Nathan Lane shares how Robin Williams protected him from being outed on Oprah
Nathan Lane and Robin Williams appeared on Oprah Winfrey's talk show following the release of The Birdcage
Aux News Nathan Lane
After starring in the 1996 queer classic, The Birdcage, star Nathan Lane says his on-screen partner Robin Williams helped him avoid the pressures of coming out as gay following the film’s release, even when the heat was coming from Oprah Winfrey.
Lane, then known largely for his Broadway performances, co-starred in The Birdcage as Albert, the more feminine, sensitive counterpart to Williams’ Armand. When their son (Dan Futterman) brings home the woman he wants to marry, the two put on a ruse to earn the approval of her conservative parents (Gene Hackman and Dianne Wiest).
While Lane had been out to friends and family since he was 21, he understandably admits he was not prepared to make this public intel for ‘90s audiences.
“I certainly wasn’t ready to go from table-to-table and tell them all I was gay,” Lane says, but understands the general conversation was “sort of unavoidable because of the nature of the film and the character.”
After sharing his concerns with Williams ahead of their press appearance on Oprah, his co-star assured Lane he would not have to take this step on the show.
“He said, ‘Oh, it’s alright, don’t worry about—we don’t have to talk about it,” Lane tells Today. “We won’t talk about it.’”
But sure enough, when the two sat down for the show, Oprah was ready to talk about Lane’s personal life in relation to the role (the whole episode is here, with the referenced bit picking up at around minute sixteen). Lane says Williams “sort of swoops in and diverts Oprah, goes off on a tangent and protects me because he was a saint.”
“Are you or are you not? Is he?” Oprah asks. “Is he, honey? I don’t know.”
Williams lunges into the conversation, mimicking the stereotypical accent Oprah began to use when questioning Lane about his sexuality and fear of being typecast. After some neck rolling and back-and-forth between Williams and Oprah, she eventually turns the convo back to Lane, who had just enough time to come up with a neutral answer.
“I just wasn’t ready to do that,” Lane says of coming out on national television. “It’s great that everyone now feels comfortable but homophobia is alive and well and there are plenty of gay people who are still hiding.”
Lane gives Oprah the benefit of the doubt, saying she probably did not intend to put Lane in the hot seat. The next year, the daytime TV giant would help a peer, Ellen, publicly come out on her show in 1997.
134 Comments
Nathan, you were in The Birdcage. We knew.
thats your takeaway from this article? interesting choice
Obviously, but “what was NL’s sexuality” is like the 6th most important point of this article.
Whether you think you “knew” or not is not what matters here. When and where he wanted to deal with it is.
Fair point, but any actual verification by Lane of his sexuality would have been the lease surprising revelation ever. In that context Oprah goading him to come out was borderline silly. Everyone knew, very few cared. As it should be.
So was Robin Williams. What’s your point?
Then it didn’t need to be asked.
??? So does that mean everyone in the birdcage was? I meanit doesnt matter it just shocks me that Gene Hackman and Diane West were both gay. Not to mention Calista Flockheart, and Christine Baranski.
That was just a one off gig though, his main career was on broadway, so we had no idea
Ok, you’re right. My comment is bad and I should feel bad.
Don’t feel bad. The 90s had a number of actors, like Lane, who were widely understood to be gay, but who were technically closeted in that they’d never declared their orientation to the press. I doubt very many people went into the Birdcage thinking that Lane was straight. But there was a strong feeling that even if someone wasn’t really hiding their sexuality, declaring it publicly was going to be considered a political act that could hurt their career.
“Don’t ask, don’t tell.”
i saw the movie when it first…uh, came out, and i honestly didn’t think he was gay. his character was so flaming and histrionic, he didn’t look or act like any gay people i knew.
robin williams, on the other hand….
It’s almost like they’re actors and you can’t safely make assumptions about their personal lives based on a role they play.
I think Hank Azaria fits that description more aptly in the movie.
Probably the same way Robin Williams did everything: He carried on high with his dumb non-stop coke-frenzy schtick until he sucked all the air out of the room and no one else could talk until the show was over.
