Matt Bomer On Dramatic Weight Loss: ‘Daddy Is Healthy’

Matt Bomer’s dramatic weight loss for his role in the upcoming HBO AIDS movie, The Normal Heart, has garnered significant buzz. Bomer had to shed almost 40 lbs to play Felix, a closeted New York Times reporter who contracted AIDS in the 1980s.

And while the gay role was something Matt took as an opportunity to showcase his acting chops, the weight loss he underwent was something he made sure his kids understood. The openly gay Bomer, who is married to publicist Simon Hall, explained what went into preparing their kids for his upcoming weight loss in an interview with Vulture:

“We definitely prepared our kids really early on, before I even started losing weight. I spoke with a professional who told me how to relay it to them in language they could really understand, and they were great about it.”

Bomer, who is raising three boys, also detailed how the gender of his children may have been a factor in how accepting they were about his dramatic weight loss:

“Maybe it’s a luxury of having all boys, who are like ‘Yeah! Go!’ You know, it’s like they were my cheering squad. And I remember, at one point I had lost 25 or 30 pounds and I came home, and it’s such a testament to childhood imagination, because they were like, ‘Oh, I thought you were going to be skinnier than that.’ And I was like, ‘Hey, I’m working here!'”

It wasn’t all fun and games for Bomer and his kids, however, as the weight loss eventually caused some minor concerns among his children. Matt explained: “I think that our oldest son, who tends to be a caretaker, said at one point, ‘When are you going to get to eat pancakes with me again?’ But that was about as difficult as it seemed to get for them.”

Matt Bomer also shared with Vulture how the weight loss affected his focus when filming The Normal Heart:

“The whole point of the weight loss was obviously to create a certain aesthetic that [director] Ryan [Murphy] was happy with, but also to create that physical reality for me. When the cameras were rolling, I wasn’t having to affect anything; so much of it was already there. I had separated myself from my family, I was living on my own for like a month, and I think that helped me sort of get into Felix’s head in a way that I haven’t had an opportunity to do with other characters before.”

You can see Matt Bomer and his dramatic weight loss when The Normal Heart premieres Sunday at 9 p.m. on HBO.