Although Lance Bass has become a major LGBTQ figure over the years, his 2006 coming out resulted in some professional drawbacks.
The NSYNC alum explained that he “lost everything” when revealing his sexuality, including a pilot he was preparing to shoot for The CW, which could have been a potential launching pad for his onscreen career following his boy band days.
“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,” said Bass on the Politickin’ podcast. “The career definitely changed, and they were right about that. Like, it was definitely a career killer.”
Watch on Deadline
Bass starred in a 2000 episode of 7th Heaven, as well as the romantic comedy On the Line (2001). After NSYNC announced an indefinite hiatus in 2002, he turned to acting, but declaring he’s gay in a July 2006 cover story for People proved to have a negative impact on his onscreen career.
“I had a sitcom, you know, with The CW at the time, and 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,’” he recalled.
The CW had no comment when reached by Deadline. The network launched in September 2006 as a merger between UPN and The WB. Nexstar acquired controlling interest in The CW in 2022.
Beyond the axed series, Bass found it difficult to find work in Hollywood. “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. “So, I lost everything.”
Bass continued, “You know, agents, everything just everyone just kind of like kind of fell off. Like, ‘I don’t know what we can do with you now.’ And so yeah, I had to completely just restart and rebrand at that moment.”
But as Hollywood evolves, Bass has since worked with some of those same casting directors.
“They’re all kind of like, ‘Yeah, that was really dumb,’” he noted. “And 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.
Since Bass’ 2006 coming out, he’s appeared in such shows as Valley Peaks, Drop Dead Diva, Hand of God and Insatiable, as well as the movie Such Good People (2014). He’s also voiced several roles in animated projects.
The post Lance Bass Says His CW Pilot Was Canceled After He Came Out: “A Career Killer” appeared first on Deadline.
