Billy Eichner: The new rom-com king

Name a woman? Yeah, um, who name a woman? If you haven't seen it, it was a cult hit from back in the twenty tents, where Billy quizzes unsuspecting strangers and sometimes his famous friends around New York City a woman. Billy has also appeared in a slew of comedies on the small and big screen, including most recently the mere cat character Timne in Disney's remake of The Lion King. I've got it. What if he's on our side? Hear me out, Having a ferocious line around might not be

such a bad idea. Well, then can we keep him? Yes, of course we can keep it. God who is the brains of this operation? And now Billy has written and stars in the first gay romcomp from a major movie studio. This historic boy meets boys story is called Bros. And Billy plays the professionally driven but emotionally unavailable Bobby. I don't think that his type, because I know he told me he likes country music and his favorite singer is Garth Brooks. What kind of gamemance is his favorite singer

is Garth Brooks? That scares me. Plus I see the guys he likes, they'll look exactly like him. They're all these like big, hot, straight acting dudes. It's just not me. Was the top or bottom? What does that have to do with anything? Maybe you're both bottoms and that's a problem. I'm not always the bottom, Edgar, Oh my god, sex was more fun when straight people were uncomfortable with it. Well, I am super proud of you, Billy. It is a big deal. I know you're feeling the pressure of it too.

But you know, there have been storylines about gay couples and gay dating before I'm thinking about looking right was on HBO, and even more in the mainstream. You have Modern Family, and there's a whole panoply of shows that is kind of that have tackled this. But this is a really big deal. This movie, and I want you to explain why it is and why it's different than

the things that have been done before. Well, all of those things are All of those shows you mentioned are classics, and there are many others too, And there's there's also a whole I mean, decades of indie films, UM that I grew up watching because that was often the only places you would find gay love stories and and really the only places you would find gay love stories written and directed by other LGBTQ people. UM. And I went to see all those movies and movie theaters, and I

was lucky. I grew up in New York, so I had access to them, UM And and Bros. Would not be here without all of those happening for for decades. You know. That's where like the ground was laid, you know, to to lead up to something UM like Bros. Where you have a major studio and Universal, you know, the same studio that makes these huge franchise films like Jurassic Park and Fast and The Theories and Minions and all these global phenomenons who are putting their support UM behind

an R rated romantic comedy about a gay mail couple. Right, and not only that, but the entire cast of the movie, save for a couple of quick celebrity cameos, everyone is an openly l g B t Q actor or actress, even in the straight roles, which you really never see.

Um And I also think that although there are many many wonderful l g B t Q centric films and TV shows obviously that we've all been watching on streaming services for for years, for me, you know, there is something that is special about going to the movie theater. Um And, I think people have forgotten how much fun it is and how magical it is, and how uplifting it is to go watch a great romantic comedy in a movie theater and straight or gay. We just don't

get many movies like that anymore. And I grew up in the eighties nineties, we had so many great romantic comedies and I loved them so much. And those were movies that made me fall in love with movies. They made me want to be in Hollywood, you know. I I Pretty Woman and Moonstruck and When Harry Met Sally and Annie Hall and Working Girl and Broadcast News and all Nora Ephron movies. I mean, I went to see

all of them with my parents. I can tell you exactly what movie theater I was in for many of them. I still remember, you know. And I also went to see action movies and superhero movies and all that stuff too, I was a kid. But those are the movies that really stay with many of us for years, and we don't get many of them anymore. We've never gotten many of them about a gay couple. And so you know, these are the reasons why Bros. Is special, and you know,

more than your average comedy. You know, it is it is an event. It's we haven't gotten something like this. And and also on top of it, the main thing is that I hope I think it's really funny. You know, we we Nick Stoler and Jadapa Tow and I. We never sat down and said, let's make a history movie or you know, right right break some barriers here. No,

we didn't even know we were doing that. We didn't know who would buy the movie or sell the movie or distribute the movie, you know, at the beginning of the process, and we just said, let's make a hilarious movie. Judd and Nick have a long history of making some of the funniest movies of the past twenty Years Bridesmaids and four year Old Virgin and Knocked Up and Forgetting Sarah Marshall and all these amazing movies that we all love.

