Matt Bomer needed a comedy. Enter “Mid-Century Modern” by Hulu

Matt Bomer is funny. Quite funny, actually.

You would be forgiven not to really associate the “white collar” and “Traveling companionsActor with a funny bone, however.

“I have friends with whom I went to the university with whom I was shocked when I immediately started working in the drama,” he said. “They are like,” Whoa, what's going on? ” »»

Which, to be fair, maybe what fans and criticisms wonder as they see bomer in advertisements throughout the city for the last multi-custom sitcom of Hulu, “Modern in the middle of the century. “”

In the show on Friday, Bomer joins Nathan Lane, Nathan Lee Graham and The Late Linda Lavin In a Palm Springs comedy created by the duo “Will & Grace” Max Mutchnick and David Kohan. The premise is simple: crying the loss of their beloved friend George, Bunny (Lane) asks his friends Arthur (Graham) and Jerry (Bomer) to come and live with him and his mother, Sybil (Lavin), in his sumptuous Dinah Shore Inspired Home.

Between the laughter, the Pratfalls and the dialogue of Quippy (“This is Palm Springs – this place is so gay, even the trees are called Joshua!”) The project is a left -wing glow for an actor who cut their teeth by playing strange and “injured” characters in projects like “the normal heart”, “the boys of the group” and “Doom Patrol”.

While we sit for a coffee gratitude coffee in Larchmont by a warm and sunny Sunday, Bomer is frank on what first attracted it towards “the middle of the modern century”.

“I am incredibly grateful to have been able to make these beautiful roles that explored repression,” he said. “I would not exchange this for the world, and I hope I can do more one day. But after “the other travelers”, I remember thinking, I have to do comedy. I have to laugh. I need joy. And so I guess it started from a really selfish place. ”

The original pitch for “Mid-Century Modern” was “The Gay” Golden Girls “. But while Mutchnick and Kohan discussed the cast for the role of Jerry, his colleague producer Ryan Murphy added an unexpected name in the mixture: Bomer.

Lane met Bomer for the first time years ago when her publicist, Simon Halls, began to go out with the actor (both have since Wednesday). “You can never complain about anything for the rest of your life,” recalls Lane in the corridors, recalling how charming and charming. But the idea of ​​bringing a younger actor to the mixture – Bomer is 47 years old, while Lane is 69 years old and Graham is 56 years old – had the impression of irrevocably modifying the premise of the show.

“After” passenger colleagues “, I remember thinking, I have to do comedy. I have to laugh. I need joy. And so I guess it started from a truly selfish place, “explains Matt Bomer about what attracted him to” the middle of the modern century “.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

“I said to myself,” Oh, what? ” Will I be his grandfather? “, Said Lane with a mockery practiced and self-depreciating. “Why are you going to do this to me?” But (Max and David) had worked with Matt on “Will and Grace” and loved to work with him. I thought about it, and I was a little worried. Is it like, are we the Golden Girls? Or is it? “

It was just a question, one with the two creators who fought.

“Max and I spoke a little, and we said,” What do you know? Let's make him 63 and one of the lasting troubles of all friends is that he looks 45 years “”, explains Kohan. “But very soon, we abandoned this idea because it is a gadget of a joke.”

Instead, they transformed Jerry into a younger boyfriend who was adopted in the group of friends even after the end of his relationship with George. Suddenly, optimism with a wide eyes of Jerry, wrapped in a marvel of puppies, was a question of orientation and generation.

Mormon excited that salutes every day with a sunny arrangement (and in many tight t-shirts and short shorts), Jerry is the without distrust of the show. This helps to balance Arthur's dry humor, Bunny's frenzied buffoonery and the deliciously of Sybil behavior.

Writers have shaped Jerry on characters like Rose Nylund, Edith Bunker and Woody Boyd. And so, as production approaches, Bomer did his required research, approaching him with his characteristic discipline. “I only allow myself three episodes of” The Golden Girls “, three episodes of” All in the Family “and three episodes of” Cheers “(the season has joined Woody),” he said.

