Matt Bomer has opened up about his coming out experience.
Since making his debut in the early 2000s, the beloved talent has captivated audiences with his dreamy good looks and superb acting performances in White Collar, Fellow Travellers and The Normal Heart, to name a few.
While Bomer has found immense success in the entertainment industry, his journey hasn’t always been a walk in the park, especially as a gay actor in Hollywood.
In a recent interview on Sony Music Entertainment’s Dinner’s On Me Podcast, hosted by Jesse Tyler Ferguson, the American Horror Story star reflected on his coming out journey and how news outlets hijacked his coming out moment.
“It was that time when folks could kind of take over your own personal narrative before you even had a chance to. So I remember like outlets, like Perez Hilton and things talking about my personal life before I had ever had a chance to even do it myself. And it wasn’t because I didn’t want to, I didn’t even have an opportunity to,” he explained.
“No media outlet was ever going like, ‘Hey.’ I just didn’t have a career that warranted that. And so it felt kind of unfair to me that that was stolen by people who did have a microphone all the time.”
While Bomer’s coming out moment was stolen, the 47-year-old took back the narrative when he publicly addressed his sexuality during the 2012 Steve Chase Humanitarian Awards.
“You know, there’d be pictures of Simon and our kids and I, and I didn’t want them to feel like they were some kind of shameful secret or something I was sweeping under the rug so I could have a great career or something. When I had the opportunity to do it, it was perfect,” he continued.
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“The amazing Diane Carroll, who I was lucky enough to work with for six years on White Collar, was hosting me for this event, and it was a humanitarian event, and I was like, ‘I’m gonna thank my family because that’s what someone would do in the circumstance.'”
When Ferguson pointed out that the headlines labelled his speech as a coming out declaration, Bomer added: “Yeah, and that’s okay.”
Elsewhere in the interview, the Maestro star dished about his new hit sitcom Mid-Century Modern and the comparisons to the iconic The Golden Girls.
“It’s a spiritual sister cousin to Golden [Girls]. It’s about found family, which I think that show had a lot to say and within a lot of humour and wit,” he explained.
“I think it tries to address certain social issues and things like that. And so I think it has a little bit of Norman Lear in there too. But yeah, I can see why folks would draw that comparison. I would say some of the archetypes are similar. Some are maybe a little bit different.”
Created by Max Mutchnick and David Kohan, Mid-Century Modern follows “three best friends — gay gentlemen of a certain age – who, after an unexpected death, decide to spend their golden years living together in Palm Springs where the wealthiest one lives with his mother.
“As a chosen family, they prove that no matter how hard things get, there’s always someone around to remind you it would be better if you got your neck done.”
Bomer plays the lovable and ditzy Jerry Frank, Nathan Lane portrays the love-hungry and witty Bunny Schneiderman, and Nathan Lee Graham plays the boujee and refined Arthur.
Rounding out the cast is the late Linda Lavin, who portrayed Bunny’s crass and loving mother, Sybil Schneiderman.
You can watch all 10 episodes of Mid-Century Modern on Hulu in the US and Disney+ in the UK.
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