But this one happens to be like that, but about a gate couple and with lgbt Q actors, and that's really exciting. And so there's a lot about it that I think is going to feel new to people while also giving them that classic rom com experience that we all love. There's so much I want to cover with you, Billy, and one of those is why aren't there more rom coms? I mean, I know that the movie industry is really obsessed with these global blockbusters that can be trained flayed

it into a lot of languages. My nephews a director, and he explained to me a few years ago that's why action films are so desirable, because you don't have a lot of dialogue and you don't have to translate it, and it's not like it's not like, you know, culturally, you have to really help people understand sort of the nuances of relationships, etcetera. Is that why we just don't see that many romcoms now being produced by these big movie studios. I think there's probably a few different reasons

for it. Judd Apataw recently put it best when he said, years ago, you had romantic comedies that were big hits, you know, including many of his movies, and they would make a profit. They would make money when they worked. However, somewhere along the way, studios realized on a big franchise film, they wouldn't just make a profit. They wouldn't just make a hundred million dollars. They could make a billion dollars.

And then they could make another billion on the sequel, and and even more, and the toys into this and that, and merchandise, and and like you say, those movies play well internationally, like that material is a you know, translates more easily maybe, whereas you know, a romantic comedy might be culturally specific as as they say. But but I

maintain that there's nothing wrong with superhero movies. I love those two, nothing wrong with big franchise movies, and they're keeping the movie going business alive, so we have to give them credit for that. However, people have forgotten how much fun it is to go to a movie theater with your friends or on a date, or even by yourself, and just laugh out loud for two hours. And we live in such a bleak world. It's such a cynical world. And look, I'm a New Yorker, I'm an atom New Yorker.

I'm cynical. But we need movies that make us laugh and then make us feel good. You know, Bros. Is laugh out loud, funny, and it's really hopeful and it's uplifting. It is on It's not like everything so hunky dorry. You know, we wanted it to be real, but it really leaves you feeling good. It's an emotional experience. And again, to see it in a movie theater, there's a unique sort of power to that because you really escaped the world. It's a communal experience. You get swept away, it's all.

You're not watching it on two screens, you're not distracted. There's that communal aspect that is so fun. When you're watching something and with people with complete strangers, you have this sense of community and and oneness that is so missing in our culture. So I agree with you. I mean, I haven't gone too many movie theaters since COVID Billy and I miss it. Yeah, And I'm telling you, and this is just the truth and it's weird to say about my own movie, but you know, we've had a

ton of test screenings of Bros. Because that's part of the process when you're making a major studio film. And those test screenings happen in real movie theaters, big multiplexes all over the country in New York, l A, Chicago, and I went to all of them because I wanted to see what the reaction was, and especially for the first few, because I hadn't gone back to the movies a lot at that point. This was earlier this year.

I even for me, I had forgotten how much fun it is, you know, to to see a movie like this and laugh with other people. You know, we're so used to watching things alone in our house, and there's a lot of great things to watch alone in your house, but it is it's not the same experience. One doesn't negate the other. But this, it is a magical thing to go and sit in the dark and be swept away by a movie like this and people leave and they just feel good. You know, It's it's just it's

a different type of experience. It's it's unique, and you know, it's why people go to the theater even you know, it's there's something bigger than life about it and what And this is gonna sound a little cheesy, but it really has been my experience watching Bros. When you're watching a movie at home and even on the biggest flat screen TV, you kind of lose that childlike sense of wonder that you have when you can get lost in the movies in the movie theater, you know, and stare

up at the big screen. And that's the experience that we really wanted to give people in addition to making them laugh a lot. And I have to believe that

people still want that experience. You know, Before we get too far into Billy's current successes, I couldn't help but dig into his past more with Billy Eichner right after this, I have to tell you, I know your parents are no longer with us, but even reading about you, Billy, I fell in love with your mom and dad, because it sounds as if you grew up in such a happy household. It sounds as if your parents were so

much fun. They took you to all these movies. They took you to see Barbra streisand they took you to Broadway. I guess somebody gave them a hard time about your dad about taking you to a Madonna concert. And somebody basically he said, it just very matter of factly, she's a she's a great performer. Right. And and this was in Forest Hills, New York. You were you were born in ninety eight, And they sound as if they were

