Matt Bomer is finally letting his perfectly coiffed hair down.
The out actor — celebrated for bringing groundbreaking LGBTQ+ stories to life in “The Normal Heart,” Netflix’s 2020 remake of “Boys in the Band” and the Showtime thriller “Fellow Travelers” — now dives headfirst into comedy with Hulu’s “Mid-Century Modern,” delivering a performance that just about no one saw coming. Not even Bomer himself.
As Jerry, the endearingly naive member of a “Golden Girls”-esque friend group sharing a Palm Springs home, which includes Nathan Lane’s Bunny and Nathan Lee Graham’s Arthur, Bomer trades historical trauma for sassy gay jokes. His character navigates these friendships, dating apps and Palm Springs’ unique queer ecosystem with wide-eyed bewilderment and undeniable charm — a man who hilariously confuses PrEP with Preparation H.
“That’s a testament to the brilliant people I’m surrounded by,” Bomer says when I mention his quotable one-liners, crediting the behind-the-scenes crew — and “Will & Grace” creators Max Mutchnick and David Kahn — for crafting comedy that’s “smart and sharp and funny.”
For an actor whose queer roles have often been defined by societal oppression, “Mid-Century Modern” represents something revolutionary: the chance to be messy, funny and unapologetically gay without the weight of historical burden. It’s representation that feels simultaneously groundbreaking and wonderfully ordinary.
“I will always do my best to try to give voice to our stories,” Bomer tells me, adding with genuine warmth, “I hope this show provides laughter and community to anyone out there who needs it right now.”
In our recent video chat, Bomer also reflects on how his Mormon upbringing informed his portrayal of Jerry, his full-circle moment with co-star Nathan Lane and why this political moment desperately calls for “queer joy.”
If you would’ve asked me 15 years ago if, one day, I’d hear Matt Bomer say lines like, “Don’t bottom shame me” and “I told you so, queen” onscreen, I don’t know if I would’ve said yes.
[Laughs.] Honestly, same! And I think reading these scripts and realizing that they were pushing the envelope a little bit and talking the way I’ve heard people talk and friends talk was something that made the show really appealing to me.
How fun was it to be able to lean into the way real gay adults talk?
Look, after having spent over a decade exploring the more trauma-induced, tragic, harrowing, really painful aspects of our history and our culture that have changed me for the better — and I wouldn’t trade for the world, and I hope I get to do it again at some point — it was nice to get to go to work and just experience joy through the characters and try to translate that joy to the audience and hopefully to folks at home who are watching who may need to laugh, as much as I know I needed to laugh going into this. I remember finishing “Fellow Travelers” and going, “Oh man, I need to experience joy. I need to do comedy.” When I saw the folks involved — Ryan Murphy asked me, I had a great conversation with Max and David, and I’ve been such a huge fan of the entire iconic cast for years — it was just a no-brainer to be a part of this.
What parts of this friend group and your character, Jerry, did you personally identify with?
There was a lot of humanity in these characters and their flaws. That’s all there. I think that’s a lot of what found family is — finding that group of people who embrace you for your most authentic self, unapologetically. There are parts of you that may annoy them, just like any family. [Laughs.] And there’s parts that may create a lot of trouble or get you into some hijinks.
And I think there were a couple more in the Norman Lear-esque moments. One is in this scene with Zane Phillips. As someone who grew up in a very religious household and who understands some of the programming that can provide you with some challenges in your adult life as a gay man, getting to play that scene felt really cathartic for me. And then the scene with Billie Lourd [as Jerry’s daughter, Becca] — I mean, I’ve had friends who’ve been in a similar experience and just the idea of redemption and having a relationship with somebody who you’ve hoped your whole life that you’d get a chance to have a relationship with, that was just a really poignant moment. And then there’s a scene in the episode after Linda [Lavin] passed where we’re hugging and Nathan Lane says something like “just three seconds or I might fall apart,” and we still keep hugging. There was something about that. That’s not an episode we ever could have seen coming but it encapsulated the show in a single moment.
There’s definitely a Rose Nylund quality to Jerry’s wide-eyed innocence. How did you approach building this character, and did classic sitcom characters like Rose from “Golden Girls” influence your portrayal?
Well, in the initial conversations I had with Max and David, they talked to me about a lot of the great kind of fool characters that they had loved, whether it was Edith from “All in the Family” or Woody on “Cheers” or Rose on “Golden Girls.” So I thought about all three of those performances, but then I tried to just build the character the same way you build a character in any medium, which is you take the circumstances and then build the life around it. And he did have this rich backstory. I mean, the fact that he was raised Mormon says so much about who he is and his positivity and his enthusiasm about the world, and his need for family and his desire for that to the extent that he would even forsake a part of himself to try to create a family before he realized that cost a lot of people emotionally, including himself. And just his sense to always try to see the silver lining.
