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