‘Doom Patrol’ Actor Matt Bomer Claims Being Outed As Gay To Producers Cost Him The Role Of Superman And A Three-Picture Deal With Warner Bros.
A number of actors who went on to have successful careers regardless still looked for their big break by auditioning to play Superman in films made and left unmade.
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Henry Cavill is a famous example as before he was a star and got the lead in Man of Steel, he was just another young and hungry performer trying out for the cape in the JJ Abrams production Superman: Flyby.
That factoid is common knowledge depending on whom you ask, but another noteworthy name was in the running for the part in Flyby, and that was White Collar and Doom Patrol actor Matt Bomer.
Speaking with Hollywood Reporter Awards Chatter host Scott Feinberg on an episode of his podcast, Bomer revealed how close he came to putting on the blue tights and taking flight for Abrams, and how his sexuality might have cost him the opportunity.
“Basically I went in on a cattle call [audition] for Superman, and then it turned into a four-month audition experience where I was auditioning again and again and again and flying out to New York and doing chemistry reads and flying out to L.A. doing chemistry reads, flying back to New York, flying back to L.A. to do a screen test, and it looked like I was [director Brett Ratner’s] choice for the role,” he explained.
“This was a very early iteration of Superman written by J.J. Abrams called ‘Superman: Flyby’ […] and it never came to light,” Bomer said.
The project fell apart but the reason it never came together for Bomer was allegedly unrelated to the project’s fate. The rumor was that someone who didn’t like Bomer outed him to the producers who then changed their minds.
According to the actor, this isn’t just a rumor and is what went down. “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,” he said to Feinberg.
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Bomer also revealed that he did not simply lose an opportunity to play Superman once, but had a three-picture deal on the table – which indicates Abrams and Ratner were shooting for a trilogy. “I signed a three-picture deal at Warner Bros.,” he added.
Superman: Flyby wasn’t meant to be, but Bomer got to play the Kryptonian from behind a microphone in Superman: Unbound and later he portrayed Larry Trainor/Negative Man in Doom Patrol – a part that channeled the actor’s real-life experiences.
More recently, he voiced Barry Allen in the animated Tomorrowverse entry Justice League: Crisis On Infinite Earths based on the notorious storyline previously adapted for a CW crossover.
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