Matt Damon Break Down Their Careers

Ben Affleck & Matt Damon Break Down Their Careers

Michael Shannon Breaks Down His Career, from 'Boardwalk Empire' to 'Man of Steel'

Michael Shannon Breaks Down His Career, from 'Boardwalk Empire' to 'Man of Steel'

Patricia Arquette Reflects On Her Career, from 'True Romance' to 'Severance'

Patricia Arquette Reflects On Her Career, from 'True Romance' to 'Severance'

Robert Downey Jr. Breaks Down His Career, from 'Iron Man' to 'Oppenheimer'

Robert Downey Jr. Breaks Down His Career, from 'Iron Man' to 'Oppenheimer'

Michael Fassbender Breaks Down His Career, from 'Inglourious Basterds' to 'X-Men'

Michael Fassbender Breaks Down His Career, from 'Inglourious Basterds' to 'X-Men'

Julianne Moore Breaks Down Her Career, from 'Children of Men' to 'May December'

Julianne Moore Breaks Down Her Career, from 'Children of Men' to 'May December'

Paul Giamatti Breaks Down His Career, from 'Big Fat Liar' to 'The Holdovers'

Paul Giamatti Breaks Down His Career, from 'Big Fat Liar' to 'The Holdovers'

Stellan Skarsgård Breaks Down His Career, from 'Mamma Mia!' to 'Dune: Part Two'

Stellan Skarsgård Breaks Down His Career, from 'Mamma Mia!' to 'Dune: Part Two'

Trending video.

Magician Reviews Sleight of Hand and Visual Tricks In Movies & TV (Part Two)

Magician Reviews Sleight of Hand and Visual Tricks In Movies & TV (Part Two)

'Dune: Part Two' Director Denis Villeneuve Breaks Down the Sandworm Scene

'Dune: Part Two' Director Denis Villeneuve Breaks Down the Sandworm Scene

How Hans Zimmer Created the Score for 'Dune: Part Two'

How Hans Zimmer Created the Score for 'Dune: Part Two'

The Best Moments From the 2024 Vanity Fair Oscar Party

The Best Moments From the 2024 Vanity Fair Oscar Party

Millie Bobby Brown Rewatches Stranger Things, Enola Holmes, Damsel & More

Millie Bobby Brown Rewatches Stranger Things, Enola Holmes, Damsel & More

Watch the Full 2024 Vanity Fair Oscar Party Livestream

Watch the Full 2024 Vanity Fair Oscar Party Livestream

Sabrina Carpenter Gets Ready for the Vanity Fair Oscar Party

Sabrina Carpenter Gets Ready for the Vanity Fair Oscar Party

Colman Domingo Gets Ready for the Oscars

Colman Domingo Gets Ready for the Oscars

Dominic Sessa Gets Ready for the Oscars

Dominic Sessa Gets Ready for the Oscars

Rita Moreno Remembers Her Famous Oscar Win—And Meets Sam Rockwell

Rita Moreno Remembers Her Famous Oscar Win—And Meets Sam Rockwell

an image, when javascript is unavailable

Billy Eichner Is Here to Fight Hollywood Homophobia and Fulfill Your Gay Rom-Com Dreams

Oops, it happened again. Billy Eichner , eligible gay bachelor, was kicked off Tinder. Somehow, the team behind the dating app had the audacity to boot Eichner from its screens because they thought he was a random loser pretending to be Billy Eichner. Eichner, 43, went public with his Tinder travails during a 2019 appearance on “Jimmy Kimmy Live,” and got an apology from the company along with a care package shipped to his home with T-shirts and mugs that said, “World’s Hottest Single” and “Happy Valentine’s Day … to Me.”

