‘Bros’ Sex Scene Used a ‘$30,000 Butt Rig’ to Simulate Rimming, Then Cut It Out of the Film: ‘White Lotus Beat Us to the Punch’

Zack Sharf
·2 min read
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Billy Eichner’s “Bros” nearly featured a “$30,000 butt rig,” director Nicholas Stoller recently confirmed to Entertainment Weekly. The device, first teased by cast member Luke Macfarlane as a “very expensive prop,” was used to simulate rimming during one of the film’s sex scenes. However, the butt rig was left on the cutting room floor.

“We were going to shoot a rim job moment, but then ‘The White Lotus’ beat us to the punch, so we cut that,” Eichner added, referring to the viral sex scene in the Emmy-winning HBO series.

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The “$30,000 butt rig” was used during an extended sex scene between Aaron (Macfarlane) and Bobby (Eichner) in which the characters passionately embrace each other’s sexual quirks. Macfarlane said “two puppeteers” operated the butt rig off camera.

Despite no rimming, the “Bros” sex scenes are still shockingly funny and celebratory of same-sex passion.

“Sex can be funny, awkward, silly, and absurd, but also romantic and sweet, but it also serves the story, because the sex that these guys have, it evolves over the course of the movie as their relationship becomes more intimate and vulnerable,” Eichner said. “Both of these guys are trying so hard to be strong at the beginning of the movie, and I say at the end the movie that I’m sick of being angry and I’m sick of being strong, and we watch that story unfold — sex is part of that.”

Eichner recalled talking to a straight moviegoer at a Chicago test screening for the movie before its release. “I asked him, ‘What’d you think of the sex scenes between me and Luke?’ They’re mostly played for physical comedy, and he said, ‘It kind of reminded me of ‘Jackass.’ It made me uncomfortable, but it was so hilarious. I didn’t care, it was just funny.’ I thought that was heartwarming and endearing….if it’s funny, they embrace it.”

“Bros” is now playing in theaters nationwide.

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