The actor Matt Bomer has claimed that he missed out on being cast as the lead in an axed 2003 Superman movie Flyby because of his sexuality. Speaking on the Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast, Bomer said: “It looked like I was the director’s choice for the role. I signed a three-picture deal at Warner Bros.
” Asked if his sexual orientation affected his casting, Bomer said: “Yeah, that’s my understanding. That was a time in the industry when something like that could still really be weaponised against you. How, and why, and who [outed me], I don’t know.
” Bomer, now 46, came out publicly in 2012, when he thanked his husband and children in an awards speech. The Superman job had seemed so certain, he said, that he had been written out of his regular job on CBS soap opera Guiding Light. “I went in on a cattle call for Superman,” he said, “[which] turned into a one-month audition experience where I was auditioning again and again and again.
On Guiding Light, there was a killer in town, so the executive producer, very kindly, wanted to free me up just in case the [Superman] job came through. “So [the Guiding Light producer] 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.” Superman: Flyby was meant to be directed by JJ Abrams; instead the project was axed in favour of Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns, which was released in 2006 and starred Brando.
