Judd Apatow's Gay Romantic Comedy Casts A Love Interest For Billy Eichner

“Bros,” the hotly anticipated romantic comedy starring Billy Eichner , has cast the other half of its central couple. 

On Wednesday, Deadline reported that Luke Macfarlane had signed on to star opposite Eichner in the movie, which is being billed as the first gay rom-com to be released by a major studio. 

“Bros” will be directed by Nicholas Stoller, who also co-wrote the script with Eichner, and produced by Judd Apatow. According to press notes , the movie will “center around two men who have commitment problems and are attempting a relationship.”

Filming on “Bros” was originally slated to take place in upstate New York in April 2020, but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

MacFarlane is best known for playing Scotty Wandell on the ABC series “Brothers & Sisters .” In 2017 he appeared in the horror film “Rock, Paper, Scissors,” and has recently starred in a series of Hallmark Christmas movies, including last year’s “Chateau Christmas .” 

The actor, who was born in Canada, came out as gay in a 2008 interview with The Globe and Mail.

“I don’t know what will happen professionally, but I guess I can’t really be concerned about what will happen, because it’s my truth,” Macfarlane said at the time . “There is this desire in L.A. to wonder who you are, and what’s been blaring for me for the last three years is how can I be most authentic to myself so this is the first time I am speaking about it in this way.”

Speaking to Deadline last year, Eichner expressed his interest in elevating LGBTQ narratives in his future projects, and casting queer actors in those roles. 

“We have the lived-in experience to bring the intellectual nuance of it to the screen,” said the actor, who is gay. “I think we need to stop undervaluing that, the feeling that if a gay person plays a gay person it’s not acting, but if a straight person plays a gay person, we give them an Oscar.”