Or, as the article describes, he helped a friend avoid a conversation he didn’t want to have. But I’ll let you get back to being an unnecessary d-bag.
But what an amazing instance of using-his-power-for-good this is.
I thought that as well. Ok, one time.
Which he did a lot apperently. My favorite story about him was the fact that while making Schindler’s List, Steven Spielberg would call Robin every night so Williams could do an hour of random comedy for him to cheer him up.
Your worst take yet! I have to admire being able to top yourself like that.
I may be wonderful, but I think you’re wrong.
Probably the same way Robin Williams did everything: brilliantly.
FIFY
One commentator’s brilliance…
Lol feel bad, dude was a legend.
I enjoyed his coke-fueled schtick, even it if was over the top.
A lot of people did, and totally power to them.
Even though I’m not a super fan I do think it was great of him to stick up for his friend. Particularly from a vampire media whore like Oprah who has been notably cagey about her own sexuality.
Where did Williams touch you?
This article is really making a mountain out of a molehill. I acknowledge that Lane felt “saved” in this moment because I guess it was scary for him, but the whole thing took less than a minute, Williams deflected for like 10 seconds, and then Lane answered the question (which was is he worried about being typecast). The article is a bit dramatic for what it was.
Also, the context of the time. It was certainly cooler to be gay in 1996 than say, 1966, but then people weren’t jumping out of the closet as readily as many do now. And really, of all people, Oprah Winfrey should have been more sensitive to this kind of thing.
Yeah she didn’t ask it outright, which is what the article seems to suggest, but she was definitely hoping for a big moment and she really should have known that’s not cool. Let people come out when they want to, especially with all the speculation about her and Gayle. She had to know how annoying it was.
Sounds like you’re the only one who watched the damn clip.
Is there a prize? I hope there’s a prize.
Just bragging rights.
speaking as a gay who was around in 1996, it may have been “cooler” than it was in 1966, but it was barely better to come out in 1996 than it was in 1986, which is why when Ellen came out publicly a year or so after this clip it was HUGE news. I fully get why Nathan was probably terrified of being outed at the time, particularly because outing was used as a weapon in the early 1990s to destroy people’s careers. That’s part of why Ellen chose to be honest and beat people to the punch.
Well, he’s dead now so you can be happy.
You’re the Robin Williams of the AVC and I mean that as rudely as possible.
Wonderwhathemeantbythat
oh goody another ice col take from everyone’s least favorite contributor
I’m all about the superlatives.
“The next year, the daytime TV giant would help a peer, Ellen, publicly come out on her show in 1997.”I bet you wrote that without a HINT of irony…
Completely off topic, but did AV Club change the title font? Or is it just my browser.
It isn’t just you, or AV Club, for what it’s worth.
Blows my mind to think of a time in this world where Lane was in the closet, and that some people didn’t know.
Wait until you hear about entire stadiums of people doing synchronized dancing to a song they thought was simply about the joys of attending the Young Men’s Christian Association.
Everyone knew, but it was only acceptable if the general public could publicly plead ignorance while privately joking about their effeminate mannerisms. See also: Liberace, Charles Nelson Reilly, Paul Lynde, Rip Taylor, etc. etc. They were allowed to capitalize on being gay without being allowed to admit or simply live it.
Fuck me it feels almost terrifying to hear it expressed like this.
i mean the movie was called the birdcage.
Liberace wasn’t gay, he sued the Daily Mirror to prove it and won.
Clearly the UK courts are very stupid.
Didn’t his doctor get in trouble for fudging his death certificate to say he died of something other than AIDS complications?
Really? Geez that’s pretty bad.
Well, no, Lane never had a winking, quasi-acknowledgment like Lynde. Lane played a womanizing cad an NBC sitcom in 1998. An openly or even suspected gay actor would never have been cast in such a role back then. (Heck, probably not even now.)And, by the way, for years and years, Liberace’s dedicated fanbase literally had no clue.