just completely and utterly supportive of you in every way. Um. And and it made me wonder did they know sort of immediately or did they get the sense that because everything I've read about you, Billy, there hasn't been like a moment where you said mom and dad, I'm gay or anything like that. Was that just something that they sensed and accepted from the get go, or how did

that enter the whole sort of dynamic of your family. Well, I did have to come out to them as everyone, you know, as as you usually do, even though I I had a feeling he knew I was gay from a young age. Um, but you still have to come out, you know. I mean, I guess you don't have to, But well, you know, I didn't know. They seemed so cool. They might have even said, hey, are you know, Billy, we we have this you know idea that you might be gay and that's cool with us, do you know

what I mean. It's funny that you say that, Katie, because the way I came out to my parents, it was they were so supportive, and look, it was I had a very happy childhood. Of course, they were human beings and they were flawed, and it wasn't perfect by any means, but um, when it came to me, they really loved me so unconditionally and especially knowing. And this

is back in the eighties. It wasn't necessarily the norm for the parents of a child who seemed like he was most likely a gay kid to just have that unconditional love without hesitation, you know. I mean, I don't think people remember how different it was back then. You know, it's almost shocking when you think about it. But you know, certainly for me growing up Billy, and then even for you in the eighties and nineties, it was a very

different culture. It was. And I remember I was a child in New York at the height of the AIDS epidemic, so which as a child, of course, I only could understand to a certain degree. And this was long before I was saying I was gay. But my parents certainly understood it, um, And you know, I'm sure they had fears around that in terms of my gainness at that time, but even so, they they never put a stigma on it,

you know. Um, of course they wanted me to be happy, and they were worried for any number of reasons, you know, about my well being. But um, they were so great, and I really think that they're the reason why a movie like Rose can happen for me personally, and why maybe not specifically this movie, but there why I was able to stick with it for so long, you know, especially in the lean years. You know. My mom died when I was twenty, about six months after I came

out to her. Um, she was just fifty four and she had a heart attack. And that was so young. I was. I was, I was really young. And getting back to your story though about coming out, which happened for me, Like I said, I think it was, yeah, about six months before she died, Um, she they came out to I went to Northwestern. I was a theater major, UM, and I did a lot of musicals and they came

to see me. I was playing Mr Mushnik in a Little Shop of Horrors, which is not even the lead and they still flew from New York to see me in it. Um. And we went to dinner the next night in Evanston, Illinois, where Northwestern is, and out of nowhere, my mom, out of nowhere said, so are you dating anyone boy? Girl? Whatever? And that was and I said, I remember looking down being like, oh god, here we go.

Here we go at the Davis Street Fish Market, which is the restaurant we reading and um, and I said, no, Mom, I'm on dating anyone. And then we were going home from that dinner and I my dad was driving me back to my apartment and I said, okay, pull over, and I see he did, and I said, as it turns out I'm gay and um, and they say, knocked

me over with a feather. No, you know, they said, it was an emotional moment even when you all know, it's still like there's such a weight being lifted off of my shoulders that has probably been carried around for years, you know. And at one point I did say to them, I was like, guys, like you know you knew right,

you know. I was like, you took me to Barber Streisang concerts and you need a bet mid a radio city music all and it took me to every Madonna concert and my father, classic Jaikener said, we discussed the possibility. Um um. But they were great. And then he I do have a half brother who I didn't really grow up with, but my dad's first child from his first marriage, and and you know, we are in each other's lives, but he was older than me, so we didn't grow

up together. And my dad's next question was, is your brother gay? And I said, no, he's not gay at all. But my brother had It was the late nineties, and he was he was a photographer and he had dyed his hair peroxye blonde just to be like hip, you know, and my dad and my dad said, as your brother gay And I said, no, Dad, Steve is not gay. And he said he died as hip blonde. And I was like, yeah, that's not that's not a reason he

might be gay. Um. And and they were and then from then on they were great and um and then yeah, my mom died six months after that, and but my dad. I did have an older dad's so he died about ten years ago, but he was eighty already. He had

