Matt Bomer dropped a bombshell in an interview this week, claiming to have lost out on playing Superman in a Warner Bros. movie after he was outed as a gay man, RadarOnline.com has learned.
The actor, 46, who stars in the Showtime series Fellow Travelers, told the story when he was a guest on Monday's episode of The Hollywood Reporter's Awards Chatter podcast. Bomer shared that in the early 2000s, he was on the brink of playing the lead in a project he called "a very early iteration of Superman written by J.J. Abrams, called Superman: Flyby." He said the project "never came to light."
“I went in on a cattle call for Superman, and then it turned into a one-month audition experience where I was auditioning again and again and again,” Bomer recalled.
“It looked like I was the director’s choice for the role," he continued. "I signed a three-picture deal at Warner Bros."
The actor said his producers on Guiding Light — which he starred in from 2002 to 2003 — even wrote him out of the soap opera to free him up for the major movie role.
When asked whether his sexual orientation was a factor in the decision not to move forward with the project, Bomer confirmed, “Yeah, that’s my understanding."
"That was a time in the industry when something like that could still really be weaponized against you," he added.
The American actor publicly came out as gay in 2012 during an acceptance speech at the Steve Chase Humanitarian Award, when he expressed gratitude for his husband, Simon Halls, and their three sons.
Author Jackie Collins made the same claim about why Bomer was dropped from consideration for the Warner Bros. role, when she told Advocate in 2012, citing an unnamed source, "The reason he didn't get cast was because he was gay."
The actor "had not come out of the closet, but people in the know knew he was gay." Collins explained, "His audition tape went in and he called up the agent. Someone didn't like him and told [the producers] he was gay. They said, 'No, no, we can't cast you.'"
Ultimately, Superman: Flyby was shelved by Warner Bros., and Bryan Singer's Superman Returns, featuring Brandon Routh, was released in 2006.
Years later, in 2013, Bomer did go on to score a job playing the caped wonder, voicing the lead in the animated film Superman: Unbound.
According to comic and superhero news outlet ComicBookMovie.com, Bomer "remains a fan-favorite pick to play an older take on Superman."