Matt Bomer says he lost out on Superman role due to sexuality
Matt Bomer signed a three-picture deal to play Superman in 2003, but believes he was dropped because he is gay
Aux News Matt Bomer
Between 1987’s Superman IV: The Quest For Peace and 2006’s Superman Returns, there were several attempts to get a new Superman franchise off the ground. In the early 2000s, Warner Bros. had a script by J.J. Abrams and a few directors attached to the project at various times. When Brett Ratner was brought on as director, he cast the relatively unknown actor Matt Bomer, then starring on the soap opera Guiding Light, as the Man of Steel. Bomer recalls getting the job—and losing it under suspicious circumstances—in a new episode of The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast.
“Basically, I went in on a cattle call for Superman, and then it turned into a four-month audition experience where I was auditioning again and again and again… flying out to LA and doing chemistry reads, flying back to New York, flying back to LA to do a screen test,” he says. “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 is what it was called. It never came to light.”
Over on Guiding Light, an executive producer decided Bomer’s character would be the town’s serial killer to free him up to take on Superman. “[He] said, ‘Hey, you’re going to be the killer. We’re writing you off the show; go with my blessing.’ So… I guess I basically got fired, but in a generous way,” Bomer remembers. The move seemingly paid off, because he got the part. “I signed a three-picture deal at Warner Bros.,” he reveals.
Bomer does seem like the perfect Clark Kent: Handsome, square-jawed, statuesque, with a perfect wave of dark hair. But his version of the character would never make it to the screen. Though the actor didn’t come out as gay until years later, he says it’s his “understanding” that his sexuality cost him the role. “That was a time in the industry when something like that could still really be weaponized against you. How, and why, and who, I don’t know. But yeah, that’s my understanding.”
The story behind Superman: Flyby is a murky one. Given the production issues that plagued this franchise for so many years, there’s a good chance this movie never would’ve been made regardless of this awful behind-the-scenes gossip. However, Bomer’s sexuality being a factor first made headlines when author Jackie Collins dropped the tidbit on Gaydar Radio in 2012: “Someone didn’t like him and told [the producers] he was gay,” she shared (via Advocate). But a competing source claimed to E! News that Bomer was dropped because Ratner left the project: “Matt was Brett’s Superman,” the source said. “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.”
Except, according to a 2003 Entertainment Weekly report, Ratner said in a statement that “The difficulty of casting the role of Superman has contributed to my decision” to leave the film. A contemporaneous Variety report cited by EW asserted that the production “balked at Ratner’s choice of little-known soap star Matthew Bomer” and wanted a bigger name like Brendan Fraser for the part. (Ratner was later accused of sexual assault and harassment by multiple women during the #MeToo movement; at the time, Elliot Page said the director made inappropriate and homophobic remarks when they worked together on X-Men: The Last Stand.)
Given Ratner’s statement at the time, it’s not hard to imagine that Ratner left the project because of the studio’s interference in the casting process. The studio may not have been sold on a relative unknown, but homophobia could very easily have been part of the reason that producers tried to interfere with the process in the first place. Fortunately, Bomer has gone on to have a fruitful career in the years since. He’s in Emmys contention for the recent Showtime miniseries Fellow Travelers and is set to return for a revival of his beloved USA procedural White Collar.
79 Comments
1) Would a Bret Ratner-directed Superman film have done anything other than sucked? Count your blessings, Matt Bomer.2) Maybe it was Ratner himself who derailed Bomer’s casting when someone clued him in to his star’s closeted-at-the-time sexuality? The article mentions how Ratner wasn’t the most sensitive guy when it came to such matters.
1. There’s an outside chance it wouldn’t have sucked. But it probably would have.2. Maybe, but the story is a bunch of supposition, speculation, and conflicting hearsay. Frankly, the only thing that it definitively informed us on is that Brett Ratner was pursuing a Superman movie 20+ years ago and wanted, at least initially, Matt Bomer to lead it.
Cue the classic Ratner “Big Book of Asses” Photo.
It was written by JJ Abrams and was a mess. Superman died, went to Kryptonian heaven, met Jor-El, who’d committed suicide while in prison, came back to life, defeated the villain and then flew off to a still-intact and populated Krypton.
Yeah… the only part of what you mentioned that works is “defeated the villain.”
Was that the one with the spider?
That was Superman Lives, the Kevin Smith script that Jon Peters forced the spider (or Thanagarian Snare Beast, in Smith’s script) and later made it into Wild Wild West.
At the end of the day, this just means Bomer’s perfectly qualified to play Batman.
Bomer does seem like the perfect Clark Kent: Handsome, square-jawed, statuesque, with a perfect wave of dark hair. Dude is so fucking handsome. He was a perfect Clark Kent, I’m so happy he got to kill it on Doom Patrol.
Bomer is unfairly handsome. My wife and I have talked about it, and were I to bat from the other side, Bomer would be high on the list, and were my wife to try to turn a gay man, Bomer would be #1 by a wide margin. He’s also super charming. White Collar is such an underappreciated show and he was fantastic.