Too many gay men know what that feels like. While single straight women have no shortage of people to relate to in movies, from Bridget Jones to an army of fabulous heroines played by Julia Roberts, Meg Ryan, Reese Witherspoon and more, there has been little representation of gay men looking for love — “Real love, ridiculous, inconvenient, consuming, can’t-live-without-each-other love,” to quote a famous Carrie Bradshaw line — on the big screen. Yes, gay men have flocked to their share of corny meet-cutes starring Sandra Bullock, pining for the perfect guy before ending up happily ever after (even the one where she waited for him to rise from a coma). But growing up during the genre’s ’90s heyday, well, the idea that a studio would greenlight a movie about two men falling in love was unfathomable. At that time, it was refreshing enough just to see a gay friend — say, Rupert Everett in “My Best Friend’s Wedding” — as the fun-loving sidekick, relegated to the sidelines of celibacy.

“I feel a responsibility for it to do well,” says Eichner as he sips iced coffee in the restaurant of a West Hollywood hotel. “I’ve worked so hard on it, I care so much about it, and I want it to do well for the sake of the LGBTQ stories getting greenlit. So there’s a burden I feel, much as I want to sit here and just talk about how funny the movie is.”

The fact that “Bros” is hilarious won’t be a surprise to fans of Eichner. Eichner first came onto the scene knifing across the sidewalks of New York City peppering unsuspecting pedestrians with ultra-specific pop culture questions as the host of “Billy on the Street.” That show started as a viral web sensation before migrating to television, where it developed a passionate following, thanks to its absurdist sense of humor. It’s found a new audience on TikTok, where Eichner’s sound bites regularly get shared.

In person, Eichner is dramatically different from his brash and decibel-busting “Billy on the Street” alter ego. He’s brainy, surprisingly serious, and even a bit reserved (the few times he lets out a boisterous laugh — the kind of roar that turns heads in a restaurant — are the only moments when he evokes his attention-seeking “Billy on the Street” persona). He’s also an open book. After all, how many celebrities would cop to using dating apps, something Eichner does unabashedly. But at the same time, there’s a certain guardedness, as if maybe the slights Eichner suffered on his long road to fame calcified into a protective shell.

Bobby, the work-obsessed podcaster and museum head Eichner portrays in “Bros,” seems much more akin to Eichner’s offscreen self. In the film, Bobby finds himself unexpectedly drawn to Aaron (Luke Macfarlane), a hyper-masculine lawyer who is his polar opposite. Eichner’s character, a smart and brittle 40-year-old whose professional life is thriving as his personal life is withering, also resembles Holly Hunter’s hard-driving producer in “Broadcast News.”

“There’s no character in modern films I relate to more than Holly Hunter’s, because she’s so damn smart, she has all her shit together, and no one is better at her job,” says Eichner. “And yet, she falls for the handsome idiot. And that’s human, especially if you’re a person who doesn’t connect romantically to a lot of people. When it does happen, it can really mess you up.”

“Bros” is rooted in the rom-coms that Eichner grew up watching, but where those stories usually led to little more than a passionate kiss, the characters in this movie get it on … a lot. And the sex they have feels refreshingly real, with just a dash of movie magic — think Nora Ephron on poppers. There’s a cornucopia of post-PrEP, pre-monkeypox sexual possibilities on display, ranging from anonymous hookups to throuples to a first date that ends in a foursome.

“Bros” is part of a wave of new shows and movies — such as Netflix’s “Uncoupled,” with Neil Patrick Harris as a newly single middle-aged gay man, and Searchlight’s “Fire Island,” with Joel Kim Booster and Bowen Yang as gay friends on vacation — that come from LGBTQ creators and depict queer life with a newfound sexual candor.

“Things have been changing so much; everything is shifting,” says Harvey Fierstein, who broke barriers when his gay coming-of-age story “Torch Song Trilogy” debuted on Broadway in 1982. “Being gay these days — just being plain gay — is so mainstream compared to everything else there is to choose from. Just being gay or lesbian is so boring. We’re having kids; we’re getting married. I feel like I should just go to the Stop & Shop and shut up.”

But “Fire Island” and “Uncoupled” debuted on streaming services. To succeed, “Bros” needs to convince consumers to buy a ticket. And while a handful of romantic comedies like “Crazy Rich Asians” and “The Big Sick” have managed to defy the odds and thrive at the box office, they remain the exception to the rule. The financial realities of Hollywood are such that studios are focused on creating global blockbusters that spawn toy lines.

