It’s long been a scourge of the LGBTQ+ community that for decades, straight actors have played a good deal of the queer roles offered in Hollywood. It’s the opposite of representation — and borders on erasure. While the entertainment industry wants to use queer narratives for nuance, it has been a hard won battle to let that demographic actually lend their talents to telling their own stories. It only adds insult to injury that many straight actors often receive major accolades and awards buzz for “playing gay.” (See: Jared Leto and Matthew McConaughey in Dallas Buyers Club, Eddie Redmayne in The Danish Girl, and Cate Blanchett in Carol, just to name a few). But this week, Billy Eichner shattered that stale trope at CinemaCon in Las Vegas. On Wednesday, he announced his new project with Universal, Bros, which is the first major studio film to feature an entirely LGBTQ+ cast.
