Movies Bros cast reveal painful experiences on Hollywood sets: 'I was asked to play into a stereotype' Luke Macfarlane shares that a director once asked him to "be more flamboyant," while a fellow cast member on a prior project told Miss Lawrence she was "just too much for TV." By Joey Nolfi Joey Nolfi Entertainment Weekly's Oscars expert, 'RuPaul's Drag Race' beat reporter, host of 'Quick Drag' Twitter Spaces, and cohost of 'EW's BINGE' podcast. Almost all of the drag content on this site is my fault (you're welcome). EW's editorial guidelines Published on September 30, 2022 02:00PM EDT Billy Eichner's Bros marks one of the first times a major movie studio has funded a theatrical rom-com about two gay men falling in love — but, as the predominantly LGBTQIA+ cast of the new film exclusively tells EW, the road was paved with painful experiences on many sets throughout their careers. In the film, Luke Macfarlane (until now best known for Hallmark holiday romances) plays Aaron, the hunky lawyer who falls for Eichner's career-driven Bobby. But before he attained leading love-interest status in Universal's Bros, he says a director once asked him to create a clichéd portrayal of a gay man for a TV project. "I won't name it by name, but I was [playing] a ballet teacher, and he ended up murdering a girl, but because they wanted me to be the decoy…. the director asked me [to] 'maybe be more flamboyant,' so I was asked to play into a stereotype of a gay person, because we wouldn't think the gay person would end up raping and murdering the ballet student," Macfarlane explains. "But he did!" Luke Macfarlane and Billy Eichner talk past LGBTQIA+ exploitation in EW's 'Bros' Around the Table. EW Miss Lawrence, who appears in Bros as one of the members on the board of Bobby's planned LGBTQ History Museum, points to micro-aggressive moments she's experienced in Hollywood that not only cut deep on a personal level, but also interfered with her concentration during production. "I worked on a project, and I remember the first day of taping, after the first scene, someone came up to me, like, 'I'm watching the monitor and you are just killing it, and to think, when they told me your part, I was like, 'Yeah right, no way, never!' And I'm like, what? You're telling me this?" she says, later remembering another instance that saw a fellow actor calling her "just too much for TV." "I wanted to wear her out, I wanted to fight her," Lawrence continues. "But I knew it was going to be on the queen, they were going to blame the queen, so, I had to sit there and hold my composure." Ts Madison, a viral digital creator and actress who's appeared on several episodes of her longtime friend and collaborator RuPaul's Emmy-winning reality competition show RuPaul's Drag Race, says that, while Ru had a significant hand in bringing her into his Hollywood circle of projects, a crew member working on the production of the 2016 game show Gay for Play shaded her during a commercial break, unbeknownst to others on the program. (EW clarified with Madison that it was not a member of the World of Wonder production staff that said this to her.) "In my mind, I had to say, Madison, tear this place up a different way, smile, do your job, and don't let Ru down," she says. "But I was ready to tear that place up [like], this doesn't have anything to do with you, Ru wanted me here." Bros — which the cast agrees was one of the most welcoming and collaborative sets they've worked on — is now playing in theaters nationwide. Watch EW's full Around the Table interview above. Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more. Related content: Bros cast just wants you to laugh — even if their queer sex scenes remind you of Jackass Billy Eichner brought Elena from Billy on the Street as his date to the Bros premiere Billy Eichner, Paul Rudd revive Billy on the Street for Bros: 'I'm sorry I'm not Florence Pugh!' Renée Zellweger 'loved the joke' of Billy Eichner naming a fake gay app after her in Bros Billy Eichner got emotional filming Bros gay rom-com scenes 'the way Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan' did Billy Eichner 'actively pursued' Symone for her Bros role after seeing her talents on RuPaul's Drag Race Billy Eichner's LGBTQ+ cast shatters rom-com history in Bros trailer: 'Love is love… that is bulls---!'