Well, given the demographic of a bunch of his fanbase…
“Lane played a womanizing cad an NBC sitcom in 1998. An openly or even
suspected gay actor would never have been cast in such a role back then.
(Heck, probably not even now.)“Haaaaave you met Barney? But yeah, back then, probably not.
I thought of this example, too, but then I checked and NPH didn’t publicly come out until a year after How I Met your Mother premiered.
I kinda liked the gag in the Harold & Kumar sequels where he was pretending to gay and was ultra Barney-esq heterosexual.
Really? Is this a Mandela Effect thing, because I could have SWORN he was already out when ‘Harold & Kumar’ came out, which is what made the Barney-adjacent character in H & K so funny.
I’m not saying you’re wrong, just that I would have placed (and lost) a pretty solid bet on it.
I think the Harold & Kumar cameo was funny because he was only known at that point for being Doogie Howser, a sweet and super-smart doctor/kid.
Yeah. And he got the role largely on the strength of his performance in “Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle,” in which he also played a (straight) sexual lunatic.
Fair point! But that later.
I’m talking post-Birdcage. Pre-Birdcage, I guess he was more of a Robert Reed, Cary Grant, Rock Hudson, Anthony Perkins, Montgomery Clift, Raymond Burr,…a MUCH longer list actually, of actors who couldn’t even act in a way that might be suspected as gay (let alone acknowledge they were anything except 100% straight) lest, as you point out, they’d be immediately typecast if not completely blackballed.
“Probably not even now”? How I Met Your Mother wasn’t THAT long ago, was it?
[Never mind; didn’t see comment below about Neil Patrick Harris]
To be fair, Liberace’s fan base consisted of midwest Grandmas who were so sexually repressed by the 50s that they could not even comprehend what sexuality was
True. And that was his fanbase!
My closeted dyke Grandmother used to play along with the Liberace ruse, as if she liked men. She was a terrified devout Catholic, so she did the deed to fool the public. She got divorced when my dad was kid and never had anything to do with a man again. She told my mother years later that she would eat an apple during sex because she couldn’t stand it, wore her hair in a 50’s style DA , and most telling – worked for the phone company, which in our city was THE place for lesbians to make it.
My grandmother was apparently one of these people. My dad would tell stories about how big a crush she had on Liberace and he said that even as a kid he would think, “Mom, seriously?”
Barney Stinson would like a word.
As has been pointed out, he was cast as Barney before officially coming out.
Did not know that.
Easy to forget, because at this point it seems like it’s weird there was EVER a time when we didn’t know he was gay.
Sir Elton, Lily Tomlin,
This was one year before Ellen coming out, so it scans. Coming out now has a bit of risk to it still but back then you just… didn’t do it if it could be helped, no matter how obvious it was.
NL: I need a diversionRW: (exists)
Fucking Oprah
“saying she probably did not intend to put Lane in the hot seat”Oh sweetie, she cared more about the ratings she would get than protecting you in any way.
Yeah, between this and the Mo’Nique story a few weeks ago, on top of the fact that she shoved Dr. Oz and Phil down our throats, she can fuck right off.
This. Oprah cares about Oprah.
Don’t forget Jenny McCarthy and The Secret! Oprah has always been the worst.
Ah, “The Secret.” Were we ever so young?
She also told all-around badass and atheist Diana Nyad that she (Nyad) wasn’t an atheist and in fact believed in god because she “felt awe” and that that was god. Like, fuck off bitch, you don’t get to define someone else’s spirituality or lack thereof. Oprah, like Stephen Colbert to a lesser extent, has a difficult time conversing with people who don’t believe about their lack of belief. Oprah approaches this conversation with a rude arrogance that makes me so mad.
She was fun when her show was basically a woman-led Jerry Springer, in the pre-respectability days. Back when she used to war with Al Bundy.
And let’s not forget the ancient spirit Mafu:
Oh darn. I was hoping the sentence ended with “She shoved Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz.” Which would have been nice, if too little, too late.
