Nick Stoller is responsible for a lot of bold romantic comedies in the last twenty years. Not only did he give us the awkward and the cringe for Forgetting Sarah Marshall (that breakup scene…), but films like The Five-Year Engagement delve into the complexities of modern dating and marriage. With the landmark film, Bros, Stoller gives us perhaps his funniest movie yet. Even though Stoller is a straight man, he knew that he needed to be a part of a story of two gay men trying to see through their own bullshit.
Romantic comedies are getting a glow up in the last few years. I did start my phone conversation with Stoller gushing about how much I loved the delayed marriage Engagement, but the director is also simply a fan of the genre. He mentioned loving classics like When Harry Met Sally… before giving a rather touching reason why he likes these types of films.
“I’ve always been such a fan. It’s really a human genre, and they are fun to watch. There is a reason why people keep watching these movies over and over again. They endure, because we, in the end, all want to fall in love. I’m fascinated by romantic comedies.”
Billy Eichner co-wrote the film with Stoller, and he has been the face of Bros since it went into development. Not only was Stoller thrilled to work with Eichner, but he knew that he wanted to build something special for him to showcase his talents. Eichner delivers a fearlessly funny performance, and he and Stoller are a dream team.
“Billy is not just a comedian. I learn so much working with him. People really need to pick his brain, because he is so smart. I couldn’t do this movie by myself–there’s no way. When I worked with Billy on Friends From College, we screened the first episode in a movie theater. Any time Billy opened his mouth, the audience exploded into laughter. He didn’t even have to do very much. I knew I had to build a comedy vehicle around him even though I didn’t know much about him. A lot of my comedies have big, personal themes, but they are nestled into a funny movie. Get Him to the Greek, for example, was about addiction while Forgetting Sarah Marshall is very personal to Jason Segal. This is Billy’s story. There are four billion love stories out there, and you need the right person to tell each one.”
Because Stoller respects the decision to feature an entire queer and transgender cast (the first in history, thank you very much), the director was open to learning from his cast. He admitted that when he read some of the script that he didn’t understand some things.
“The character of Aaron could’ve been a cipher. Looking at him on the page–with the conversations he has with Billy in the museum–you get a sense of his loneliness and how he doesn’t know how to take control of his own life. When Luke [MacFarlane] walked in, though, Aaron came to life. He gives the part something so special that the audience could latch onto. Not a lot of actors can do that.”
One of the best moments of the film is when Emmy-winning actress Debra Messing appears on screen as herself throughout Bros. I mean this as no exaggeration when I say that her cameos made the audience at the world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival go wild.
“Sitcom actors have a special gift that they don’t really get credit for. They really don’t. The best comedic actors who work in television make it look effortless, and we were so thrilled to have Debra on board. She was game for anything, and she wanted to deliver for us. We also didn’t realize that Debra has never dropped the f-bomb in a movie. We were starstruck.”
Bros opens in theaters on September 30.