me later in life. He was older than my mom. Um, but even my dad, you know, because I was in my early thirties at that point, and I kept having brushes with success, like I kept you know, I would get a pilot, but I wouldn't get picked up, or you know, it was I was getting close but no cigar, and everyone was telling me, I'm so talented and this and that, and it's going to happen. But you know, it's it's cute in your twenties, and in your thirties you start to worry, right, And my dad did start

to worry more too. But even when he was worried, he always he always, at the end of the day said, you have to keep going, you have to stick with it. He just really believed in me. And it must be pretty bitter sweet too. You know, here you've got this major movie release happening, and um, you know, you must wish that they could be here to celebrate with you. I wish they were here. I'd love to meet them

they were, Yes, of course I do. Yeah, I mean, I just you know it it's comforting to know, though, I mean, you can dwell on the sad part of it, um, but but honestly, whenever I think about them, I you know, not that I'm not sad, because of course I am, and I wish they were here to to see all of this, but I'm just feel so lucky, you know, like as as an adult, I have even more of an a you know, I was like a kid, and you know, didn't always appreciate it all and I was

just like moms their away from me and all that, you know, as a teenager and all that. But looking back, like I always think, God, I'm so lucky, and and the reason for all of my success, fundamentally it is how supportive they were, um and how much they encouraged me. And that's really the reason I was. I was able to hold on for so long and get to this moment. I wanted to ask you about your early career because, as you said, it took you a to get your mojo,

and you weren't really bullied. I know that you've said it's because you were tall and kind of an imposing guy, and you know, you didn't face a lot of a lot of I don't think it sounds like it people being mean. Yes, there was the occasional comment here and there, but but as you started to go into show business and after you graduated from Northwestern you found there were some pretty significant obstacles for a young gay man trying to make it in the entertainment business. What what were

those exactly, Billy, Yeah, it's interesting. Um, Again, I was lucky as a kid. There were comments, and there were bullies and things, but it never got too extreme, and for some reason I was always able to shake it off. Again, probably had a lot to do with my parents, I was going to say, yeah, and also the culture I was exposed to at the time, and the fact that

I grew up in New York City. So even though forest Tails not exactly excuse me, Queens is a borrow New York City, all right, Um, but my but my parents would take me into the city as we called it all the time, and we would go into Manhattan and and you know, I think that that exposed me to so much that I could shake off, you know, the bully at my local school, because I knew there

was a much bigger world out there for me. Um. However, interestingly enough, it's when I got into that bigger world, specifically Hollywood and the entertainment industry in my twenties, as I started to develop a fan base and TV execs were coming to see my live comedy show in New York, and that's where the Billy on the Street videos started as part of that show, and and I was getting

a lot of attention. But that's also the place where I really experienced homophobia for the first time in my life. It was professionally, you know, it wasn't physical, you know, one was beating me up physically, But there were the things that people said, overt things, more subtle things. There was a TV executive when we first sold Billy on the Street at the first cable network it was on,

which was a very obscure network. But um, I wrote this silly little Billy on the Street jingle for it, and to this day, like the fans sing the song and it's like, you know, it's a silly little thing, but it started with a whistle that I guess kind of sounded a little disco ee. And the executive said to me, you know that can't be your theme song. This isn't logo and logo being the gay network, and and and but I mean little things like that. It was just so annoying to have to fight those battles.

But then bigger things where I had a manager in two thousand six, very successful manager, UM, a straight woman in New York City who had a lot of Broadway clients, you know, a very which is obviously as a you know, as a ton of LGBT p Q folks in that community. And and she said to me, and I'm she considered herself a very gay friendly person and an ally and an advocate, but she wanted me to be able to

really break through in a mainstream way. And she said to me, can you make your show a little less gay this month, because I'm bringing agents from William Morris, you know. And I had there was an executive at Comedy Central back then. Back then there were two huge platforms to try to break through as a comedian on tv SNL obviously and Comedy Central. Right these are the days of The Daily Show with John Steward and on

The Colbert Show. And you know, if you got a show on Comedy Central, you could really go to the next level. And I went in and pitched a show to Comedy Central where I was going to be playing a gay man. And um, the head of Comedy Central at that time, who always claimed to be a big fan of mine, said, well, I think you're hilarious. I

think you're brilliant in his words. We obviously can't do that here, but I think you should go to Bravo and you'll have a home run, right, because Bravo being at that time the net was one of the only networks that you know, regularly had gayman on. But but they didn't do comedy, and they didn't do scripted comedy, and they didn't do anything is subversive that I you know,