This is the first I’ve heard of a reboot, and I’m all for it. Great, super-fun show. Burn Notice for crime/caper fans.
I’ve often thought that Ryan Murphy should at least be consulted when they cast Nightwing. Not really based on acting talent, but the man has an eye for really, really ridiculously good looking men. The fact that Matt Bomer ‘fits in’ with most of the guys is one example.
Yeah, he is so handsome that I don’t blame anyone for falling for that face. It’s insane.
Meh, He has an issue a lot of guys in Hollywood do. He has a big gorgeous head that looks to big for his body.
How many straight dudes have these conversations? “If I was gay, Bomer would be #1 draft pick!”lol…
That’s really cool you talk with your wife about the gay guys you are attracted to. Beta cuck.
Like, seriously. My first exposure to him was in Chuck and he and Ryan McPartlin will add a few points to any man’s Kinsey scale. (Ryan McPartlin’s not gay, but I bet he could unlock a few closets regardless.)
I didn’t see him till those white collar commericals and I was like, holy shit. If I was at a bar and I saw him I would tell my friends lets wrap it up because all the ladies would want him. And it’s 20 years later and he still is so handsome.
I heard that Ryan McPartlin was in the running for Captain America when it was first cast.
Hat tip to your username, too!
Is it kinda weird that I don’t think Matt Bomer is buff/broad enough to be Superman specifically?
I get that but he has that old school hollywood look to make me think he could be Supes.
As is, I agree. But he could put on 20+ pounds of muscle and get there.
His shoulders are a bit too narrow to make the cape work. He would make a perfect Nightwing, though.
He’s so good on DOOM PATROL! I’d never heard of him until that show, and the episodes where you see him in the past, on his fateful flight…wonderful stuff. He’s not only handsome, but soulful! I might just swap my wife for him.
Yes, everything about him makes me swoon. Like if I met him in a bar and like every famous women I think is “hot” I think I would rather sit and talk to him and get lost in his words!
He would have been a no-brainer as Superman, but I think everyone agrees that a Ratner-directed Superman movie would have sucked. Glad Bomer got to at least voice Superman in animation (and lately, as the Flash).Funny, here in 2024 after 4 seasons of Doom Patrol, to think that the studio possibly wanted Brendan Fraser.
Yeah he has been great as Barry allen in the animated movies.
Superman canon height Golden Age/Post-Crisis- 6’2″Superman canon height- Silver Age/New 52- 6’3″George Reeves- 6’1″Christopher Reeves- 6’4″Brandon Routh- 6’3″Henry Cavill- 6’1″David Corenswet- 6′ 4″Matt Bomer- 5’11” ….oopsASK ME HOW I KNOW THAT FUCKING GUY IN THE CAPE’S HEIGHT. Sincerely, G. Zod
Yeah, I have to think height was a factor. He’s handsome and fit, but not particularly broad-shouldered and ‘big’ the way the big blue boy scout ought to be.
I mean there’s plenty of ways to make people look taller in films, they managed to make Tom Cruise look not tiny for years. And 5’11 is still pretty tall. It’s not like Anna Diop who was way too average sized for Starfire (a wiki says Starfire’s 5″9 but she’s often shown to be as tall or about an inch off from Superman and Cyborg so I don’t think that’s accurate)
I figured you would be more familiar with his kneeling height
You may now have Australia, Nilus.
Molon labe, shitcunts.
I’ve always thought of him having a slighter build than I’d expect from someone playing Superman-still very well muscled, but not bulked up like, for instance, Cavill. Then again, I mostly know him from the parts of Doom Patrol where his character wasn’t played by another actor in bandages.*Mostly I wanted to mention Doom Patrol, because it was awesome.
I think he would have been a great Clark/Superman, but man am I glad there was never a Ratner directed Superman.
“I’m the Last Son of Krypton, bitch!”
He should audition for Fabulous Man.
if anyone ever had the displeasure of reading that particular jj abrams script (it was leaked online back when people used to leak scripts and stuff all the time) it was…awful. at the end it was revealed that luthor was also kryptonian and they had a matrix-style kung fu fight.now on the plus side of leaked scripts? the original truman show that was set in a fake new york and written for gary oldman. that was the good stuff, baby.
Speaking of Truman Show, it’s amusing to me that one of the hottest vacation spots in Florida (Seaside / 30A) was the setting for the movie because the place is so prefab perfect and cookie-cutter.
That’s a VACATION spot now? Don’t tell me, millionaire bought up all the homes and they’re short-term rentals now.
That stretch always has been, mostly people who owned homes and rented them when not in personal use, but with the advent of online rental platforms it’s become a zoo (and house/condo prices have tripled). It’s a cool spot and a lot of fun, but crowded as hell during high seasons.
So we’re talking Highlander 2: The Quickening bad? Or Highlander: The Source bad?
