YOUR 7-DAY LIFTOUT TO WHAT’S ON TV

Matt Bomer had plenty of his own experience to draw on to play a misfit, writes michele manelis

COMING out is difficult at the best of times. Striding out in the DC Universe is an even greater leap, but one Matt Bomer knows all too well. The 42-year-old openly gay actor plays Larry Trainor, aka Negative Man, in the subversive series Doom Patrol – featuring the wackiest bunch of misfits ever to make the superhero cut.

Trainor is a scarred pilot who shares his body with a ‘negative energy spirit’. And also happens to be gay.

Well versed in feelings of alienation, Bomer tells Play about the parallels between his on and off-screen lives.

“I’d always felt something other than the usual, and I understood that in my bones, certainly growing up in conservative, rural Texas.

“Being at odds with society and the place I lived in is something Larry understands implicitly. The painful thing about Larry is that he came out of the closet, but still doesn’t know how to quite get in touch with himself or express himself. It’s by virtue of the accident that he starts to be able to have a conversation with himself about who he really is.”

Doom Patrol was a comic book series created in the ’ 60s and adapted by Jeremy Carver and Greg Berlanti for television.

Bomer shares the role of Trainor with Matthew Zuk, who takes over when the character is fully encased in bandages.

Bomer is seen through Larry’s flashbacks and provides the voice when Zuk is acting in the scene.

“Any time you see prosthetics it’s me,” says Zuk, “and that can take anywhere between four to seven hours to apply, but Matthew does most of the physical work. It’s a unique way of working as an actor.”

Bomer explains how the role came to him.

“After I finished The Boys in the Band, about men during the Stonewall [gay rights] Riots who had to pass [as straight] during the day but would come to this party where they can be themselves,” he says. “Greg [Berlanti] saw me in that role and thought I could parlay those aspects into Larry.”

Bomer has built a career shifting effortlessly between straight and gay roles with equal authenticity – including his breakout role in TV legal drama White Collar; his deeply moving performance in the 2014 film The Normal Heart,; as well as his raunchy moves in testosterone-fuelled Magic Mike.

His ability to play a wide range of roles comes back to his upbringing, Bomer says.

“I’m the son of a football player and I was encouraged to do certain stereotypical male things,” he says. “I had to learn how to be that person to survive in the place that I come from.”

Bomer hopes one day soon the conversation of one’s sexual orientation won’t be an issue.

“There’s no question that there are still consequences in 2020. We’ve come a long way, we truly have, and I’m a great beneficiary of that and I’m very grateful for it, but we have a long way to go,” he says, passionately.

DOOM PATROL

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