I wasn't trying to do a reality show. Literally, Oh you're gay, go to the gay ghetto on Bravo and maybe they'll have you because I'm not going to right. And it was stuff like that all the time. You were able to break through, really, Billy, I mean you obviously, as you said, you had some chances and some opportunities, but nothing that kind of catapulted you into the public eye like Billy on the Street. Really, and and I think I was thinking about this. I wonder if the

media landscape hadn't changed and you weren't able to do this. Um, I guess you did it on YouTube originally, right, and then it was picked up by a streamer. But you know, do you ever wonder gosh, if there hadn't been this revolution in media, if disintermediation, going direct to consumers, without all these gate keepers and without the people you just described kind of saying, go to Bravo. If if you would have been given an opportunity, it's almost like the

market gave you the opportunity. Those executives be damned. That's exactly what happened. I I mean, look, the Internet, social media are greatest double edged sword, right so you know it'll make you, it'll break you, um, sometimes within the same week. But for me, ultimately, I would not have a career without YouTube and originally Facebook, you know which, before Instagram and Twitter and TikTok, there was Facebook, and that's where you were posting your videos and people would

share your videos. Um. Because that allowed for the democratization of entertainment. And for so many years, even fans of mine, like agents and executives who I knew, loved me and thought I was so funny, and they would come to my shows voluntarily just as fans, but they would never give me a job. And I had in their minds I was to this. I was too that, I was too gay. I was to New York. I was too smart, I was too loud, I was too edgy, all of

these I'm to this and too that, you know. And they were scared because I was new, because I was different, and I was bold and I was unapologetic. Um. And what it took was me putting my own work online. And then you know, those early Billy on the Street videos, they would get hundreds of thousands of views than millions of views. And I could look at I could look at the executives and say, look, this is this is people people like me. They like me, like me, they

really like me. And it's not just gay men in Manhattan, okay, Like these are people watching Billy on the Street clips all over the world, straight people, gay people, everyone. It's They're united not by being part of a particular demographic. They're just united by the fact that they think I'm funny. It's a shared comedic sensibility more than it is anything else. That's all that matters. Funny is funny, people want to laugh.

Comedy is subjective. Of course, Billy on the Street was never for everyone, but boy, the people that love it really really love it. And mean now, even years later, the clips are more popular on TikTok ever been before. I mean, there are clips billion the street, clips on TikTok which have millions and millions of views. I don't even post them. It's fans posting them. And there are probably there are absolutely kids watching those clips on TikTok

who were not born when I first did it. So it's just amazing that, you know, the executives, they put up so many obstacles, they were so scared of me for being different. And yet even all these years later, Billy on the Streets still and more popular than it's ever been, and still continues to be the thing that allows a movie like Bros. To happen. Did you have a favorite episode? I have a few favorites. I mean there are so many. UM. I love um singing Christmas

carols with Amy Poehler and people on the streets. So do you want to send Christmas carols to me and Amy Poehler for a dollar? For a dollar? Yes, here we go. Check the holly fall? No no no, no, yes, yes, chance the season to your be jolly. Don we now orel Let's go ahead and let it go. Let's go

don't know he didn't know. We once took Julianne Moore the Times Square and had her recreate some of her classic monologues to tourists as if she was like Spider Man, you know, like one of those guys roaming her mound Time Square. It was really funny. And then I'm not just saying this, Katie, because you're in it, but I

promise you I say this to people all the time. Um. It wasn't a typical billy on the Street segment, but when we did my version of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, but very billy on the street version of it, and you were so gracious to come and be my co host the way you co hosted on TV all those years, the real parade, Like all of the balloons she'll see in the parade today, the Rooney Mara balloon stands at a whoppi six ft tall. That's right, Katie. And you

know Todd Haynes directed the film Carol. He also directed the first film I ever saw gay sex in, and that was called Poison Happy Turkey Day, Rooney Mara. It is perfect. It is so funny your delivery, and that really is I'm not just saying it really is one of my favorite ones. But I love doing it. And I also happened to look really cute that day, So I like watching the clips. What I had a little jaunty, little driving cap on. When we come back, Billy teaches

