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Lance Bass reveals how coming out led to his sitcom being canceled
"You're too famous for being gay now," casting producers told the *NSYNC singer at the time.
Beloved *NSYNC band member Lance Bass spilled some tea about a sitcom he had in the works on The CW that ended up getting axed after he came out as a gay man.
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In a recent interview on the Politickin' Podcast, Bass opened up about a sitcom project that could've been breakout role of his acting career. However, the series was pulled just before production began.
"I had a sitcom with The CW at the time, and we were about to shoot the pilot. Then this came out, and they were like, 'We can't do the show anymore. They have to believe that you're straight to play a straight character,'" Bass recalled.
This still-unnamed pilot from The CW wouldn't have been Bass's first time portraying a straight character. But after being the cover star of People magazine with his coming-out story, Hollywood seemed to be skeptical about audiences being able to separate the singer's real-life identity and his on-screen character.
The *NSYNC star continued:
"Every casting director I knew, they were like, 'Lance, we can't cast you because they can't look past… You're too famous for being gay now, and they can't see you as anything other than that.' So, I lost everything."
Following in the footsteps of LGBTQ+ trailblazers like Ellen DeGeneres and Rosie O'Donnell, Bass faced a grim outlook for his career after coming out. "All the examples I've ever had of anyone coming out, especially in entertainment, was that it's a career killer," he recalled.
Bass has spoken candidly over the years about the challenges he's faced while looking for work in Hollywood. Nonetheless, he's starred in projects such as On the Line, Cursed, Zoolander, and How I Met Your Father. Within the reality TV genre, Bass competed on Dancing With the Stars season 7 (placing third overall), hosted Logo TV's gay dating series Finding Prince Charming, and was featured as one of the cohosts on Bachelor in Paradise season 7.
You can watch Lance Bass's full episode on the Politickin' Podcast below.
