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How are you, he asks Simba, in as few words as possible?
The most surprising part of Eichners performance, though, is his singing voice.
How are you, in as few words as possible?Ohhh!
That line got a big laugh.
I was happy about that.
Was that improvised or written in the script?Oh, boy.
Im trying to remember.
I thought it worked really well.
When I say, Oh, great, now his problems are my problems, that was all improv.
I think that was improv we did on the very first day we recorded together.
I mean, it was always guided by Jon.
Nothing came out of thin air, necessarily.
And I was surprised that a lot of it ended up in the movie.
But honestly, a lot of the raw improv is in the movie.
I had no idea you had such a great singing voice.
Whats your singing background?Well, thank you.
I am an amazing singer.
Beautiful singer.[Laughs.
I became that one boy in your public-school class who could sing.
I thought I was on a Broadway, musical-theater track.
But life had its own idea.
Did you sing when you hadThanksgiving with Barbra Streisand?Woooow.
Youre a real fan.
I did not, but that was veeerrrry exciting for me.
I promised my friends who invited me that Id never talk too much about it.
But she was lovely and funny and down-to-earth.
That was a really, really fun night.
I obviously worship her for just about every reason.
Did you get to have any sort of normal conversation with her?We did!
But it was not the right time to do that.
And she was there with family, and I was there with some very close friends of mine.
It was beautiful to be in her presence.
I wanna talk about theLion Kingcast photo.
How were you all assigned your placements?We were just told where to sit by the photographer!
So thats really a question for him, I guess.
We were all just doing what he was telling us to do.
But it was fantastic to be in that room.
The photographer Im forgetting his name kept yelling at us, Its theLion King!
I was like, I dont know how to look iconic!
Im just sitting here in my sweater and looking at the camera.
John Oliver and Seth and I were all cracking up.
Its obviously an incredible group of people.
I was really starstruck, because I grew up just loving her.
I mean,Scroogedalone!
I happened to be obsessed with that when I was a kid.
When was the first time that you met Beyonce?I met Beyonce for the first time last night.
Right before the premiere.
That was the first time we met, and she was lovely.
I nervously said, Hi, Im Timon, I play Billy Eichner.[Laughs.
]I mean, I said, Hi, Im Billy Eichner, I play Timon!
And then she laughed and said, I know, and gave us all hugs.
She was totally lovely and looked outrageously good.
And you just hilariously wrote,yes.Is Timon gay?
Is that canon now?Timon is not written as … we dont know what Timon is, really.
Although for me, its really a theatrical sensibility that Nathan Lane brought to the original.
Im honored to walk in those footsteps.
But what we need are openly LGBTQ characters, where we dont have to have a debate about it.
As you find gay people in life every day, you should find them in family entertainment as well.
And I do see it starting to happen.
So hopefully therell be more of that, so we dont have to talk about potentially closeted cartoon characters.
You also tweeted about being excluded fromTaylor Swifts video.
What kind of role do you think you would you have played in it?[Laughs.]
Were they playing characters?
Anyway, I was kidding around, but I think its great.
We need all the allies we can get.
I honestly didnt realize people had roles; I havent thought about that too much.
But the video is cool.
The more gays, the better.
Youve said you wanted Meryl as your dream guest onBilly on the Street.
What would you do with her?Im not telling you!
Youll find out when we get her.
Weve gotten close to getting her.
And Ive met Meryl off-camera a number of times, and shes always so lovely.
Weve had some great laughs.
Shes obviously … Meryl!
Its thrilling to be in her presence.
One day well get her on the street.
I dont know why Im optimistic?
But I remain optimistic.
Where are you in the process of yourgay rom-com with Judd Apatow?Were currently writing the script.
Weve been working on it really hard the past few months.
Were about a century into Hollywood filmmaking, maybe more?
It should have happened a looong time ago.
Hopefully this will be the first of many to come.
And when will we get to see your Netflix comedy special?Hopefully soon.
I hope to shoot it this year.
Thats definitely my goal.
Watch my social media for any and all announcements!
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed.
