ACTOR Johnathon Schaech has opened up about being Ellen DeGeneres’ fake boyfriend in the 1990s.

Best known for playing Jimmy in the 1995 film That Thing You Do!, Schaech was asked about dating Ellen in a Reddit AMA.

“My manager asked me to accompany her to events,” the 46-year-old said.

“She was scared people would not watch the show, her sitcom Ellen, because she was gay. It was an honour.”

Schaech accompanied Ellen to events such as the 1995 SAG Awards which was two years before the comedian publicly announced that she is gay on the Oprah Winfrey Show.

Two months after the Oprah interview, the character Ellen played on her own sitcom also came out.

“I was supposed to perform in her coming out episode but I ran the marathon and couldn't walk the next day,” revealed Schaech.

“The network fired me cause they thought I was lame. I was lame. Don’t run a marathon when you’re given a great gift.”

That’s not the only time that Schaech’s been dumped from a film due to injury either.

“I got beaten up at a sport’s bar for being Jimmy from That Thing You Do,” the actor said.

“I guess they were mad I broke up the band. It was a couple sucker punches. And I think they were girls. I never saw them coming. I got fired from the movie I was doing I was so beat up. A Meryl Streep movie.”