Nathan Lane will always remember Robin Williams for protecting him when he wasn’t ready to be open about his sexuality.
The Broadway legend, 67, recalled a moment in 1996 when they were on the press tour for their queer comedy “The Birdcage,” and Williams helped him fend off intruding questions.
Lane’s sexual orientation became a topic of conversation during an interview on the “Oprah Winfrey Show” when the Oscar winner then stepped in.
“I was not prepared at all for that,” Lane said during a chat on the “Today” show Sunday about being open with his homosexuality in public.
“And I certainly wasn’t ready to go from table-to-table and tell them all I was gay,” the “Lion King” actor and New Jersey native continued.
“I just wanted to talk about finally [I] got a big part in a movie, and I didn’t want to make it about my sexuality.”
In “The Birdcage,” Williams — who died in 2014 — and Lane played a gay couple whose son is about to be married.
The Oscar winner and the Broadway star portrayed a gay couple in Mike Nichols’ comedy film.©United Artists/Courtesy Everett Collection
Tony winner Lane explained on the morning show how he knew that starring in a queer film would bring inquiries about his own sexuality — and it was “sort of unavoidable.”
However, while he knew that Winfrey, 69, wasn’t trying to out him on purpose, he recalled what he mentioned to “Good Will Hunting” star Williams prior to the interview.
“I said to Robin beforehand, ‘I’m not prepared. I’m so scared of going out there and talking to Oprah. I’m not prepared to discuss that I’m gay on national television. I’m not ready,’” Lane said.
“The Birdcage” was Nathan Lane’s first big Hollywood movie.©United Artists/Courtesy Everett Collection
Williams attempted to ease his anxiety.
“He said, ‘Oh, it’s all right, don’t worry about — we don’t have to talk about it. We won’t talk about it,’” Lane continued.
The famed media mogul wound up asking questions that did leave an opening for the “Gilded Age” star to talk about coming out in the future.
Questions she asked included, “How come you’re so good at that girlie stuff?” and “Are you worried about being typecast?”
Nathan Lane, Robin Williams, Gene Hackman and Dianne Wiest starred in 1996’s “The Birdcage.”
Lane claimed that the late comedian “sort of [swooped] in and [diverted] Oprah, goes off on a tangent and protects me because he was a saint” and was a “beautiful, sensitive soul.”
“I just wasn’t ready to do that,” Lane disclosed. “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.”
For “The Birdcage,” Lane scored a Golden Globe nomination, and the film had the seventh-highest box office for 1996, the year it was released.
A 2022 Primetime Emmy winner for his guest role in Hulu’s “Only Murders in the Building,” he is currently starring in the Broadway play “Pictures From Home.”
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