“It’s a weird time for movies because of the pandemic and streaming and the massive investment in comic book movies,” says Judd Apatow, co-producer on “Bros.” “We’re not seeing all sorts of movies, but it doesn’t mean the audience doesn’t want them desperately. We don’t have them because even when they are successful, they don’t make a billion dollars. And a lot of the studio system is built on trying to make astonishing amounts of money.”

Eichner has been staying up worrying that the film won’t appeal to a broad enough audience, and the fact that he does annoys him. “Universal has a rom-com with George Clooney and Julia Roberts [‘Ticket to Paradise’] coming out a month after ‘Bros,’” says Eichner. “I love Julia Roberts more than life itself, but no one is going to ask Julia Roberts and George Clooney, ‘Are you worried that gay people are going to relate?’ No straight movie star or straight director in major studio history has ever sat there and worried, ‘God, I hope gay people show up in droves.’”

And Eichner knows who to blame. “Hollywood took a century to make this film,” he says of “Bros.” “That’s not my fault — that’s Hollywood’s fault for taking this fucking long.”

Eichner is from Forest Hills, Queens, a continent and several subway stops removed from Hollywood, a place where show business feels like a distant dream. His father, Jay, was a rent-tax auditor, and his mother, Debbie, worked for a phone company. But both parents loved music and theater, and they took him to see Nathan Lane in “Guys and Dolls” on Broadway, Bette Midler at Radio City Music Hall and Barbra Streisand at Madison Square Garden. When his aunt questioned his parents about their decision to bring Eichner to a Madonna concert, his father shut her down with “She’s a great performer.” That love of entertainers was something that bonded the family.

Jay and Debbie Eichner also believed that their son could be a star, ferrying him to auditions when he was an aspiring child actor (aside from being an extra in a “Saturday Night Live” skit, he had limited success) and later going to see nearly every one of his shows when he was a theater major at Northwestern University. “I was the center of their universe,” Eichner says.

It was the age of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” and the shadow of AIDS still lingered, but Eichner never struggled with being gay. “It looked chic,” he says. “I watched a lot of shows about fashion, and Madonna was always palling around with her gay dancers. On ‘The Real World,’ there was always a cool and artsy gay man who went to fun nightclubs, and I wanted to do all of that.”

Of course, he knew that homophobia was out there, but it wasn’t a big deal for Eichner growing up. “Did some bully in the schoolyard occasionally say the f-word or say, ‘You sound gay’?” says Eichner. “Yeah, that happened a handful of times over the years, but I never brought it home with me. A lot of people assumed I was gay, but I was very tall, very imposing — I wasn’t frail. So, for whatever reason, I never got picked on.”

But trying to break into the entertainment business exposed Eichner to the bigotry he had mostly avoided. There was the theater agent who advised him to tone down the gay content in “Creation Nation” — the stage show that gave him his first brush with professional success — because agents from William Morris might be in the audience. In response, Eichner included more anal-sex jokes. And then there was the top Comedy Central executive who listened to Eichner pitch a show and told him that it sounded like a better fit for Bravo, home of “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.” “Bravo was the one major cable network that would have gay men on their shows, but they weren’t doing comedy shows,” Eichner says. “They were doing reality shows. I was like, ‘I’m not a stylist; I don’t do people’s hair.’ There’s nothing wrong with doing those things, but I’m a comedian.”

Before his career in comedy took off, Eichner tried to make it as an actor in New York. But casting agents didn’t really know what to do with him. So he decided to make his own opportunities, partnering with best friend Robin Lord Taylor on “Creation Nation,” a variety show that mixed stand-up, satirical songs and sketches. In 2004, to bolster the act, Eichner started taping segments in which he would approach hapless New Yorkers and engage them with silly contests about pop culture (sample questions: “Who’s weirder: Tom Cruise or John Travolta?” and “True or false: Lea Michele can play the flute”). On “Billy on the Street,” Eichner was abrasively manic in a five-boroughs way, sliding up to people with complete self-assurance and then dismissing them abruptly when he found their answers lacking.

