A Chat with ‘Bros’ & ‘Married… with Children’s’ Amanda Bearse
Aiming to revitalize the classic rom-com and tell an authentic LGBTQ story, Universal Pictures’ new romantic comedy Bros follows Bobby Leiber (Billy Eichner, who also co-wrote the screenplay with director Nicholas Stoller), a high-strung NYC podcaster and curator of the first museum dedicated to LGBTQ history and culture. He has prided himself on being emotionally unavailable, but soon develops undeniable feelings for Aaron Shepard (Luke Macfarlane), a hunky estate lawyer who is struggling with his own life choices.
Not only is the film revolutionary because it’s the first major studio romance between two gay men, but it features a predominately all-LGBTQ cast including Jim Rash, Dot-Marie Jones, Ts Madison, Guy Branum, Bowen Yang, Harvey Fierstein, and Amanda Bearse, who took some time to chat with OFM.
Best known for playing neighbor Marcy Rhoades D’Arcy on Fox’s raucous sitcom Married… with Children, Bearse decided to close the acting door after the series ended to pursue a career working behind the camera. That is clearly not the case anymore.
In addition to Bros and Married… with Children, Bearse talks about her return to on-camera projects and becoming the first actor on a primetime network television series to come out as gay, four years before Ellen DeGeneres did.
As Marcy Rhoades D’Arcy on Married… with Children, what will you forever be grateful for about your time on that show?
Wow. Probably my second career because they afforded me the opportunity to direct, and I directed in and around six seasons of that show. Then I went on to have almost 30 years behind the camera. That wouldn’t have happened without Married… with Children.
Do you keep in touch with your co-stars?
David Garrison and I have remained very, very good friends. I saw him while I was in New York shooting Bros, and he has a beautiful home up in the Berkshires. It was wonderful spending time with him because when I usually see him, it’s a quickie. I’ll see him in a play; we go out afterwards to have a drink, and that’s that. So, it was kind of luxurious to spend more than three hours together.
Christina Applegate and I are also still in touch, and I’ll see Ted McGinley every now and then at these signing conventions, mostly because of the horror film that I’m known for. Turns out the two things I’m most known for as an actor ended up being these cult classics things. It’s been delightful to go and talk with people about that part of my career because it was such ancient history.
Married… with Children was quite controversial in ways. Do you think a reboot could ever be done today?
There were rumors about it, and I was happy about this idea for David Faustino because it would have been a great vehicle for him. It really had nothing to do with me, and I don’t know if the storyline would either, but I think that opportunity for him would have been great. All I know is that it didn’t happen. I mean, that show was inappropriate in the 80s. It would never be made today, and personally, I found it challenging at times. It was so offensive here and there, but it was my job as an actor to make it work, and my job as a director to build the puzzle and drive the train. But listen, what an incredible opportunity it was to be a part of a show for 10 years.
Is there an episode that was your absolute favorite to film?
Part of what I loved, they would give me episodes to direct that featured Kelly, Christina Applegate, and she and I had a real simpatico. There was one where she was a waitress; she was trying to get a job, and that one was fun to do. Then there was a game show one with Chrissy.
In terms of acting, I enjoyed when Marcy would have orgasms on the air. There was a lot of fun. I was sort of this serious acting student going to New York, studying, and starting my career, but I ended up in comedy. That was the greatest thing to have happened because what a joy it is to work every day and try to make people laugh.
While working on the show in 1993, you became the first actress on primetime television to come out publicly as a lesbian. With Hollywood as closed-minded as it was back then, why did you choose to come out?
It was around the birth of my daughter. There was no social media then, so the tabloid press would take a glimmer of truth from a story and then make shit up. They danced around me as being gay here and there, and I just didn’t do anything with it. I have always lived my life out. My personal life, and everybody on the set knew, but in Hollywoodland, it wasn’t really common knowledge.
When my daughter was being born, and they knew that was happening—I adopted her at birth; they were going to run a story about that. I knew that they wouldn’t do it with the integrity and the sacredness that it deserved. So, that’s when I came out professionally, and it just felt like the right thing to do. It was the right time. It wasn’t like, oh, I’m going to make this big, brave choice. It was just the right choice.
How was your coming out different compared to Ellen DeGeneres, who came out a couple years later?
Well, my show wasn’t called Amanda! I didn’t make the cover of Time! (Laughs). No, listen, bravo to Ellen. That’s what I’ve always said, and she did have higher stakes. No doubt about it. Coming out at that time was the greatest political act a gay person could make, and I guess it still is, but we just live in a different world now. It was putting a face to our community, and fortunately, there are a lot of faces out there shining brightly. Some are still closeted, and some are still abused and tormented, but it’s still important.
That’s what I love about Billy Eichner. With Bros, he’s waving the flag. There is still a lot of prejudice happening, and it’s disdainful and scary. Now it’s time for that big, bold waving of the flag again. I came out, and then I chose to live my life. Every year of my daughter’s education, I had to come out to every teacher, so you don’t just come out once. You come out multiple times, and that was our journey.
I knew it was important to me to just live our life inclusively in the community in which we live. So, I kind of got off that activism wave because Ellen came out, and I was kind of busy growing a child and having a career as an actor and director.
What was life like for your career after you came out?
I did some work with HRC, and that is still, in a way, a large political arm and voice for the LGBTQ community. I’d make appearances and things like that, give interviews, and share my story. Then, I just had a lot of work to do. I was grateful to be able to continue my career, and when Married… with Children ended, there were not a lot of women behind the camera at the time, so I really wanted to ride the momentum of that aspect of my career.
Hollywood’s very limiting. They were like, well, if you do this, you can’t do that too, and I had been for about five years. I did close the acting door though. I didn’t test those waters as an out lesbian, not on purpose, but because I wanted to stay behind the camera. I fell in love with the expansiveness of that creativity.