Then this daughter, who he’s always wanted to have a relationship with but has never had a chance to meet in their adult life. I mean, he’s someone who electively takes the high road because if he looks under the hood too much, I think he might fall apart. So carrying all that underneath the positivity adds a different layer to him that it maybe… I didn’t see in Rose as much, or it was never talked about. What was the mythical town in Minnesota she’s always talking about?
St. Olaf.
St. Olaf, yeah. I mean, it seems like she only had good times in St. Olaf, and I think for Jerry, it was a little bit more of a mixed bag. He is the kind of guy who can fall apart really easily if you just crack the surface.
After working on queer-themed dramas and now a comedy, how do you feel these genres connect with audiences in different ways?
I can only speak from my experience. I’ve been so fortunate to be a part of things like “Fellow Travelers,” where people stop me on the street and want to share so much of their personal story and how it resonated with them. But for me, if there was ever messaging involved in something, even if it was a stage play, I always got the message a lot deeper if I laughed along the way.
So I think the opportunity in a time when daily, we’re seeing our rights being picked away and infringed upon, to offer some joy to the world and to remind people that we’re out there and we’re human just like you — and we need validation and love and acceptance just like you — and to have that out in the world right now is something that I’m really grateful to be a part of.
Over the course of taping this season, I know it was a time when I needed to laugh, and we obviously experienced a lot of really challenging and heartbreaking things, but the fact that we got to laugh through it all helped us all along the way. I hope this can provide people who watch with some much-needed laughter. We need some queer joy on screen.
In the episode “Love Thy Neighbor,” Jerry serves as the moral compass as he and his friends navigate a Republican neighbor supporting anti-queer legislation. How did you approach that episode, and how significant do you feel it is to release it at this moment?
To me, as somebody who has people in my life who are on both sides of the aisle and can see the humanity on both sides, it was important for me to try to get underneath that. It’s something that I felt like I could bring to the character and the performance. And even though I stand firmly on my side and always will, I am able to love people who see differently than me, even heartbreakingly at times when their vote may mean it’s a vote against me. I’ve had to stand up and do that and still try to be the bigger person and have some grace in that circumstance. I’m not saying we shouldn’t stand up for what we believe in and stand up for ourselves, but it’s nice to realize that we’re all human beings in the same way. We’re asking to be seen as three-dimensional human beings who want to be seen and loved and understood. I think we have to try to give that same level of humanity to people who we might not see eye to eye with.
It sounds like you were really able to dig into that part of yourself and bring it to Jerry.
We have a lot of similarities in our backgrounds.
Those dance moves among them. There’s a good amount of impromptu dancing in this show.
A lot more than I thought there would be. [Laughs.]
But having done “Magic Mike,” you’re a pro now.
Yeah, and it is sort of “Magic Mike”-adjacent choreography. It’s like when they went to the gay club and were voguing.
You keep your clothes on in this show, though.
That is the difference. And it’s a big difference. Those were not tear aways.
I’ve been thinking a lot about the importance of LGBTQ+ pioneers, and you get to work with one in Hollywood: Nathan Lane. What was it like knowing you’d be working with him? And how do you reflect on Nathan’s influence on you as an actor, especially with projects like “The Birdcage”?
Well, my experience with Nathan Lane is so formative. It predates “The Birdcage.” I used to sit in our drama club library that was in a closet, the irony of which is not lost on me. I get the metaphor, people. But I would leaf through all these plays, and all my favorite ones, Nathan was at the center of: “Lips Together, Teeth Apart,” “Love! Valour! Compassion!” and “Laughter on the 23rd Floor.” And there in the lone picture they would have from a production would be Nathan Lane. And I was like, “Who is this guy that’s at the center of American theater?” I remember one of the first scenes I did in high school is from “The Lisbon Traviata.” People were like, “Who is this kid? What is this 14-year-old doing right now?” But he’s just been hugely formative to me, and he’s so generous of spirit as an artist.
So he helped me find my voice as the character and set a beautiful tone for all of us on the set that was loving and fun and joyful, where we could laugh at ourselves and take risks in front of each other and fall on our face in front of each other and shine in front of each other. It was just the kind of gift you dream of. Sometimes, it takes 30 years to get there, but then there you are, and it’s not lost on me.