“The way he zips into the frame, it’s like he’s a cartoon character,” says Conan O’Brien. “It’s like Daffy Duck, who would just hurtle onto the screen and then stop and vibrate for a second and then — zing! — he’s gone again.”

The show’s breathless treatment of frivolous subjects seemed to anticipate the new brand of celebrity culture being ushered in by social media and glossy magazines that rhapsodized about the love lives and professional triumphs of stars. The taped bits quickly became the most popular part of “Creation Nation,” and Eichner attracted a following among influential comedians.

“Billy always felt a step ahead of the zeitgeist as opposed to a step behind it,” says Seth Meyers. “His comedy is not reactive; it’s proactive.”

Eichner was unique in another way too. He was out and proud long before it was fashionable. “That was not done back then,” says Taylor. “I was an actor, and I was discouraged about coming out of the closet. People were saying, ‘It’s going to limit what roles you’re going to play.’ But the comedy world, that was just straight-boy central. There was no room for gay people. And it was very shocking to some audience members that Billy was so frank about being gay.”

But Eichner didn’t wait for the entertainment business to make space for him. As he started “Billy on the Street,” YouTube was democratizing the way talent could get noticed. And Eichner took full advantage of the change. Early “Billy on the Street” videos were lo-fi affairs, but the show was filled with dazzlingly absurd deep dives into pop culture ephemera, delivered with a blistering intensity that demonstrated Eichner’s comic brilliance. He didn’t need some studio executive to give him a break.

“Billy forged his career completely himself,” says O’Brien. “It’s not like someone saw him and said, ‘You, kid, you’re coming with me. We’re going to fix your teeth and teach you to stand up straight and make you a star.’ He is completely self-directed, and he relied on gobs of talent and tremendous drive.”

When Mike Farah, an executive at Funny or Die, sent him an email praising his videos and telling him he’d love to meet with him if he was ever in Los Angeles, Eichner pounced. “I lied and told him that, as a matter of fact, I was coming out to L.A. in a couple of weeks — isn’t that weird?” remembers Eichner. “I had no money at the time. I was broke with no health insurance. But I put a plane ticket on a credit card, crashed with friends and went to see Mike. I said, ‘I’ll make videos for Funny or Die if that’s what you want, but I have this bigger idea to turn my segments into a TV show.’”

Farah bit. With Funny or Die’s backing, “Billy on the Street” nabbed distribution on Fuse and later TruTV. That led to supporting roles in shows like “Parks and Recreation” and films like “The Lion King.”

But Eichner’s parents, his biggest boosters, weren’t around to see it. Debbie Eichner died of a heart attack at 54, when her son was 20; his father, Jay, died in 2011 at the age of 80, a month before “Billy on the Street” was pitched and sold to Fuse.

“Life is unfair sometimes,” says Eichner. “My parents believed that I could star in movies and that I could fulfill this dream of success in entertainment decades before Hollywood did. They weren’t around to see it happen, but they are the reason it happened.”

To make “Bros,” Eichner partnered with two straight men with serious commercial clout. The film was co-written, produced, and directed by Nicholas Stoller (“I’ve been trying to convert him,” Eichner jokes), the man behind “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and “Neighbors,” and produced by Apatow, whose comedy empire extends from “Superbad” to “Bridesmaids.” Stoller was a longtime associate of Apatow’s and approached Eichner with the idea of developing a movie together after they had worked on “Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising” and “Friends From College.”

“I’ve never written a movie, and I needed Nick’s experience. And I needed him and Judd to help sell the movie,” says Eichner. “I educated Nick on the gay experience, and Nick walked me through the process of developing writing and then making a major studio film.”

Both Apatow and Stoller have minted money with their comic explorations of men in a state of arrested development, and Universal felt that switching the sexuality of the protagonists in one of their comedies could make the film pop.