me a thing or two about gay sex. Yeah, that's right up to this. I want to get back to the film because it's such an important film. It's for so many reasons. It's such a big film for you, and it's a very real and in some ways, um, you know, very honest portrayal of gay relationships, including gay sex. Yeah. I mean, look, sex is part of it. You know, it's part of dating. You know. I think straight people understand this too. And and look, it's also first and

foremost all the historic stuff aside. You know, we wanted to make an explosively funny movie, the way that Judd Apatow has always made movies. You know, they have these big explosive scenes of great physical comedy, you know in Bridesmaids when they go to the wedding shop, No, no, look a way out, look away. I love those, like big loud, funny scenes, you know, and Apatow movies are

known for that. The forty year Old Virgin when he's getting his chest wax and right, and forgetting Sarah Marshall that classic opening scene, UM where Jason Siegel is totally naked and having that fight with his girlfriend. You know, it's human and it's real and it's funny, and so that's all we wanted to do, you know, And and sex gives you so much potential. It's awkward, it's sweet, it's funny, it's romantic, um, and it can be a little shocking, you know. And this is an R rated comedy,

you know, this is um, this is for adults. And I think those scenes are just honestly, they just felt funny to us, Like our focus was always on what's funny and also what's romantic and what shouldn't Why shouldn't it be in there? I mean, you know, it's it's it's part of relationships, it's part of life, and certainly is in straight comedies you know, and has been for decades, you know, like get gay people. We grow up from the second we're conscious. We're watching love stories and comedies

and romantic comedies about men and women. You know, every story is about men and women meeting and dating and falling in love, falling out of love and you know, um, and I love those stories obviously. Again, I love all those romantic comedies, but I thought there was a bit of an homage to win Herring that Sally too, when you're walking around New York and uh, our Love is Here to Stay is playing in the background. I was like, that's a little when hearing that's Sally Ish. Yeah, yeah,

we we've got our nods to those romantic comedies. I love in there when Harry met Sally and uh, there's a scene with You've Got Mail that wet. And also I should say Mark Shaman, who wrote the music for Bros. Who's the greatest he? I mean, how magical is that Mark wrote the score for When Harry Met Sally And he wrote the score for Bros. You know, and I love Mark. Yeah, Mark's amazing, And the music is so important.

Every rom com needs a great score, are in a great theme song, and we were so lucky to have Mark, and so yeah, I mean Bros. Really is a really fun mix of things that are kind of more current and fun and shocking and things you've never seen before, mixed with those timeless classic rom com elements that we all love. You know. We were really going for that balance. I woke up laughing about you so rudely calling me out of my ship. Well you deserved it, bitch, Honestly

I was impressed. You may be more emotionally unavailable than I am. Well, maybe we can be emotionally unavailable together. Maybe we can be emotionally unavailable together. Who's writing your texts? Maroon five? Funk off kidding? We can go out? Are you asking me out? I'm done for whatever? Yeah? Same? Cool? Sounds good? So tomorrow or we can do whenever? Yeah, I can do whenever and I can do whatever. I don't care what we do. Yeah, me neither. We can

do whatever and we can do it whenever. Does that work for you? Yeah, that definitely works great, whatever, whenever, cool, whatever, whenever. Gift of Michael Scott dancing. That's good office gift. This person isn't gay. How much pressure are you feeling and how are you managing it? Because you wanted to do well, This needs to attract a mainstream audience. You need to get what do you call it, butts in the seats? Tell me a little bit about how you're feeling about

that and the importance of this being successful. Of course, I want people to see it. The truth is, we really need straight people to go see it. And that's very blunt, but that's the honest truth. And and if you go, you're gonna laugh your ass off. It is a hilarious movie. It's super relatable no matter who you are. And like I said, we wanted to make a great, laugh out loud, jutt apatile comedy like Bridesmaids, like fourty year Old Virgin, like Knocked Up, like train Wreck. It

happens to be about a gay couple. It happens to have an l g b t Q cast, which is important, you know, because we should be able to tell our stories to you know, lgbt Q folks. We've been going to see movie romantic comedies about straight people forever, so why shouldn't it work in the reverse. It took us a really long time to get here, and I want everyone to go straight people, LGBTQ folks for a number of reasons. I want to entertain people and give them