Also, Oprah’s car giveaways were a massive problem for many who received them, as they were unable to pay the taxes required to take possession of the car. Many were forced to sell them without ever taking possession themselves.
You… You know that it’s not actually a hardship to get $20,000+ dollars (equivalent to over $30k today) from selling a brand-new car, right? Like, yeah, it would be nice if they also got enough cash to pay taxes on the full prize. But it’s not some horrible burden to “only” get the after-tax value of the prize. (At least one woman in the audience used the money to start a business: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/oprah-car-giveaway_n_3861863)It was also the first time the show did it, and they didn’t realize that since the manufacturer was footing the bill, it would be treated as a promotional prize (taxed) instead of a gift (untaxed up to a threshold above the value of the car). AFAIK, every time after the first, they arranged additional prize money to offset taxes.
Can’t they just sell them right off the bat..?
Yeah Oprah sucks. I remember a few years ago people saying she should run for President as an “anti-Donald Trump”. Did they not pay attention to the army of sham artists and hanger-ons she help become famous. People remember Doctor Oz and Phil. Plus a few others. But don’t forget that she battled weight gain for much of the 90s and her weight would yo-yo. Every time she came back from a hiatus with major weight loss she would start by hocking another BS diet fad.
No one bashes Oprah better than Bill Burr. Fuck Oprah.
But she did so much for poor children in Africa!Why do you hate poor African children so much?!/s
I was prepared to say the same thing but I watched the clip and it’s actually not as bad as it sounds. She literally just asked is he worried about being typecast, he answered no because I’m a character actor who doesn’t have an image to uphold, and that was it.
This. Maybe I’m not seeing it, but it didn’t look like she really pursued it..
sideways with a rake, baby.
Yet another reason why Oprah suuuuucccckkksss. Just add this bit of Oprah’s inhumanity to the pile that exposed us to Jon of God, amplified Jenny McCarthy, and spawned Dr Phil and Dr Oz.
“So Oprah, what’s up with you and Stedman? Huh, c’mon honey? You two doin’ it or what? Are they?”
I’d press her on Gayle first to drive the “gay/bi outing“ angle.
I remember him quipping at some press event surrounding the movie along the lines of “I’m in my 40s, single, and I do musical theater. What do you think?”
He was great in Mouse Hunt.
Not a comment I was expecting to read ha. But he really was! That movie might top the ‘90s list of ‘should have been absolutely awful but was kind of great’.
I wish there were more flicks were people ate rodent fecal matter.
Keep your phone on, Cronenberg is going to call you asap to option that story idea.
You could try asking for the CCTV footage from that local pub near me everyone refuses to eat at.
Lee Evans blew my mind when I first saw Funny People. His later American movies (Mouse Hunt, There’s Something About Mary, The Ladies Man) are funny, but not even close to what he was capable of doing.
Him and Lee Evans were very believable brothers. I’m glad they briefly got to work with each other again during London stage version of The Producers musical.
Gore Verbinski’s first feature! He hasn’t made a new one since A Cure for Wellness in 2016, which I should really get around to seeing one of these days.
You know who wasn’t in Mouse Hunt? LaRue. But I’m sure he would have loved it.
Just further proof that in spite of his demons, Robin Williams was a wonderful human being. RIP
If you are playing a character who is gay, then yes, you need to out yourself as gay.
After starring in the 1996 queer classic, The BirdcageThis mediocre remake is considered a classic now?
There are many many great moments in the film, and I’d hardly call it “mediocre” opinions are like aholes, everyone has one!Yes it is a classic esp a queer one.
I have not watched it in years but I recall it being very funny
Oh eat shit
Oh, come on. The Birdcage is great. And yes, it’s a remake, but it was a remake of an italian movie based on an italian play. It’s not like they were ripping off something the audience had seen before. This is more of an adaptation than a money grab “remake.”