“This kind of gay-relationship comedy had always been given niche treatment,” says Donna Langley, chairman of Universal Filmed Entertainment Group. “Wrapping it up in a major studio package felt like a big idea to us.”

Stoller and Apatow urged Eichner to put more of himself into the film. “These movies are ways for people to figure something out about themselves,” says Apatow. “I usually ask people, ‘What would need to happen for you to get healthy and figure out all the things that were blocking you in certain areas of your life?’”

About halfway through “Bros,” there’s a scene on a beach in Provincetown where Bobby lets his guard down with Aaron, talking about all the people who told him that being gay would derail his ambitions — the same prejudices Eichner had to overcome in the entertainment industry. It’s the movie’s most personal moment. While editing the film, Stoller presented a shorter version of the scene, but Eichner pushed back. He wanted to “live in the moment more,” so that audiences would get a better sense of who Bobby and Aaron were as people. That would make them care more about whether they ended up together.

“Billy was right,” says Stoller. “It’s a moment where you can hear a pin drop in the theater. And in focus groups, when people are asked, ‘What’s your favorite scene?’ they always mention Bobby’s monologue. And it’s not Maya Rudolph pooping in the street [in ‘Bridesmaids’], which is usually the kind of thing people pick. But everyone has felt like an outsider.”

Eichner was determined to use “Bros” to shine a light on a new generation of LGBTQ talent. He filled out the ensemble with trans, lesbian, bisexual and nonbinary performers, many of them people of color. Says Miss Lawrence, a gender-nonconforming actor who plays a museum board member in the film, “Coming from the Deep South as an old Black queen, I never really thought that my gifts and talents would be celebrated by the masses. But walking onto the set of ‘Bros,’ I was surrounded by the full range of the LGBTQ community — from our designers to our PAs to our cast. And then to have this film backed by Universal, it’s a dream come true.”

Eichner was sick of straight actors getting all the great parts, even the gay ones, so he made sure that this time, all the roles, even the straight ones, were played by queer actors. “I’m not arguing with the fact that Sean Penn was magnificent in ‘Milk,’ or that Heath Ledger was heartbreaking in ‘Brokeback Mountain,’” says Eichner. “It’s not about saying a straight actor should never play gay. But we need a more equal playing field. It’s about correcting a very extreme imbalance.

Eichner wants to tell more LGBTQ stories. He’s collaborating with Paul Rudnick on a “War of the Roses”-style comedy about two gay men getting divorced that has the working title “Ex-Husbands.” He’s also planning to make a film about Paul Lynde, the campy character actor who became famous on “The Hollywood Squares” in the 1970s.

When Eichner does a project, he goes all-in. He says he couldn’t balance another season of “Billy on the Street” with the other projects he wants to make, because he sweats every quip, each pause, even the smallest music cue. He is passionate about the work he does. But making “Bros” also made him reconsider his approach. “Honestly, the movie reminded me not to ignore what’s really important in life, like love and romance,” says Eichner. “Show business is not the most important thing in the world regardless of what Mary Hart and John Tesh told me when I was a child.”

One day last fall, “Bros” was on the Upper West Side filming a scene where Bobby and Aaron walk around the same streets where the likes of Harry and Sally once strolled. Eichner’s mind was going a mile a minute — he wanted to make sure the production capitalized on the fading light and that the dialogue was punchy enough. It needed to be perfect. And then he stopped and realized something bigger was going on.

“I told myself to look around and appreciate how rare and magical this moment is because you are making a movie that looks and feels like all the romantic comedies you grew up loving, but you’re doing it as a gay man,” says Eichner. “And this is not an indie movie. This is not some streaming thing which feels disposable, or which is like one of a million Netflix shows. I needed to appreciate that ‘This is a historic moment, and somehow, you’re at the center of it. You helped create it.’”

The feeling didn’t last. “I went right back to panicking about whether the jokes were funny enough,” Eichner says. “And if I was any good in the movie.”

Spoiler alert: Holly Hunter would be proud.

