Matt Bomer, as a Mid-Century Modern ditz, can finally 'experience queer joy'
Disney/Pari Dukovic
Matt Bomer
Nothing against heavy dramas like Fellow Travelers. But Matt Bomer is ready for some comedy.
Mey Rude
Mey Rude is a journalist and cultural critic who has been covering queer news for a decade. The transgender, Latina lesbian lives in Los Angeles with her fiancée.
Mey Rude is a journalist and cultural critic who has been covering queer news for a decade. The transgender, Latina lesbian lives in Los Angeles with her fiancée.
Imagine revisiting classic sitcoms and finding riotously R-rated jokes about "reluctant bottoms," niche "gay December" dating sites, and Fire Island hookups.
That's exactly what it feels like watching the new Hulu comedy Mid-Century Modern, from Max Mutchnick and David Kohan, the creators of Will & Grace.
Sitcoms have often toed the line of respectability, especially when it comes to gay characters and sex, but as star Matt Bomer says, on Mid-Century Modern, they "Carl Lewis right over" that line, and it often leads to some of the show's best jokes.
Mid-Century Modern follows three gay "men of a certain age": Bunny Schneiderman (Nathan Lane), Arthur Broussard (Nathan Lee Graham) and Jerry Frank (Bomer), who move in together into one Palm Springs house after the death of their fourth friend, George. It's hilarious and heartfelt, with all the charm of a Norman Lear sitcom and all the shade of a Drag Race Werk Room.
Many of the show's biggest laughs come from Bomer's character Jerry, a flight attendant with a face and body chiseled by the gods and a heart bigger than his head.
Jerry is "inspired by some of the great ditzes over the years" like Woody from Cheers, Rose from The Golden Girls, Edith from All in the Family, and Phoebe from Friends, Bomer says.
While he isn't as old as Bunny or Arthur, Jerry plays an essential role in the chosen family: he was adopted in while dating George after he lost his own community and family when his Mormon ex-wife outed him to the entire congregation.
Nathan Lee Graham and Matt Bomer on 'Mid-Century Modern.'Disney/Christopher Willard
"The found family dynamic is so important to him because he grew up in a Mormon household where family was everything," Bomer notes. "And then, he was castigated and cast out of that household. So his whole life was about trying to find that family dynamic again. And that's what he's found in these guys. I like to think that some of his aloofness or ditziness is somewhat voluntary, because I think if he were to look under the hood too far, he'd probably just break down and cry."
Bomer recalls a time in his real life when he first moved to New York and hadn't really come out to his family, and the chosen family he found in the city was his "sanctuary."
"That was where I could go and be myself and live my truth, particularly in a time when my own life and the industry didn't really provide an avenue for me that I could see very clearly," he says. "To have a group of people who I could find myself with in a safe way was everything to me."
"It's one of the things that really resonated with me the most about this piece," Bomer continues. "Until you can live your authenticity in all aspects of your life and it's safe to do that, they are your gateway. They are your safe haven. They are your future. They are your path to finding your true self."
Nathan Lee Graham, Nathan Lane, and Matt Bomer on 'Mid-Century Modern.'Disney/Chris Haston
In the last few years, Bomer starred in and was nominated for an Emmy and Golden Globe for his role as a closeted government worker in Fellow Travelersand co-starred in the Oscar-nominated film Maestro as David Oppenheim, a former lover of composer Leonard Bernstein (Bradley Cooper). While he loved being a part of those projects, Bomer said that after them, he "wanted to experience queer joy on camera."
"I'd done quite a few repressed characters back to back, in terms of the LGBTQ characters that I was playing. So if you go all the way back to Doom Patrol and The Boys in the Band… And then, you get into Fellow Travelers and Maestro. I remember turning to my husband and saying, 'I need to do a comedy. I really need to do a comedy,'" he says.
As soon as the show started taping in front of an audience last summer, Bomer knew that he wasn't the only one looking for joy and laughter.
"Even back then, I felt this sense from the audience that they really needed to laugh. People really needed to laugh," he says. "And so, to be a part of a show that could hopefully provide some access to that and some access to queer joy was really important to me."
Nathan Lee Graham and Matt Bomer on 'Mid-Century Modern.'Disney/Christopher Willard
Nathan Lee Graham, Nathan Lane, and Matt Bomer on 'Mid-Century Modern.'Disney/Chris Haston
Mid-Century Modern
Disney/Pari Dukovic