Only three? “Well, I wanted to be influenced and pay tribute to, but not to copy,” he adds.

Nathan Lane, Matt Bomer and Nathan Lee Graham in a scene of “Mid-Century Modern”. Bomer's jerry is the without distrust of the show.

(Chris Haston / Disney)

Whether it is collapses on pickleball matches or vanishing on Donny Osmond – not to mention the dancing a fool for the songs of Salt -N -Pepa and flirting a storm with a young pretender Hunky – Jerry de Bomer is both flying and anchored. What is appropriate, given that he is a on -board agent.

“That said everything about him,” says Bomer. “He is often the impulse for them all to go out in the world and do something. He does not just want to sit and stagnate in the desert. He wants them to have this exciting life and go to Fire Island or go to a concert. He is often the one who brings them in circumstances to the swamp.”

The title can recover for decades for decades, but there is something contemporary about “Mid-Century Modern”. This is not the case, as Bomer said to me: “The multicam of your mom and dad.” “The characters speak like people I know speak,” he says. “And he is not afraid to rely on the classified content and to show our people as truly multiple.”

But even if the pilot episode sets up a romance “gay-December” and has characters who speak Preparation And promiscuity in the same way, there was a joke that turned out to be too racy: this involved a drag pillar Coco Peru (As a motelier), a vulnerable jerry and a drink that is a room on a Gin Fizz. It was also the favorite bomer song of this first episode.

“Jerry is the kind of character who is so graceful and kind and positive outside,” he said. “But if he looks too much under the hood, he can decompose very easily. And he has one of those moments when Arthur asks him to look at himself a little. He wink at Quippy in the hot name of the drink, but the joke pushed the line of convenience.

Muthnick and Kohan were just as sad to see the bit because he captured in miniature, the bomer of comic acrobatics is called to perform throughout the first season of the show.

Max Mutchnick on Matt Bomer: “He has what's on the page, then he has to do something physical. And then this actor is so talented that he puts another turn on it. It is a tip that gets high marks.”

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

“I sometimes say that Matt is a triple lutz artist,” notes Mutchnick. “The degree of difficulty is very high. It has what is on the page, then it has to do something physical. And then this actor is so talented that he puts another trick over it. It is a trick that gets high marks.”

As Graham says, bomer “has this ability to bother and be completely open and to be completely zero. But he plays this innocence so well. ”

Nevertheless, sometimes a high score tip should get the ax.

“It was a concession to the studio,” says Kohan.

But the fact that he was written and played at all – he caught a whole laugh of the public, as they remember – signals to what extent “modern in the middle of the century” was designed to be designed. And that is why, after spending years in vintage projects that made him speak and mainly think of closets and trauma, Bomer feels so much in this loudly funny set.

In addition, Bomer's desire to turn to comedy and queer joy was more urgent and necessary that he could have foreseen it. Not only did they shot an episode on the evening of the elections, but they had to count with the death of Lavin during the holidays. (His loss has forced to rebound the last three episodes, and the final of the season is now entitled “The show must continue”.)))

“Playing it and treating it at the same time is something I wouldn’t like anyone,” says Bomer. “She will miss she. She led with such beautiful, sweet and worthy grace. She was not everything wrapped in herself with her process. She was there for the team. It doesn't even feel real, if I am honest with you. It was extremely overwhelming, and I'm glad we had each other.”

Add to that which must work through the fires that ravaged Los Angeles in January, and you have a dizzying and hilarious sitcom created in very trying circumstances.

While returning to these roller coaster mountains, Bomer, like Jerry, is melancholy and hopeful to the same extent.

“It taught me to keep my heart open,” he said. “I have the impression that I got to this whole process like a puppy myself, like a Golden Retriever, just enthusiastic and excited to work with my idols. More and more, the world has started to feel more and more Orwellian during filming. And so to have a character who forced me to do it, at least for a certain time and an emotion and an element of therapy.