Photo Agency: foureleven; Set Design: Justin Rocheleau/Wanted PD; Stylist: Jenny Ricker/Tomlinson Management Group; Grooming: Jason Schneidman/The Men’s Groomer Paste/Solo Artists; Look 1 (tank top): Tank: Calvin Klein; Boxers: Hanro: Sock Garters: Palace Costume; Socks: The Tie Bar; Shoes: Berluti; Look 2 (cardigan): Cardigan:  Tods; T-Shirt: Citizen; Pants: Giorgio Armani; Shoes: Golden Goose

More from our brands, mark knopfler gathers every guitar god for new animated video, winnie harlow seeks $3.7 million for modern farmhouse-style l.a. estate, ivy league basketball is peaking during the transfer portal era, the best loofahs and body scrubbers, according to dermatologists, foundation recasts the mule for season 3 with game of thrones actor, verify it's you, please log in.

Quantcast

IMAGES

  1. How Billy Eichner Made the Best Rom-Com of the Year

    billy eichner tour

  2. 18 Things to Know About Billy Eichner

    billy eichner tour

  3. Billy Eichner

    billy eichner tour

  4. Billy Eichner

    billy eichner tour

  5. Billy Eichner made a great rom-com. Now its audiences’ turn.

    billy eichner tour

  6. Billy Eichner Has Never Been to Paris

    billy eichner tour

COMMENTS

  1. 18 Things to Know About Jewish Comedian Billy Eichner

    3. His first school production was in fourth grade, and he auditioned by singing "It's Alright to Cry.". Billy recalls, "Everyone turned around and was like, 'Whoa, this fat Jewish gay kid can really sing .'". 4. He attended Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan, where he starred in "Guys & Dolls.".

  2. Billy Eichner Concert & Tour History

    Billy Eichner Concert History. 6 Concerts. Concerts; Scroll to: Top; Concerts; Years; Comments; FAQ; Billy Eichner Tours & Concerts . Date Concert Venue; Location Sep 28, 2022 Mt. Joy / Maya Hawke / Billy Eichner. ... Billy Eichner is most often considered to be United States, New York, Nuno, Disney, Buffalo Hip Hop, and Actors. ...

  3. Billy Eichner: An Inside Look At The Funnyman's Life And Career

    In 1993, when he was just 13, he landed a small role in a "Saturday Night Live" sketch. Reviewing his career highlights in a Vanity Fair video, Eichner reminisced about how he came to "SNL." "I ...

  4. Billy Eichner

    Billy Eichner (/ ˈ aɪ k n ər / EYEK-nər; born September 18, 1978) is an American actor and comedian.He is the star, executive producer, and creator of Funny or Die's Billy on the Street, a comedy game show that aired on truTV.The show earned Eichner a nomination for the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show Host in 2013. He is also known for playing Craig Middlebrooks on the sitcom ...

  5. Billy Eichner Tour Announcements 2022 & 2023, Notifications, Dates

    Find out when Billy Eichner is next playing live near you. List of all Billy Eichner tour dates, concerts, support acts, reviews and venue info.

  6. How Billy Eichner Made the Best Rom-Com of the Year

    He has season tickets but also went to Juilliard and loves theater, ... Ts Madison, Billy Eichner, Miss Lawrence, Eve Lindley, Jim Rash, and Dot-Marie Jones in Bros.

  7. Billy Eichner, Margaret Cho to Appear at Stonewall Concert

    Billy Eichner, Nancy Pelosi and Amy Poehler Join Stonewall Inn's Safe Spaces Concert (EXCLUSIVE) New York's The Stonewall Inn will kick off LGBTQ Pride Month with a star-studded streaming ...

  8. Billy Eichner made a great rom-com. Now its audiences' turn

    Billy Eichner poses for a portrait at the Crosby Street Hotel to promote his film "Bros" on Monday, Sept. 19, 2022 in New York. ... was passing through Philadelphia on a national tour, Eichner ...

  9. Billy Eichner And Luke Macfarlane On Hitting Authentic Comedy ...

    Blackberry Smoke Celebrates New Album 'Be Right Here' And Heads Out On Busy Headline Tour. Feb 23, 2024, 11 ... Luke Macfarlane and Billy Eichner at the the premiere of Universal Pictures ...