Highlander the Animated Series bad
in the future let’s rate all movies on a highlander scale
I can imagine the world now“Man did you see the latest Marvel movie? It was pretty good, Like Highlander the series before Richie became an immortal good”Yes, I know too much about the Highlander IP
Yes but the specificity of that comparison speaks volumes to those who get it. The Highlander scale might not be for everyone, but for those who get it, the nuances you can get across is incredible.
We may need Hollywood to produce more terrible Highlander films to fill out the scale.I have faith in them to achieve this.
yeah was gonna say Hollywood is certainly up to that “challenge”Actually i’m quite surprised they haven’t gone for some sort of relaunch or soft reboot. Lambert’s still around (edit: clancy brown, too, for that matter) and could show up as a mentor figure (presumably the “not aging” bit having worn off somehow, or just use the de-aging CGI, i guess). Just please no digitally recreated Sean Connery a la Peter Cushing
They are doing a remake of Highlander with Chad Stahelski directing and starring Henry Cavill
wow, well i can certainly go with Cavill as Highlander.
not versed enough in highlander to speak to this, only seen the first one.i know the second one is a legendary bad movie, i’m not familiar with the source which must mean it’s worse.
Aw really? (big Truman show fan here)
That really sucks for Bomer, but I’m glad this movie was never made.On the other hand, I wasn’t thrilled that Superman Returns was made either, so it’s just a series of shitty things happening for shitty reasons all around.
I am a Superman Returns defender, even if I acknowledge that the nostalgia and the Superman theme is doing the heavy lifting for it. And that its a movie that paid several sex offenders. But Brandon Routh turned out to be a cool guy at least
And it led to him playing Kingdom Come Superman in the nifty Arrowverse Crisis crossover.
Nifty is actually the perfect adjective for that mini-series.
The best thing about Superman Returns was the soundtrack.
One of the rare instances of hearing a composer being inspired to raise the quality of their own music. John Ottman was MVP.
After seeing Superman Returns, and being truly annoyed that the theme played AT FULL THROTTLE EVERY TIME HE DID ANYTHING AT ALL, I paid attention to how often we heard it full-blown in the original Richard Donner film. Care to guess how many times we hear it there? Three. Opening credits, helicopter rescue, closing credits. And that was all that was needed for it to take over the world for a couple years.
Oh, right, that was shot out here.
While I have no doubt that there was/is some homophobia going on, especially at the studio executive level, I’m inclined to believe that he was indeed fired simply because he cast as Ratner’s Superman. When Ratner left and the project changed, the casting changed with it. Happens all the time.McG took over after Ratner and wanted an unknown actor for Superman, but then McG left because (and this is not a joke) the studio wanted to film in Australia and McG has a fear of flying.Then Bryan Singer (also a gay man, btw) was hired, brought in his own script, also wanted an unknown for the lead, and we ended up with the very expensive cinematic shrug that is Superman Returns.
“How, and why, and who, I don’t know.”Yeah, this item seems to be about a vague suspicion that could very well be true but has no evidence to back it up and multiple alternative explanations. Why Bomer brought it up and why it’s considered noteworthy is unclear.
thing is they still would never hire an out actor to play Superman in 2024. this story is from 20 years ago :(And idk, Bryan Singer basically made Freddy Mercury straight. director aside, a studio just wouldn’t allow it then or now.
>the very expensive cinematic shrug that is Superman ReturnsIt gave us this though.
Superman Returns is a deeply weird movie.
I was a big Chuck-head and I remember starting White Collar just to see what this guy would do next. He gave interviews at the time basically refusing to discuss/close to denying his sexuality, because he was afraid of losing the show.
But yeah, Brad Pitt in Troy, Daniel Day-Lewis in Last of the Mohicans and Bomer’s general existence make me question my sexuality.
Superman: Flyby
Ooof, with a title like that more like Superman: Near Miss
As in “*crash* Aw, they nearly-missed.”
That works too.
They should have made it a crossover film with Batman and called it ‘Flyby: Knight’.
That’s too clever for Warner Bros
I’m not surprised, I remember how alarmed people were about the director of the movie which did get made, Superman Returnsa, being gay, and how that was going to make Superman himself gay, and the movie gay, and everything was going to be gay, gay, gay! I think that these very boards were where I saw a lot of that…a long time ago.
Matt Bomer was my fancast for years. It’s a shame we never got that. But thank Glob we didn’t get a Ratner Superman film. It would have made Snyder’s films look like Citizen Kane.
Meanwhile, the film Superman: Bi-Guy has done surprisingly well at select theaters.
Poor Bryce always losing out to Chuck who DID get to be a superhero (Shazam)
I first saw him on Chuck, and though slightly short for the role, he’d always been my fast-cast for Superman the moment I laid eyes on him. Oh well. At least he got to voice the character in for DC’s animated movie Superman Unbound.
Sorry, commented on the wrong article (stupid live URLs).