"I'm never gog to do half-hour episos of 'Billy on the Street' aga," says Eichner, whose gay rom- 'Bros' is due September.
Contents:
- BILLY PORTER IS FIRST OPENLY GAY BLACK MAN TO W EMMY FOR LEAD ACTOR IN A DRAMA
- BILLY CRYSTAL PORTRAYED FIRST OPENLY GAY MA CHARACTER ON TV — SI THE 'SOAP' STORY
- BILLY PORTER: ‘I'VE LIVED AS A BLACK GAY MAN FOR 50 YEARS AMERI. NOTHG SHOCKS ME'
- FRANK WILLIAM “BILLY” GAY III’S NET WORTH, RHOSLC HEATHER’S EX-HBAND
- ‘ALL THE FAY’: INSI THE EARLY EPISO THAT CHALLENGED ARCHIE BUNKER’S VIEW OF GAY PEOPLE
BILLY PORTER IS FIRST OPENLY GAY BLACK MAN TO W EMMY FOR LEAD ACTOR IN A DRAMA
* billy the gay guy *
” The w ma him the first openly gay black man to receive the honor the tegory. "I'm never gog to do half-hour episos of Billy on the Street aga, " says Eichner, who also reveals plans for his next project: a gay-divorce edy.
BILLY CRYSTAL PORTRAYED FIRST OPENLY GAY MA CHARACTER ON TV — SI THE 'SOAP' STORY
Back 1977, actor and edian Billy Crystal stunned dienc when he portrayed the first openly ga ma character a TV seri, "Soap." and opened the way for gay ins like Ellen DeGener * billy the gay guy *
“I never thought a major stud would do an thentilly gay film, ” says Billy Eichner, “and treat the same way they would treat Brismaids or 40-Year-Old Virg or Fettg Sarah Marshall. ” Eichner is the star of Bros, the groundbreakg, hilar gay rom- he also -wrote, which — fyg his ial doubts — is due theaters Sept. “You don’t s there as a kid thkg, ‘Oh, I uld be the star of this movie, if only I wasn’t gay, '” he says.
Bobby’s openg rant, excerpted the movie’s first trailer, is a brilliantly meta attack on the ia of makg a gay movie that’d make straight guys fortable. For me, and a lot of my iends, when we watch some of those shows, although there are gay characters, we don’t regnize those people. There’s an archns to so many of the gay male characters we get.
I’m my forti, and I look around at movi general — about straight people, about gay people, pecially edi — and say, “Where are the adults? Bee y, we’re gay.
BILLY PORTER: ‘I'VE LIVED AS A BLACK GAY MAN FOR 50 YEARS AMERI. NOTHG SHOCKS ME'
Billy Crystal embraced gay 'Soap' character on-screen and off. * billy the gay guy *
Nick Stoller is a straight guy; you said that he tght you how to wre a movie and you tght him about gay culture. Whereas gay men make up our own l, we create our own fai.
As much as I love those movi, for gay people, pecially gay men, they never applied and they certaly don’t apply now. I wrote all the segments, and they were very topil — they took on polics and pop culture, and I was very open about beg gay. There was a sketch that got very specific about gay sex, and straight sex, was lled “Sex Talk.
” To get onstage 2003 and talk explicly about gay sex, even New York Cy, was really phg people outsi of their fort zon. You’ve said that you never experienced homophobia until you entered the entertament bs. Can you make a ltle ls gay this month?
FRANK WILLIAM “BILLY” GAY III’S NET WORTH, RHOSLC HEATHER’S EX-HBAND
Billy Porter mak history as the first openly gay black man to w lead actor a drama Emmy for FX’s “Pose.” * billy the gay guy *
And I’m not sayg they were dyg for me to be gay, or absolutely thrilled that I was gay, but they knew who I was really early on. There’s a part Bros where a teacher qutns whether elementary-school kids are old enough to learn about gay history.
Did that end up beg more timely than you expected given what’s gog on Florida wh the “Don’t Say Gay” law? And, I thought, “What if we did a gay versn of [the 1989 Michael Douglas-Kathleen Turner film] The War of the Ros? ” Bee we see so many happy gay upl.
We get gay people fallg love and gay teenagers fallg love, and everythg is betiful and hunky-dory. Jt bee we n get married don’t mean that marriage is the answer to everythg for gay people, and that all those marriag are gonna work out.
‘ALL THE FAY’: INSI THE EARLY EPISO THAT CHALLENGED ARCHIE BUNKER’S VIEW OF GAY PEOPLE
So I thought the ia of a gay divorce would be really funny. I jt liked the ia of two gay men really beg able to go at , you know, emotnally and physilly.
You tell him somethg like, “Someday you’re gonna play gay and w an Osr, and I’m still gonna be on the street dog this sh. ] So I mean, he’ll still w an Osr for playg gay, but I’m not on the street least I get to be a movie playg gay also. " At a time when homosexualy wasn't discsed, Jodie Dallas me out as would be nearly 20 years until Ellen DeGener' character on her s "Ellen" me out 1994 -- as did the edienne -- but Crystal's portrayal of the assured and openly gay Jodie paved the Crystal onstage at the 'The Comedians' panel discsn durg the Televisn Crics Associatn prs tou r 2015 Pasana, California | Source: Getty ImagMEET JODIE DALLASJodie Dallas was one of the characters of the hilar ABC s "Soap, " a farse based on the plex and outrageo plotl and dramatic twists and turns of the ever-popular daily soap gay Jodie was a televisn mercial director his twenti livg wh his mother, Mary Campbell.
Jodie is love wh a pro footballer who is also gay, but ep the closet, and ends up turng his back on him out of fear of was only "Will & Grace" 1996 that another ma character a prime time TV program -- Eric McCormack's WIll -- is openly Crystal wh the st of "Soap" 1977 | Source: Wikimedia Commons/ ABC Televisn, Soap full st 1977, marked as public domaOut of speratn, Jodie has a one-night-stand wh a woman, and fathers a child. Crystal revealed that he and the productn of "Soap" worked to make Jodie more realistic, and his stggl reflected many of the homosexual muny's challeng and are still valid today, more than 40 years TODAYThanks to Jodie, characters s and drama seri slowly me out of the closet. In the 80s "thirtysomethg" gay uple Rsell and Peter are shown layg chastely bed together -- but never seri like "Melrose Place" and "Friends" featured mor gay characters, but was only "Will & Grace" 1996 that another ma character a prime time TV program -- Eric McCormack's WIll -- is openly COMEDYCrystal, famo for his acute w and acerbic stand-up edy act went on to build an extremely succsful reer as an actor a seri of h edi, such as "Cy Slickers" alongsi Jack Palance who won the Osr for Bt Supportg Actor for his his many hs, Crystal unts "Analyze This, " wh the legendary Robert DeNiro, "Ameri's Sweethearts, " wh Julia Roberts, John Cack, and Cathere Zeta-Jon, and MIracle Max the cult fantasy, "The Prcs Bri.