When he landed the lead in Amazon Prime’s The Last Tycoon, Matt Bomer had never read the timeless F. Scott Fitzgerald novella on which the series is based. But by chance, he had just finished another celebrated novel set in 1930s Hollywood, Nathanael West’s The Day of the Locust.
“I was contemplating the themes both books deal with: How do you maintain your artistry in such a commercial industry as the movies – and can you? And I was thinking about how much Hollywood has changed since that time period. And how little has really changed.”
Before long, Bomer would be poring over Fitzgerald’s prose to prepare for his Last Tycoon portrayal.
To be released Friday, The Last Tycoon tells of Monroe Stahr (Bomer), a whiz-kid film producer with a sure eye but a broken heart – a congenital heart defect that means he is living on borrowed time while he mourns the recent death of his wife (and the studio’s biggest star). Consumed with making a perfect motion picture that can stand as his legacy, he clashes with his studio boss and father figure, Pat Brady, played by Kelsey Grammer.
The role fits Bomer as comfortably as the rakish double-breasted suits in which Stahr presides as the studio’s golden boy. (Or maybe even more comfortably: “Those suits were so snugly tailored that sometimes I had a hard time breathing,” Bomer said with a laugh.)
It’s only the latest ambitious turn by the 39-year-old actor, who’s best known from his six seasons as transformed con artist Neal Caffrey on White Collar, but who has also starred in Magic Mike and its sequel, the TV film The Normal Heart alongside Julia Roberts and Jim Parsons, and on American Horror Story: Hotel.