Matt Bomer Has Said That He Lost The Role Of Superman In The Early 2000s After Being Outed As Gay (2024)

Speaking at the Steve Chase Humanitarian Awards, Matt said: “I'd really especially like to thank my beautiful family: Simon, Kit, Walker, Henry. Thank you for teaching me what unconditional love is. You will always be my proudest accomplishment."

The speech came after years of tabloid speculation around Matt’s sexuality, which he’d always declined to comment on.

And now, Matt has revealed that he thinks being outed as gay by the media cost him the lead role in an axed DC movie, Superman: Flyby, in the early 2000s.

“I went in on a cattle call for Superman, and then it turned into a four-month audition experience,” he explained. “I was auditioning again and again and again and flying out to New York and doing chemistry reads and flying out to LA and doing chemistry reads, back to New York, flying back to LA to do a screen test, and it looked like I was the director’s choice for the role.”

“This was a very early iteration of Superman, written by J.J. Abrams, called Superman: Flyby, I think,” he went on. “It never came to light, but concurrently, on Guiding Light, there was a killer in town, and they needed somebody to pin it all on, and so my executive producer very kindly wanted to free me up just in case this job came through and said: ‘Hey, you’re going to be the killer, we’re writing you off the show, go with my blessing.’ I basically got fired but in a generous way.”

Matt then reiterated that he had good reason to believe that a life-changing project was on the horizon at this point, revealing: “I had signed a three-picture deal with Warner Brothers.”

Matt starred in Guiding Light between 2001 and 2003. BuzzFeed has contacted Warner Bros. for comment.

Matt’s new comments echo what author Jackie Collins had previously claimed in an interview with Gaydar Radio back in 2012 while discussing him losing out on Superman, after Matt had publicly come out as gay.

She said: “Matt Bomer, who is the most gorgeous looking guy and the star of White Collar, he had not come out of the closet, but people in the know knew he was gay. His audition tape went in, and he called up the agent, and somebody didn’t like him and told [the producers] he was gay. They said: ‘No, no, we can’t cast you.’ The reason he didn’t get cast was because he was gay.”

While Warner Bros. did not publicly comment on these claims, a source told E! at the time that Matt only lost the part because Brett Ratner left the project, saying: “Matt was Brett’s Superman. He would never have not cast Matt because he's gay. Brett knew Matt was gay. They're good friends. Matt not being Superman had nothing to do with his sexuality. It was because the director changed."

“It was a tricky time, and in some ways, I felt like part of my narrative had already been taken by other people before I had a chance to even have an audience to share it with,” he went on, adding that a conversation with Diahann Carroll, the first African-American woman to have her own TV series, is what ultimately gave him clarity.

Matt recalled asking Diahann how she handled the social pressures that came with her fame, and she told him that she only ever saw herself as an actor playing a role and refused to indulge in any of the discourse surrounding her.

“That was such a hugely inspirational message, and so it kind of fit for me when an organization she was working with wanted to honor me with some award, I thought: ‘OK, I’m gonna thank my family and just treat it like anyone would thank their family,'” he explained. “I had opportunities to be on magazine covers and do all that kind of splashy thing, which no judgment there, but it just wasn’t for me; I wanted to normalize it. I wanted it to be a part of an organic speech, and I think that just felt like the right way for me.”

“I just didn’t really have anybody audience-wise to come out to,” he added. “But certain doors had already started to close for me, and then once I came out, I would say some more did as well. But I would say there were just as many that opened in other regards, and I started to find the artists and creators who I really vibed with.”

Matt’s comments come shortly after Glee star Chris Colfer revealed that he was warned against coming out as gay because it would “ruin” his career.