Joel Kim Booster shuts down Billy Eichner talking ‘dumb s**t’ over LGBTQ+ films
Joel Kim-Booster (L) at the premiere of Fire Island (Arturo Holmes/WireImage), Billy Eichner (R) at the 2022 MTV Movie & TV Awards (Gregg DeGuire/FilmMagic)
Fire Island star Joel Kim Booster has responded to Billy Eichner’s comments in Variety, in which Eichner appeared to insult LGBTQ+ films released for streaming, ahead of the cinematic premiere of romantic comedy Bros.
Kim Booster, who also wrote Fire Island, which premiered exclusively on streaming service Hulu, took to Twitter to call Eichner out. Kim Booster said: “He seemed pretty inarticulate in his excitement about his film getting a theatrical release.”
Speaking to Variety, Eichner spoke about the roll-out of his upcoming film Bros: “And this is not an indie movie. This is not some streaming thing which feels disposable, or which is like one of a million Netflix shows.”
Billy Eichner said his comments were about how ‘LGBT+ content has been disregarded by Hollywood’. (Dia Dipasupil/Getty)
Addressing the streaming vs cinematic releases, comedian and actor Booster wrote: “I’m so proud of my movie and all the people who helped make it happen and am so grateful it was accessible to so many people on streaming, and don’t see it as any less valuable because of that.”
Kim Booster named Eichner directly in his tweet, adding: “God knows I’ve said plenty of dumb s**t without a publicist’s help”.
He continued: “I truly hope you can enjoy both or neither of our movies without pitting them against each other (even though that is obviously a very fun thing to do and basically what gay Twitter was created for).”
He added that he has spoken directly to Eichner and the two are “cool”.
Fire Island is a coming-of-age/romantic comedy adaptation of Pride and Prejudice that takes place on the gay hot spot of the same name just off the south coast of Long Island. It’s received a 94 per cent rating on ranking site Rotten Tomatoes.
Joel Kim Booster in Fire Island. (Searchlight Pictures)
Eichner, known for his Billy on the Street comedy show, also took to Twitter after the interview was published to explain his comments. He said: “I was referring to the way that, historically, LGBT+ content has been disregarded by Hollywood.”
I want to clarify what I said about streaming content in Variety. 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.
— billy eichner (@billyeichner) August 31, 2022
In the thread, he clarified that he is, “very proud Bros is one of many projects – theatrical, streaming, online, etc – where so many of us are finally getting to tell our own LGBTQ+ stories”.
The actor and co-producer of Bros also replied to Kim Booster’s tweet directly with an apology. He said: “You inspire me to better and wiser and bolder in my work.”
Bros is premiering at the Toronto Film Festival ahead of its cinematic release on 30 September.
