Billy Eichner’s upcoming rom-com Bros is pretty gay. Like, all actors in the movie, even the ones playing straight characters, are queer — except Debra Messing, who plays herself. As Variety notes in its recent Eichner profile, Bros makes him the “first openly gay man to both co-write and star in a major studio film.” So without precedence, where did he look for inspiration? Duh: Holly Hunter. “There’s no character in modern films I relate to more than Holly Hunter’s, because she’s so damn smart, she has all her shit together, and no one is better at her job,” Eichner told Variety of Hunter’s performance in Broadcast News. “And yet, she falls for the handsome idiot. And that’s human, especially if you’re a person who doesn’t connect romantically to a lot of people. When it does happen, it can really mess you up.” In Broadcast News, Hunter plays Jane Craig, an extremely talented news producer who falls in love with her dumber but charismatic on-air talent, and in Bros, Billy plays a podcaster who cares deeply about LGBTQ+ history and dates a boring masc guy. In both, a person confident mostly in their intellect dates a hot person they would normally consider below them. See, gay people and straight people can both be condescending. Progress! Now we’re imagining Holly Hunter in Eichner’s sheer, nipple-forward shirt from his MTV VMAs outfit. Ms. Hunter, if you’re reading this, it slays.
