Lance Bass claimed he once had the chance to star in a CW sitcom, but the pilot wound up on the chopping block soon after he came out as gay.
The former *NSYNC member, 45, opened up about his missed opportunity on Tuesday’s episode of the “Politickin’” podcast with Gov. Gavin Newsom, Marshawn Lynch and Doug Hendrickson, telling the hosts that he “lost everything” when he publicly spoke about his sexuality in 2006.
“We were about to shoot the pilot and this came out and they were like, ‘We can’t do the show anymore.’ They have to believe that you’re straight to play a straight character,” Bass told the hosts.
The “Bye, Bye, Bye” singer claimed executives said, “I don’t know what we can do with you now.”
“Every casting director I knew, they’re like, ‘Lance, we can’t cast you because you’re too famous for being gay now that they can’t look at you as anything other than that,’” he further alleged, adding that he “had to completely just restart and rebrand at that moment.”
Page Six has reached out to reps at CW for comment but did not immediately hear back.
Bass, who has been married to actor Michael Turchin since 2014, started venturing into his thespian career before the end of his boy band days.
He starred in the 2000 film “Longshot,” 2001’s “On the Line,” and 2005’s “Love Wrecked.”
The father of two further reflected on his coming out in the “Politickin’” episode, admitting he was “confused for sure” at the time.
“I was such a young person. And all I knew was NSYNC,” he said. “That was my world, and I was happy that was my world. I thought that was going to be my world the rest of my life.”
Bass continued, “When we decided that the group was no longer, it was very confusing for me because I didn’t know where I belonged and I wasn’t really setting myself up for success because I was just waiting. It took awhile to figure out who I was and where I needed to go.”
“All the examples I’ve ever had of anyone coming out, especially in entertainment, was that it’s a career killer,” he noted.
Despite the hardships Bass faced after sharing his sexuality with the rest of the world, the “It’s Gonna Be Me” singer said he isn’t holding any resentment over it.
He said casting directors have told him of his alleged experience with the CW sitcom, “‘Yeah, that was really dumb,’” adding, “They’ve actually cast me in a lot of things since, which is really funny and ironic. But I never hold grudges at all. I get it.”