I feel like the full question is important, as it was effectively “are you afraid of being typecast [as gay].” It might still have been Oprah trying to stir something up, to couch a question that probably couldn’t have been tactfully asked in something more seemingly benign, but still. Either way, probably a safe bet that Williams did his whole thing to give Lane a moment to compose himself at dealing with something he didn’t publicly want to talk about,
Self-promoting gasbag Oprah is the worst.I’ll take Uma every time.
Oprah did news first. She is not a timid interviewer or easily deterred. Robin is Keanu-level mensch.
Being dogged would be OK if Oprah were a good interviewer, but she’s not (despite her news background). If you watch enough of her, you see patterns emerge where she talks over guests, pushes them to answer unfair/loaded questions, dismisses responses she doesn’t agree with etc. She’s right up there with Ellen in terms of poor interviewing skills.
It’s just an example of both how power/wealth/popularity corrupts for even “saintly” people over time, and how much news reporting/interviewing has changed over the years to be less…”responsible”.
Man, you can see the slight nod Robin gives Nathan after the quip “Don’t make me come out now”, that knowing look of “i got your back”There’s also the seriousness in the way Robin checks on Nathan between jokes in that few moments and keeps jumping in again until he knows Nathan is ready to answer.
I, on the other hand, do not give Oprah the benefit of the doubt.
Wait, Nathan Lane’s a butt cowboy?
Some time after this, when I think more people were aware, Lane would go on “The Late Show with David Letterman” and Letterman would always ask him, “How are Marge and the kids?” I always assumed (and hoped) that Lane was in on the joke, and he’d usually make some game reply.
Robin Williams, Chaotic Good.
And one of the most awesome things is that Robin would get that joke. Much ink has been spilled about his love for D&D and table top gaming in general. Like really into the stuff. Apperently he played Warhammer(although I hear he had someone paint his minis for him) and according to one article, was running a game of Cyberpunk 2021 while filming Good Will hunting.
Didn’t he name his daughter after Legend of Zelda?
Stunned and horrified by this. Nathan Lane claimed to be straight?
No he just wasn’t fully out.
…to Helen Keller?
Doesn’t matter. Don’t fucking out people.
Fascinating to see this from Mr. Lane’s perspective. I faintly remember the marketing for The Birdcage and the Oprah appearance. It was clear to people paying attention (or attentive people in New York City like me) that Mr. Lane was gay. You look at his Broadway C.V. and ask a few people, and it was like, “sure, yeah, everyone knows Nathan Lane is gay. And?” But for the rest our nation, nearly 9 months before the murder of Jon Benet Ramsay gripped cable news, people weren’t as good in detecting it. Or so we are told. People ask me what the 90s were like, and I tell them it was a progressive time compared to what had happened in the decade before. A minority of people took LBGTQ people more seriously. Feminist theory matured. HR departments finally had policies against sexual harassment. Millions of people came out, and that in-turn saved millions of lives. But then I see a story like this and I realize that 1996 New York City was not everyplace else.
After starring in the 1996 queer classic, shitty remake of the actual queer classic “La Cage Aux Folles”, The Birdcage
FTFYSeriously, I’m baffled how people believes the American version can hold a candle to the French original, specially because it’s actually quite homophobic, making the laughs at the expense of the homossexual characters, while in the original the jokes mainly came from the SITUATIONS they get into while trrying to foil the homophobic right wing future father-in-law of their son, a Senator who is the actual butt of the joke. If one has any doubts about that, watch both movies and see how in the original French version the idea of trying to pass as a straight couple comes from Renato, one of the gay parents of Laurent, out of a genuine, although misguided, wish to protect him, while Laurent himself is oblivous to the whole thing through most of the movie, and is perfectly ok with the sexuality of his parents. Meanwhile, in the American version Val, the son, pretty much demands they “hide” their homossexuality through his future father-in-law visit, looking in fact embarassed by them.
Yes yes we’re all very proud of you for liking a French film.
1) Nathan Lane denied being gay for YEARS2) Robin Williams made his career off of doing lispy, f@ggy voices, mocking us when he damned well knew better3) She foisted Dr Oz on us and has never apologized
What a dick. She really is the Dr. Phil protégé