Source: etonline.com
Matt Bomer says that his acting skills are partly attributed to years and years of hiding his sexuality.
During an interview with “OUT Magazine,” he told actor Andrew Rannells about how hard it was for him to come out about all this in front of his family and how having to keep such a big secret was able to teach him how to be a better actor.
“One of the ways I learned how to act, really, is by having secrets, and having to function as a kid in a public school in suburban Bible Belt Texas,” Bomer said.
“Subsequently I worked on a gas pipeline with my brother for a while — there were ex-cons with us. It was not an environment where it was safe to be gay.”
The actor from “The Last Tycoon” came out publicly in February 2012 and he explained that he grew up in quite a conservative Christian household and as a result, he received many months of silence from his parents after they found out that their son is gay.
Bomer explained that telling his family about his true sexual orientation was a huge deal and he viewed his life as a divided one – before and after he had told his biggest secret to his parents.
“And the decisions I made, and the life I lived, before and after, are vastly different. It’s night and day,” he explained.
Bomer admitted that he has first accepted himself at the Utah Shakespeare Festival performing in “Romeo and Juliet” and in “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.” There he connected with an artist.
“I remember someone there who was a hair and makeup artist who I found really inspiring. I thought, ‘If this person can live their truth, what am I doing?'” he explained. It was in that particular moment that he knew that “it was time to live my life truthfully” and come out to his parents.
“I wrote a letter to my parents. I would have lost my sense of direction if I tried to do it in person,” he recalled. “There was radio silence for a long, long time, at least six months.”
After he finally went home, he had to endure a huge blow up from his parents, but afterward, they all tried to work things out.
