‘Bros’ Director Nicholas Stoller Talks Honesty And The Rom-Com’s Secret Weapon

Hit comedies are becoming fewer and farther between at the box office, but Bros looks set to change that. It’s co-written by Billy Eichner, the film’s lead, and director Nicholas Stoller, the man behind Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Get Him to the Greek, and the two Neighbors movies.

Bros is a romantic comedy about two men, Eichner’s Bobby and Luke Mcfarlane’s Aaron, who both have commitment issues but take a stab at having a relationship. Aside from receiving rave reviews, it’s making headlines for being a major studio movie with two gay lead characters and its LGBTQ+ principal cast.

I caught up with Stoller to talk about how he, as a straight man, came to helm the project, what he learned, and why straight audiences are lapping up Bros.

Simon Thompson: I saw Bros a few weeks and was surprised how differently it presents its gay characters compared to other movies and TV shows.

Nicholas Stoller: I can’t help but direct my tone, which is pretty grounded, I think. I’ve been intrigued by the idea of a romantic comedy about two gay men but I couldn’t write that myself because I’m straight. I worked with Billy Eichner on a few different projects and realized he’s a proper comedy movie star and deserves a vehicle to be built around him like Jason Segel or Russell Brand did. I approached him about writing this, and, from the beginning, we were like, ‘This is a real love story between you and another guy. It’s going to be funny, but it’s not going to be what we’ve seen a million times, just by its very nature. If we’re going to be honest to one person’s experience, it’s just going to be a very specific thing.’ Fortunately, Billy and I agreed on the kind of comedy we wanted, and tonally it’s the same as all my movies, which are just two people trying to figure each other out while being jerks to each other.

Thompson: There is a world within the industry where people are rightfully protective of these stories. Billy is gay, and you are not, so how did you build that trust and understanding?

Stoller: I worked with Billy on Neighbors 2, he had a scene, and he was very funny; then I cast him in Friends From College, the show my wife and I created, and I realized he was a very good actor. He had some dramatic scenes, and he was really good. We screened the first episode of that show in a movie theater, and every time he was on screen, the audience exploded. I’ve had this experience, but it doesn’t happen that often. I was like, ‘This guy deserves a movie.’ I wasn’t even thinking, ‘Oh, he’s gay, so I want to do this with him.’ He deserves a comedy to be built around him because the audience finds even a look from him the funniest thing in the world. I approached it more like that: building a comedy vehicle around someone who deserves to be a movie star. I did with Jason with Sarah Marshall and Neighbors with Zac Efron because no one had seen him do comedy before. Everyone’s story is unique to them, regardless of sexuality. Get Him to the Greek starred Russell Brand, and that movie is about addiction. I’m not a former addict, so I interviewed Russell for hours, ensuring the story was honest to his experience. I feel like it’s the same with everything I’ve done.

Thompson: The principal cast are all LGBTQ+.

Stoller: We obviously had to cast a gay actor to play his love interest. We also always had this joke about the treasure inside, the Oscar-bait gay movie, which I thought was maybe an almost dated idea at the time. I come at this from a comedy place first, and I was like, ‘This joke won’t work if there are straight actors in the movie. It just won’t work.’ Billy agreed. If they’re making this commentary and Aaron is played by a straight guy, this joke doesn’t work. Honestly, if any of the actors in the movie are straight, this joke doesn’t work so we were like, ‘Let’s make it an entirely LGBTQ+ cast.’ The secret weapon of any comedy is new talent. If you think about Melissa McCarthy in Bridesmaids or Zach Galifianakis in The Hangover, we will discover people if we go down that road. Mostly, they’ve been in stuff, but I knew that if we forced ourselves to do this, we would find super funny people. Audiences are excited when you see someone for the first time and you’re like, ‘That person is hilarious.’ I knew that the exercise would lead to a funnier movie, and then, in addition, it’s a good thing for the world, and it’s a good thing for the film.

Thompson: There is a scene in the movie where Billy’s character is recalling being asked to make a rom-com about a gay couple that straight people might enjoy. Was that based on a real-life experience?

Stoller: The reason I work with Universal over and over again is that they are completely trustworthy. They know that when I bring something to them, it needs to be honest for it to be funny. They’re more focused on asking questions like, ‘Is the ending satisfying? Does the arc of the character make sense? Do you understand what the character is going through?’ It’s more that than saying things like, ‘Oh, you’ve gone too far in the sex scene,’ or whatever. With us having made a lot of movies with them, they get that you can’t micromanage the comedy. That will happen if your story is honest and surprising. Things like what we put in the movie are something that Billy has had to live with for a long time.

Thompson: Bros is a movie that’s being advertised in a really big way by the studio, and largely not using the faces of the cast but the film’s message. What kind of conversations have you had about the marketing?

Stoller: They’re very collaborative. We saw a million poster concepts, Billy and Judd, and I went through all of them, and that one just felt iconic. I love all my movie posters, but that might be the best one. It’s so striking and so eye-catching. The movie is very funny, and there is one that features Billy and Luke looking cute together. That makes it feel softer, so we wanted to ensure that it was telegraphed through the main image. There are international posters that feature the whole cast and Luke and Billy, but that primary image, I was like, ‘This is just awesome. This is one of those posters where I’m so proud to be part of the movie.’

Thompson: On the subject of iconic things, the foursome scene in Bros is destined for classic status. It is so funny. Did you get that feeling when you were shooting it?

Stoller: We found this guy, Brock Ciarlelli, a hilarious actor who plays a character called Steve who puts himself into this situation. The scene felt like a funny idea to help the story move to the next stage. We worked on this movie for so many years that by the time we were shooting it, a lot of it was almost etched in stone. That was one of the few scenes where we had this guy, Brock, and we knew we wanted this thing where he’s inserting himself into what’s going on, but we just didn’t have that much time to shoot it. We almost shot it on the fly and found a bunch of stuff in the moment, and it ended up being one of those magical moments. We were like, ‘Oh my God, this is super funny.’

Thompson: Many people who watch Bros will learn things if they’re unfamiliar with gay culture and the lifestyle. What did you learn?

Stoller: One of the reasons I make movies is to work with people and have my mind expanded in some way and to be able to become empathetic to different people and experience different experiences. The main thing I learned, and this was very early on, is that there’s this misconception that when two gay men are together, it’s like two women are together. This is painting with a broad brush, but Billy was like, ‘You’re gay because you like men and masculinity. That’s wired in there.’ Of course, every kind of person is in every community, but that’s broadly speaking. He was like, ‘Imagine the insecurities and vulnerability of two men trying to get together because that’s what makes gay relationships funny.’ Men and women are always trying to figure each other out, but with two men, they have this masculinity; you don’t want to show your vulnerabilities or insecurities, and then you have someone who’s literally doing all that back to you. That was the kind of eye-opening thing that he said, and that was in one of our first meetings when he told me this concept of Bros.

Thompson: Was Bros always going to be the title?

Stoller: That was always the title. Usually, the title is tough to figure out. From our very first meeting, where I approached him and asked if he wanted to make a movie with me, he had this concept, and he was like, ‘It’s called Bros,’ and I was like, ‘That’s the funniest title, and I think we’re going to trick people accidentally.’ I’ve heard from the research teams that many people go to the movie theater and don’t know what movie they will see. They just buy tickets. So, many people will be like, ‘Oh, Bros from Judd Apatow and Nick Stoller. Okay.’ They’ll go in not knowing what it is, and hopefully, they’ll enjoy it. It’s also pretty funny.

Bros lands in theaters on Friday, September 30, 2022.