What made you want to step back in front of the camera and do some more acting projects?
Well, certainly no one asked me to (laughs). I’m kidding. There was actually a little moment in my life, and it was probably one of the most wonderful career experiences I had, which was several years ago, I was given the opportunity to direct a play off-Broadway. It was an Irish play with Irish characters set in Dublin, and they were five strong females of a certain age. It was just delicious, and the whole experience was marvelous. My major childhood crush Hayley Mills was the star, and I went 8-year-old fangirl on her. The whole experience, I kept pinching myself.
What ended up happening is, the run of the show was guaranteed to a certain date; they had Hayley to a certain date, and the tickets were sold to a certain date. We had a standby, which they call understudies, and she’d gone on for three roles. When they went to check availability for a possible extension on the run, they found out she wasn’t available the last week. Then they found out that one of the actors wasn’t available the last week either. So, there was this hole in the schedule. We had already sold the tickets and we didn’t want to close early.
There was a little bit of a slow burn in my direction because I knew the show. Not the parts specifically, I didn’t learn everybody’s lines, but it was also the character in the play that I was the best fit for. When you try to step in a new actor out of the blue into a play that’s been running for months with actors who are kind of ready for it to be over, that was a lot to ask of everyone. So, they asked if I would do it, and I said yes. I had some time to prepare my Irish brogue, learn the lines, and develop the character for myself. I had one rehearsal with the cast, they day of the night I went on. It was a bit of a trial by fire and jumping in the deep end, and all those euphemisms, but it was so delightful.
I didn’t realize how much I missed it, so that seed got planted. Here I was on stage looking in the eyes of these women that I directed from outside the proscenium, and they were so supportive and loving. I did not have that experience at the end of what my acting career had been. There was a healing aspect that accompanied it, and that surprised me. It was like, oh, I did love this. This was kind of why I went into this industry in the first place. It was a hard industry for a woman in the 80s and 90s. It’s always hard, but it was especially less comfortable.
Well, we are very excited that you returned to acting, and I absolutely loved your role in Bros. How did you get involved with this film?
Fortunately, I remained very good friends with my longtime manager Billy Miller. When I told him I think I’m ready to be an actor again, he was like, great! He got me an agent, and I had to do the headshots, and I’m like, oh my God, I’m doing this again! I was being submitted to jobs and auditioning, and Bros was one of them. I’d gotten a callback, and that was with Billy and Nick Stoller. I walked away from that and heard, you’re in the running. The COVID hit, and everything went away.
I also auditioned for this other little independent film with John Heder called Tapawingo, and I play his mom. So, I had been in the running for that, and it came back first in 2021. I went to Virginia in June and arrived back on a movie set as an actor, and it was a trip because it was also a low budget feature film. I had the best time with him. He’s adorable.
After I got back to California, I received an offer for the part in Bros. Now, it didn’t escape me at the time that I was originally auditioning to play a straight mom. I’m thinking, I think this is a big ol’ gay movie; why am I auditioning for a straight mom? Whatever, I played one on TV. I then came to find out that Billy and Nick purposefully intended on casting every role in the film, straight or gay, with an LGBTQ person. So, I play Luke Macfarlane’s mom, and it was such a delight to be a part of this project.
What kind of significant impact do you think this film will make?
When I got the script and was able to read the whole story, one of the things I loved about it, and it’s very much what I know of Billy to be. He’s not somebody that I knew very well, but I know that he’s bold, brave, and unabashedly out there.
With this story, outside of gay film festivals and things like that, we have not seen anything like this. This sense of this is just who I am. There was a freedom to that and we’re recognizing there’s all types of people in our community. There are all these different types of people on display as characters and extras in this film.
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You never know how a movie is going to come out. I thought it was funny, but it’s also very message-oriented. There’s just no doubt about it. Billy and Nick wrote a very thoughtful film, and I like that resonance as well. Like I said, just looking at the political climate that we’re in, it’s a great time for Bros to come out.
Last year, you received the Trailblazer Award at Out on Film. How did it feel to receive such an honor?
That was a real surprise, and it truly was an honor. Atlanta is one of the cities I call home. My family has been in Atlanta for generations, I’ve spent a lot of time there; my daughter grew up there for a time, but I was also raised in a little town called Winter Park, Florida. I call both those places home, so for this award to come out of Atlanta was especially meaningful.
Again, a complete surprise, but it was nice to sort of put my arms around that history and the significance for myself because I’ve kind of been on the DL. Because I haven’t had an on-camera career, I haven’t been out there much in terms of self-promotion. Now that I’m putting my toes in the water again with the on-camera thing, I realized that it’s a part of what goes with that job.
So, when this came forth, it was like, oh my, that’s so sweet, and it feels very nice to be thought of. People have come up to me at conventions and things, but when people in our community began to reflect to me about what my coming out meant to them, that’s better than any other kind of acknowledgement or accolade that I could have because of my career. It’s the most meaningful.
What more do you hope to accomplish with your career and platform?
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I just want to keep playing! At this age, I have a little different perspective on it. It’s not a survival issue. Really, if there’s not going to be joy in it, then I’m not going to stay in, but so far so good. I’m grateful for the opportunity to dust her off and drag her out, and I’m sure people will be like, whoa! I’m serious when I say I haven’t been that visible, but like it or not, I’m back! Also, again, to be able to connect with a project like Bros is especially meaningful because it’s still so very important to show people there’s nothing to be afraid of, and we all deserve a place at the table.
Stay up-to-date and connect with Bearse by following her on Instagram @mandyblvd. Bros is now playing in theaters.
Photos courtesy of Amanda Bearse and K.C. Bailey/Universal Pictures
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