They took him to seeBarbra Streisand,Tina TurnerandMadonnain concert. They brought him to the theater. And they even let him have a Broadway-meets-pop stars bar mitzvah. “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 says in the new issue of PEOPLE.
“Their support meant everything, really. And I think it’s carried me through to this day,” he says. “They always made me feel like there’s no reason what I wanted shouldn’t happen.”
“It’s such a big deal for me,” says Eichner, who broke out on the 2011-17 unscripted seriesBilly on the Street. “It’s a big deal for LGBTQ folks in Hollywood, for viewers and also for straight [people], who still make up the majority of the audience.”
The 44-year-old actor’s career has slowly but steadily been on the rise, thanks to roles onParks & Recreationand his own biting Hulu comedyDifficult People.ButBrostakes his stardom to a whole new level.
Eichner plays a high-strung museum director who falls for a hot-but-relationship-averse lawyer (Hallmark movie staple Luke Macfarlane) in the film, which skewers the well-worn tropes of romantic comedies likeYou’ve Got Mailwhile also following those same tropes with a big knowing wink to the audience.
Ari + Louise
Add in the envelope-pushing humor of director and cowriter Nick Stoller (Forgetting Sarah Marshall) and producer Judd Apatow (Bridesmaids) along with send-ups of gay culture, and the result is a unique comedy with wide appeal.
Brosis also groundbreaking in that Eichner cast " an incredibly funny, delightful, endearing" group of actors from the LGBTQ+ community to play all the roles. “Even the straight characters,” Eichner notes.
“It’s a cliche to say it’s surreal, but it really does feel surreal,” Eichner says of gettingBrosmade. “When [the studio] greenlit the movie, I couldn’t believe it. But then I thought, ‘Oh, they’re never actually going to make it.’ Then they decided to make it. Then we were walking around Manhattan shooting a romantic comedy like all those romantic comedies I grew up loving.”
Brosis in theaters nationwide Sept. 30.
For more on Billy Eichner, pick up the new issue of PEOPLE, on stands now.
source: people.com
