Lance Bass came out as gay in 2006. He did it via a People magazine cover story a la Ellen DeGeneres’ Time cover. That was still in the early days of gossip blogs, but if I remember correctly, there weren’t really many people on the Internet – at least in the corners that I frequented – who were surprised or scandalized by the news. I’m not saying that this meant that he wasn’t subjected to unacceptable homophobia in the form of snide jokes, etc al. He, as well as so many other members of the LGBTQ community at the time, was an easy target back then. Sigh.
While some of us common folk weren’t phased, the same couldn’t be said for Hollywood executives. Sadly, Lance’s career took a hit as a result of him living his truth. That same year, Lance was about to shoot a pilot for a new CW show. After he came out, he was told that it was being canceled because executives thought that people had to ”believe that [he was] straight to play a straight character.”
Lance Bass is reflecting on how coming out led to the cancellation of a CW pilot he was set to star in. The singer, 45, opened up about experiencing some professional drawbacks after publicly revealing his sexuality, noting that he “lost everything” after he shared his story.
“It was a crazy scary situation because all the examples I’ve ever had of anyone coming out, especially in entertainment, was that it’s a career killer,” Bass revealed during the Tuesday, December 3, episode of the “Politickin‘” podcast.
He told hosts Gavin Newsom, Marshawn Lynch and Doug Hendrickson, “The career definitely changed, and they were right about that. Like, it was definitely a career killer.”
Though Bass had a few acting gigs during his NSYNC days – including a guest-starring role on a episode of 7th Heaven in 2000 and a starring role in the 2001 romantic comedy, On the Line – the Finding Prince Charming host was looking to further his career after the boy band went on hiatus in 2002.
“I had a sitcom, you know, with The CW at the time,” he said. “We were about to shoot the pilot and this came out and they were like, ‘We can’t do the show anymore. Like, they have to believe that you’re straight to play a straight character.’”
Bass went on to share that the axed series was just the beginning of having a difficult time finding work in the industry after coming out.
“Every casting director I knew, they’re like, ‘Lance, we can’t cast you because they can’t look past … You’re too famous for being gay now that they can’t look at you as anything other than that,’” he explained, noting that he had to “completely just restart and rebrand” once “everything kind of fell off.”
Despite experiencing hardships in Hollywood during his career, Bass said he has since worked with some of those same casting directors, who called their decision to not work with him earlier “really dumb.”
He added, “They’ve actually cast me a lot of things since, which is really funny and ironic. But you know, I never hold grudges at all. I’m very understanding. I get it. Business is business is business. It sucks, but I never can hold grudges.”
”Business is business.” I hate when people give that excuse. At the end of the day, Lance lost a pilot and subsequent series due to homophobia. I distinctly remember an interview with Rupert Evertt after My Best Friend’s Wedding was released in which he talked about how coming out stalled his career and left him type cast in roles as the gay best friend. I know that progress can be painstakingly slow, but in this regard, we’ve definitely come a long way over the last two decades (even if it’s not far enough). It’s also wild that Lance has worked with the same casting directors in the decades since. I would have trouble doing so and not being bitter about it, so he’s a way better person than I am.
photos via social media and credit: Judy Eddy/Cover Images, Janet Mayer/INSTARimages.com, Jeffrey Mayer/Avalon, IMAGO/Dee Cee Carter/Avalon