a feel good movie. I want to show the industry and the world that people, especially straight people, will go out and support a movie about two funny gay guys. Um and and I also want to make sure that there are more l g b t Q films that follow this, and also that major studios straight or gay, don't stop making comedies and romantic comedies, because this is

an important genre. It's a genre we all love, and if we don't go support them, we won't get more movies like this, And really all we will get our superhero movies and action movies and horror films, and those are all great, but these are equally great and equally necessary. And you know, brokeback Mountain, right, So many of the movies we have gotten out gay men and LGBTQ folks,

their tragedies. They're sad and it's about tortured characters, and it's a period piece about how about our struggles and our challenges and how tortured and sad we are right? And yes, that is part of our history, that is part of our experience, and it's we need those movies too, But it's so for so long, all we've gotten right and all that the public has embraced, and why can't we also star in a great comedy, you know, like why why does it always have to be so tortured

and tragic? Um? And so there are many reasons. I hope people get out and support this, and I really think they'll have a great time. And a movie like Brokeback Mountain, you know, it's a masterpiece. I've seen it once, Pretty woman, I've seen fifty times. So who's to say what's more important? You know, around coms are are important too. I'm just curious from a both from a professional and

a personal standpoint. You know, how did this all imp have to this whole experience, no matter what happens at the box office. Yeah, I mean, in so many ways. I think that a lot of times in life are biggest learning experiences come from things that maybe fail creatively. Um, And this is a strange one where I mean, again, we'll see what happens, um. But from early reactions and from my own reaction to it, I don't think we

failed creatively. I'm really really proud of the movie. And also it has been a huge learning experience in a very practical way. I learned how to write a movie. I learned how to navigate a pretty high level major studio experience, you know, and which would always be challenging and and and I had to do it while making an R rated gay romcom when there have not been many. Um, and so I learned a lot just in terms of

the on the business side of things. And I don't know, taking a bird's eye view look at it, regardless of what happens, it's I think I'd like to think of it in a way, me getting this experience and I'm so grateful that they trusted me with it. But maybe on some level it's a reward for always wanting success, but really wanting it and almost insisting upon having it on my own terms as an openly gay man in in comedy, um, which when I was starting out, there are a lot of barriers to that. As much as

I believed in myself. You have those moments because people are telling you up there's gonna be a ceiling for what you can do, you know, and Bros. Is an example just just real tangible evidence that you know what they were wrong. They were wrong. And I say that in the movie. But um, anyone out there who you know it is having that self out. We all have it. But you've got to push through. And that's what you've

always done. That's what you've always done that And and sometimes I get it right, sometimes I don't, but I have always chosen, ultimately, even with all this self doubt, to believe in myself and that talent would be enough. That if you if you don't think I'm talented, that's one thing. If you don't think I'm funny enough, that's one thing, And I can deal with that. But don't tell me I can't have what I want or make what I want because of who I sleep with or

who I'm attracted to. That's just nonsense. And you know, so I'm really proud of this movie. Well, I'm very excited for you and um and and not to sound too maternal, but I'm really proud of you, Billy, and I have been a fan of yours for a very long time, and I'm just so excited for you to get this new opportunity and for to continue to watch what you'll do next. So the oudious bros. It's terrific.

You're hilarious. And the whole cast and crew, I want to congratulate them too, because you know, I think the only way you usher and change is to put your money where your mouth is, and you certainly did this when it came to to staffing this film, and you put a lot of thought into that too, so kudos to you for that as well. Thank you, and you've always been so supportive. You're a legend, so thank you

so much. Roses in theater starting this weekend September thirty, So go get your bus in those theater seats everyone, for Billy's sake. Next Question with Katie Kurik is a production of My Heart Media and Katie Kurk Media. The executive producers Army, Katie Curic, and Courtney Litz. The supervising producer is Lauren Hansen. Associate producers Derek Clements and Adriana Fasio.

The show is edited and mixed by Eric Clements. For more information about today's episode, or to sign up for my morning newsletter wake Up Call, go to Katie correct dot com. You can also find me at Katie Correct on Instagram and all my social media channels. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the i Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.