Matt Bomer has been captivating TV fans with his steamy scenes opposite Wicked's Jonathan Bailey in the Showtime miniseries, Fellow Travelers. And soon, he'll be seen with Bradley Cooper and Carey Mulligan in the Leonard Bernstein biopic Maestro. But, it is a project Bomer said no to that has people talking because fans of the Magic Mike XXL actor were shocked and confused that he would turn down one of the biggest projects on the 2023 film schedule.
The upcoming release Maestro is not the only big 2023 movie that Bomer was supposed to be featured in. In fact, he was set to join Margot Robbie's Barbie, Ryan Gosling's Ken and the rest of the Barbie cast in Greta Gerwig’s billion-dollar blockbuster centered on the iconic fashion doll. The actor detailed his Barbie audition process as a potential Ken in a November 2023 interview with Vanity Fair:
I recorded [the audition] on my own, played a bunch of different Kens—and I dressed differently for all of them. I recorded the lines of the other person’s dialogue on my recorder and then gave myself space to respond.
However, the former White Collar star revealed that he ultimately decided against moving forward with Barbie, citing that he didn't want to spend extensive time away from his family, per the outlet. The 46-year-old star has three children, Kit Bomer Halls, and twins, Walker and Henry Bomer Halls, with husband Simon Halls, who he has been married to since 2011. So, taking on a movie that filmed for months in England would have required him to be away for a while.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings's Simu Liu, Sex Education's Ncuti Gatwa and Secret Invasion's Kingsley Ben-Adir were among the male actors ultimately cast to portray the male Mattel doll in the summer hit. However, despite the seismic theatrical success that Barbie ended up having, Bomer doesn't regret passing on the project as it freed him up for both Maestro and Fellow Travelers. There are also "very legitimate talks" to bring back White Collar, the USA Network series that ran for six seasons until ending in 2014. He elaborated more on this decision and its impact, saying:
You get to a place where, when an opportunity like this comes along, you just don’t want to fuck it up. At a certain point, you’ve just got to keep moving forward and not wait for society to catch up to you.
The Barbie opportunity isn't the first time that the performer was up for a major movie role that just didn't work out. During a 2015 appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Bomer revealed that, when he was 23 years old, he was the favorite to play the Man of Steel in a Brett Ratner-directed adaptation of Superman. He said:
Brett chose me for the project and then it all fell apart. It was a very lengthy process to get the role, I think it was over the course of three months because I went in in a cattle call. It sort of evolved from there. It was a month of, 'Okay, looks like this is going to happen'. And then it slowly fell apart.
However, as with the Barbie business, Bomer said that the closing of that opportunity simply led to the opening of others. The actor elaborated on the choice, saying:
I have zero regrets about that, I feel like I've gotten to do such a rich array of roles in so many different things. I haven't been too locked in… I mean that's a very iconic role to portray, to suddenly be that character in everyone's minds forever.
The awards buzz currently surrounding both Maestro and Fellow Travelers should soften any Barbie-related disappointment fans might have! And if you are looking to watch either of these acclaimed projects, you can stream Fellow Travelers on Showtime, and Maestro will be available with a Netflix subscription on December 20.
