Three times white celebrities mistakenly believed they were groundbreaking "firsts"
This past weekend saw the wide release of Bros, the new romantic comedy from writer-star Billy Eichner. (Watch the trailer here.) The film was billed as the “first gay rom-com with a mostly LGBTQ cast released by a major studio” (that’s a lot of qualifiers), and whose reception would have a major impact on all future queer projects produced (or not produced) by Hollywood. Unfortunately, the film bombed over the weekend, making just under $5 million domestically. (The film’s reported budget was $22 million.) Eichner did not take this well, tweeting over the weekend that straight people “just didn’t show up for Bros.” Despite glowing reviews (90% on Rotten Tomatoes) and an “A” Cinemascore (which means people who did watch the film loved it), people just didn’t show up—and not just straight people, no one showed up. My experience was different, however. I saw the film over the weekend and thought it was pretty good, that it’s one of the funniest films of the year, and my theater was fully packed (though my auditorium was mid-sized, around 100 seats). While we can never know for sure why some films bomb despite seemingly doing everything right, we can guess a few reasons why Bros didn’t pull in audiences:
Its stars are not well known! Besides people who are too online, no one knows who Billy Eichner is. Some might recognize him from viral videos of his online series Billy on the Street, or his minor role in NBC’s Parks and Recreation. But neither he nor his co-star Luke Macfarlane are box office draws. And it feels like people who are aware of Eichner either love his brand of comedy or find him grating. (His “schtick” is basically being loud and obnoxious and, hey, it works sometimes!)
Despite being over-marketed, the marketing strategy for Bros probably wasn’t right. “Bros” is a generic title, and its main poster doesn’t really tell you what it’s about. The film’s media campaign has solely focused on how “important” the film is (for allegedly being the first rom-com starring queer actors released by a major studio) instead of focusing on how funny it is (and it’s really funny). Just take a look at this TV spot. It’s so bland and doesn’t sell the comedy aspect.
Probably the biggest factor is that rom-coms just haven’t been big hits lately. Most of them are on streaming now. I can’t think of any major rom-com that’s been successful since… Crazy Rich Asians back in 2018 (which was adapted from a popular novel, whereas Bros is an original story). For Bros, an original film with no star power, no narrative hook, it always seemed destined to fail.
Anyway, this leads me to the main topic of today’s newsletter: white people, specifically white famous people, wrongly taking credit for being the “first” anything. This came to mind because of an incident involving Eichner, a cis white gay man, when he was promoting Bros, which we’ll get to shortly.
Sam Smith
At the 88th Academy Awards, white singer-songwriter Sam Smith won the Oscar for Best Original Song for their song “Writing’s On The Wall” from Spectre. During their acceptance speech, Smith implied they were the first openly gay man to win an Oscar. “I read an article a few months ago by Sir Ian McKellen and he said that no openly gay man had ever won an Oscar, and if this is the case, even if it isn’t the case, I want to dedicate this to the LGBT community all around the world,” Smith said. “I stand here tonight as a proud gay man, and I hope we can all stand together as equals one day.” People were quick to correct him, pointing out that McKellen was talking about actors, and that there have been several openly gay Oscar winners before Smith, including Elton John, who won Best Original Song for composing “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” from The Lion King; Dustin Lance Black, who won Best Original Screenplay for writing Milk; Howard Ashman, who won Best Original Song twice for writing “Under the Sea” from The Little Mermaid and “Beauty and the Beast”; and Scott Rudin, for producing Best Picture winner No Country for Old Men. Black later tweeted, in response to Smith’s mistake, “Knowing our LGBTQ history is important. We stand on the shoulders of countless brave men and women who paved the way for us.”
Rebel Wilson
In 2018, in an interview with Ellen DeGeneres promoting her new film Isn’t It Romantic, white actor Rebel Wilson said “I’m kind of proud to be the first ever plus-size girl to be the star of a romantic comedy.” When people pointed out that Wilson wasn’t the first plus-sized woman to lead a rom-com, such as Black actors Queen Latifah and Mo’Nique, Wilson defended herself by tweeting, “Hey girl! Yeah I of course know of these movies but it was questionable as to whether: 1. Technically those actresses were plus size when filming those movies or 2. Technically those films are categorized/billed as a studio rom-com with a sole lead. So there’s a slight grey area.” Mo’Nique then tweeted at Wilson, “Hey my sweet sister. Let’s please not allow this business to erase our talent with giving grey areas and technicalities. Take a moment and know the history. DON’T BE A PART OF ERASING IT. I wish you the best.” A couple days later, Wilson tweeted, “In a couple of well-intentioned moments, hoping to lift my fellow plus sized women up, I neglected to show the proper respect to those who climbed this mountain before me like Mo’Nique, Queen Latifah, Melissa McCarthy, Ricki Lake and likely many others.”
Billy Eichner
This last example, featuring Eichner, is slightly different compared to Smith and Wilson. During his press tour promoting the film, including at the MTV Video Music Awards, Eichner proclaimed, “Bros is making history as the first gay rom-com ever made by a major studio, and the first where every role is played by an openly LGBTQ actor.” This seemed like a slap in the face to other prominent gay films that came before Bros, including this year’s Hulu film Fire Island, written by and starring Eichner’s former employee Joel Kim Booster. Fire Island, despite debuting on streaming, was distributed by Searchlight Pictures, which was known as Fox Searchlight before Disney bought 21st Century Fox. Fire Island also stars an all-queer cast and, more importantly, stars an Asian American actor. Technically, Bros is a milestone by being the first gay rom-com with an all queer cast released theatrically by a major studio. But in his persistence in promoting this fact, Eichner has also downplayed the importance of queer cinema that came before Bros. In his interview with Variety, Eichner said, “[Bros] 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.’” His comments appeared to downplay films like Fire Island, which many people took issue with. As journalist and cultural critic Gerrick Kennedy rightly noted, “let’s not shit on indies (or streaming) because for so many of us, it’s the only representation we’ve had, and continue to have. Bros stars two white men with POCs relegated to the sides… so let’s not.” Eichner later apologized on Twitter, saying, “I was not at ALL referring to the quality or monumental impact of streaming films, I was referring to the way that, historically, LGBTQ+ content has often been considered niche and disregarded by Hollywood.” He ended his statement with, “And from the bottom of my heart I truly am so sorry if I inadvertently offended or insulted anyone. I really am. Thank you.”
I don’t “hate” Sam Smith, Rebel Wilson, or Billy Eichner for their lapse in judgement and irresponsible comments. And I’m a fan of some of their work. But it does bother me how easily white cis people can topple over the work of people of color (as they’ve continued to do so throughout history), even if they themselves are marginalized in other ways. And it’s not lost on me how people of color have to navigate controversies like this so delicately, like when Mo’Nique respectfully corrected Wilson. Or when Joel Kim Booster downplayed Eichner’s comments by saying, “It seems like [Eichner] was pretty inarticulate in his excitement about his movie getting a theatrical release, which is really fucking cool and something I’m sure the studio and his publicist is making him constantly talk about. God knows I’ve said plenty of dumb shit without a publicist’s help.” Booster said he was “excited to see Bros on the big screen and wish Billy nothing but the best.” Meanwhile, after Sam Smith’s mistake, screenwriter Dustin Lance Black snarkily tweeted at Smith, “if you have no idea who I am, it may be time to stop texting my fiancé.” (Black’s fiancé and now husband is Olympic gold medallist Tom Daley.) Notice the difference in tone from Mo’Niqe or Booster, who are Black and Korean, respectively, versus Black, a cis white (albeit gay) man.