  10. Billy Eichner on 'Bros' and Why He's 'Beyond' 'Billy on the Street'

    Eichner is the star of Bros, the groundbreaking, hilarious gay rom-com he also co-wrote, which — defying his initial doubts — is due in theaters Sept. 30, with a big push from Universal ...

  11. Billy Eichner Tickets & Tour Dates 2024

    Billy Eichner is touring and that means it is time to find Billy Eichner tickets. Unfortunately, Billy Eichner concerts are very popular and the shows always seem to be sold out. Or, if you are fortunate to have found seats to purchase, the very best locations have been claimed.

  12. Billy Eichner made a great rom-com. Now its audiences' turn

    In the five seasons of "Billy on the Street," in which Eichner quizzed and chastised New York passersby on their pop culture knowledge, the Queens native channeled his love-hate relationship ...

  13. Billy Eichner's "Bros" world tour!

    Billy Eichner's "Bros" world tour! By Greg Hernandez on Oct 23, 2022 8:53 am | Comments (0) | View this post on Instagram. A post shared by Billy Eichner (@billyeichner) FILE UNDER: Uncategorized. Comments (All comments are reviewed before being published, and I review submissions several times per day.) ...

  14. Billy Eichner

    Billy Eichner is a comedian, actor and writer from New York City. He is host of the hit TV show Funny or Die's BILLY ON THE STREET on the FUSE cable network. Follow Billy on Twitter @billyeichner ...

  15. Billy Eichner Interview on LGBTQ Romantic Comedy 'Bros'

    April 27, 2022 10:15am. Billy Eichner Rich Fury/VF22/Getty Images. Billy Eichner knows his way around a rom-com — wisdom he put to good use making his own. Universal 's Bros, which Eichner co ...

  16. Billy Eichner made a great rom-com. Now its audiences' turn.

    Billy Eichner poses for a portrait at the Crosby Street Hotel to promote his film "Bros" on Monday, Sept. 19, 2022 in New York. ... was passing through Philadelphia on a national tour, Eichner ...

  17. Billy Eichner Meets Madonna At Yankee Stadium

    Billy Eichner meets Madonna for the first time at Yankee Stadium during her MDNA tour.

  18. Billy Eichner

    Billy Eichner. Highest Rated: 88% Bros (2022) Lowest Rated: 44% The Angry Birds Movie (2016) Birthday: Sep 18, 1978. Birthplace: New York, New York, USA. Boisterous comedic personality Billy ...

  19. Billy Eichner

    Billy Eichner. Actor: Bros. Billy Eichner was born on September 18, 1978 and raised in New York City. He graduated from Stuyvesant High School (NY) in 1996. He is a graduate of Northwestern University, where he majored in Theater. He is the star, executive producer and creator of Billy on the Street (2011), a comedy game show that airs on Fuse TV.

  20. Watch Billy Eichner Breaks Down His Career, from Parks and Recreation

    Billy Eichner breaks down his career, from Parks and Recreation to The Lion King. Billy explains how his career went from man-on-the-street style interviews to the big screen. Disney's The Lion ...

  21. Billy Eichner Reports From The MDNA Tour Opening in Tel Aviv

    Billy Eichner Reports From The MDNA Tour Opening in Tel Aviv - From Conan O'Brien's TBS show.

  22. Billy Eichner Talks Rom-Com 'Bros,' Combatting Hollywood Homophobia

    Debbie Eichner died of a heart attack at 54, when her son was 20; his father, Jay, died in 2011 at the age of 80, a month before "Billy on the Street" was pitched and sold to Fuse. "Life is ...

  23. Billy Eichner was told he was 'too gay' to be on TV

    Now Billy Eichner is making history with his upcoming rom-com Bros, which will be the first ever major studio film featuring an entirely LGBTQ+ principal cast with a main queer story. Contrary to the way he was expected to censor himself at the beginning of his career, Bros promises to be an unfiltered and authentic look and the gay community.