Nathan is gay
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Lane tried his best to avoid talking about it, however, during his appearance in The Oprah Winfrey Show, the host hinted at the topic by saying, "Oh, you're so good at that girly stuff."
The actor said Robin Williams, his co-actor in the LGBT-themed movie, sensed her intentions and immediately diverted the conversation away, protecting him in the process.
In his recollection, the actor shared telling his publicist that he wasn't sure if he was ready to start discussing the matter. “Now you have to make a public statement about it — I was terrified… 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.”
Watch part of Lane’s interview on “Sunday Today” in the video below.
In November 2015, Nathan Lane married his husband, Devlin Elliott, during a private ceremony hosted at the City hall, as reported by People.
Lane remembered giving a readymade answer in his response, saying, "I am forty and I work a lot in the musical theater. And as always, be sure to subscribe.
Nathan Lane: Robin Williams ‘Protected Me’ From Coming Out as Gay on ‘Oprah’ in 1996 Because ‘He Was a Saint’
Nathan Lane revealed on “Sunday Today” that Robin Williams once protected him from coming out as gay against his will on national television.
I just wanted to talk about finally [getting] a big part in a movie, and I didn’t want to make it about my sexuality.”
Of course, Lane knew that playing a gay character in the film would make discussing his sexuality in real life “sort of unavoidable,” but he still wasn’t ready to do so.
“I don’t think Oprah was trying to out me, but I said to Robin beforehand, ‘I’m not prepared.
“It was all so intimidating. You do the math.
Nathan Lane Was Questioned If He was Gay
The gay actor came out in the late 1990s after gaining worldwide fame with his work in the hit comedy flick The Birdcage. It is slated to premiere April 26 on Showtime.
And in spring 2021, Lane will take on the iconic role of Willy Loman — opposite Laurie Metcalf’s Linda Loman — in a new Broadway production of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, produced by Scott Rudin.
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For much more from Nathan Lane on the making of The Birdcage, tune in to the latest episode of It Happened in Hollywood.
Later, Winfrey fired the bullet, asking if he was afraid of being typecast, and Williams came to his co-star's rescue once again.
Lane and his husband, Elliott, dated each other for eighteen years before exchanging their vows. ‘Yeah, we already knew! “And I certainly wasn’t ready to go from table-to-table and tell them all I was gay.
I’m not prepared to discuss that I’m gay on national television.
His husband is a theater producer and writer who started his career in 2001 with a small role as a pizza delivery man in the long-running series The X-Files.
Later, the husband was also seen working in television shows like Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Frasier.
… He looked at me and smiled and started to scream, ‘Hey, faggot!’ He just kept saying ‘faggot.’ I was humiliated. I went to CAA. That was a mistake.
The actor said there was no winning as they cared less, however, he was terrified because of the experience. And certainly everyone in [the] New York [theater scene] knew.
To his bemusement, people felt annoyed after learning his sexual identity. I thought, ‘I wish Mike was here for this.’ It was the other side of fame.”
Despite Birdcage‘s success, Lane was disappointed that it didn’t serve as a springboard to a bigger movie career.
“And then people were just annoyed that I came out. Honestly, I was terrified.”
While making Birdcage, the actor was out to the cast and crew. But for a major motion picture that centers on a same-sex relationship, Lane often found himself to be the only gay person on the set.
“The only, sort of, uncomfortable moment in the making of it is the use of the word ‘fag’ in the movie,” he remembers.