Billy Eichner does damage control after accidentally pissing off Gay Twitter™
Billy Eichner has apologized after a recent interview snippet about his upcoming romantic comedy, Bros, rubbed some gay readers the wrong way.Bros undoubtedly marks a big Hollywood moment.
As Eichner said at the VMAs last weekend, it’s the “first gay rom-com ever made by a major studio” and “the first where every role is played by an openly LGBTQ actor.” It’s also notable that the film is getting a theatrical release — an impressive feat for any film in the post-pandemic Hollywood landscape, let alone an explicitly gay one.Eichner reflected on his big moment in a recent interview with Variety, saying, “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.”Related: Billy Eichner calls out “homophobe” Clarence Thomas in fiery, full-volume VMAs speech“And this is not an indie movie,” he continued. “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.’”A portion of the quote was subsequently shared by Variety on Twitter, where many interpreted it as a dig at popular queer streaming titles like Fire Island, Heartstopper or The Half of It — all deserving of the praise they receive.Variety ultimately deleted the tweet, but not before comments like this started popping up:I like Billy Eichner and I *love* romcoms—especially the gay ones!—but wow, way to make yourself and your film sound really shitty https://t.co/NOcNA7Kk2O— Philip J.
