Nathan Lane: Rob Williams Protected Me From Comg Out as Gay - Variety

Contents:

• NATHAN LANE: ROB WILLIAMS ‘PROTECTED ME’ FROM COMG OUT AS GAY ON ‘OPRAH’ 1996 BEE ‘HE WAS A SAT’
• RT PEACE, ROB WILLIAMS, YOU WERE TLY A GAY IN
• ROB WILLIAMS: 'I'M NOT GAY'
• 4 WAYS ROB WILLIAMS CHANGED THE WAY WE THK ABOUT FEMISM AND GAY RIGHTS
• ROB WILLIAMS QUTNS GAY MOURS
• ROB WILLIAMS TALKS PLAYG GAY MAN GRAPPLG WH SEXUALY ONE OF HIS FAL FILMS, BOULEVARD: “IT WAS POWERFUL TO DO”
• 25 YEARS AGO, GAY FAI JT WEREN'T TALKED ABOUT. THEN 'THE BIRDGE' H THE SCREEN
• ROBBIE WILLIAMS SAYS HE ED TO INTIFY AS ‘SOMEWHAT GAY’ BUT ‘JT N’T DO THE CK’
• NATHAN LANE RELLS HOW ROB WILLIAMS ‘PROTECTED’ HIM OM G OUT AS GAY ON OPRAH WEY’S SHOW
• THE LATE ROBIN WILLIAMS WAS A GAY ALLY
• NATHAN LANE RELLS HOW ROB WILLIAMS ‘PROTECTED’ HIM OM G OUT AS GAY ON OPRAH WEY’S SHOW

NATHAN LANE: ROB WILLIAMS ‘PROTECTED ME’ FROM COMG OUT AS GAY ON ‘OPRAH’ 1996 BEE ‘HE WAS A SAT’

Nathan Lane revealed on “Sunday Today” that Rob Williams once protected him om g out as gay agast his will on natnal televisn.

The year was 1996 and Lane and Williams were on their prs tour for Mike Nichols’ “The Birdge, ” which they play a gay uple tryg to marry off their son to a nservative uple’s dghter. Lane was nervo about dog an terview on “The Oprah Wey Show” as “The Birdge” was one of his first major film rol, and he did not want to e out publicly as gay at the time.

RT PEACE, ROB WILLIAMS, YOU WERE TLY A GAY IN

“And I certaly wasn’t ready to go om table-to-table and tell them all I was gay. Of urse, Lane knew that playg a gay character the film would make discsg his sexualy real life “sort of unavoidable, ” but he still wasn’t ready to do so. I’m not prepared to discs that I’m gay on natnal televisn.

“Now you have to make a public statement about — I was terrified… It’s great that everyone now feels fortable but homophobia is alive and well and there are plenty of gay people who are still hidg.

While he nied mours about beg gay, he had no qualms about discsg the sexualy of his pet pug. He said: “I also have a gay rcue pug lled Leonard.

ROB WILLIAMS: 'I'M NOT GAY'

Williams worked alongsi out gay actor Harvey Fierste, who played Daniel Hillard’s brother and make-up artist Frank.

4 WAYS ROB WILLIAMS CHANGED THE WAY WE THK ABOUT FEMISM AND GAY RIGHTS

Playg the openly gay and Jewish owner of a drag baret, he nonted the issu of homophobia far before mastream media ught on. He said: “If I n e my celebry stat to draw people to a movie theatre to see me perform as an admirable gay man and thereby make them a ltle most posive about gay people, why wouldn’t I do ? The Birdge follows a gay uple, whose son is marryg the dghter of an ultra-nservative Republin US senator.

Their out gay hoekeeper, Agador, tak on the persona of Spartac, a Greek straight manservant. Wily released July 2015, Williams stars as Nolan Mack, a suburban 60-year-old banker g to terms wh his homosexualy. He said: “[It’s] a guy who falls love wh a gay prostute, basilly out.

ROB WILLIAMS QUTNS GAY MOURS

In the movie The Birdge, Williams portrayed the gay dad alg wh a hetero son, as well as the owner of a drag baret and same-sex lover of s star drag queen performer.

He was the gay daddy drag Mrs. ” In the hilar film, straight Daniel Hillard enlists his gay brother Frank (played by openly gay Harvey Fierste), a makp artist, and Frank’s partner Jack to transform him to Mrs. Later, Williams did an terview 1992, after beg nsired for a movie role as openly gay Supervisor Harvey Milk, and was asked whether he might be unfortable playg a gay character.

ROB WILLIAMS TALKS PLAYG GAY MAN GRAPPLG WH SEXUALY ONE OF HIS FAL FILMS, BOULEVARD: “IT WAS POWERFUL TO DO”

“I grew up San Francis; I grew up around gay people, ” he replied. While this is certaly not the first time Williams played gay on screen, 's certaly the most disturbg. Rob Williams is keen to nont one of the many gay men who sist they've slept wh him bee he n't rell that perd of his Williams is keen to nont one of the many gay men who sist they've slept wh him bee he n't rell that perd of his actor has always sisted he's 100% heterosexual, but many gay men are keen to 'out' explas: "There are many webs that'll go: 'Oh, he's gay - I know he's gay.

'"Even our chef, who's gay, was at a gay ski lodge, and some guy me up to him and said: 'Rob Williams is gay. "Williams sists he has never even nsired havg a homosexual enunter - even durg his dg-fuelled heyday, when bisexualy was all the rage.

Boulevard (2014), which he played a closeted gay man who beiends a male prostute, was released after his ath. He affirmed gay relatnships and shared an appreciatn for LGBT cultural the LGBT muny wnsed RuPl's rise to mastream promence as a drag performer, and several years before I was old enough to learn about the black vogue and ball scene inic gay documentary Paris Is Burng, I watched Rob Williams make a cross-cultural transformatn all his Hillard, stgglg after a divorce, fds passn the home of his gay brother and his brother's partner, known to the children as Aunt Jack and Uncle Frank, who were played rpectively by Stt Capurro and Harvey Fierste, an openly gay actor and tr sang mpy gay tun om mils and pop divas, cludg "Matchmaker" om Fiddler on the Roof and a show-stoppg rendn of "Ra on My Para, " as popularized by Barbra Streisand Funny Cred: Panter98 via YouTubeAt that time I was, still unwtgly, livg as a genr nonnformg person who was told that he had to "be a boy" and do "boy" thgs.

25 YEARS AGO, GAY FAI JT WEREN'T TALKED ABOUT. THEN 'THE BIRDGE' H THE SCREEN

He also played gay baret owner Armand Goldman the 1996 film The Birdge. "If I n e my celebry stat to draw people to a movie theater to see me perform as an admirable gay man and thereby make them a ltle most posive about gay people, why wouldn't I do ? Hollywood star Rob Williams has sisted he isn’t gay spe several men claimg to have slept wh him.

ROBBIE WILLIAMS SAYS HE ED TO INTIFY AS ‘SOMEWHAT GAY’ BUT ‘JT N’T DO THE CK’

The actor said he would like to meet the people who say he is gay bee is a part of his life which he nnot remember. He told GQ magaze he has never nsired gay enunters, “There are many webs that’ll go, ‘Oh, he’s gay, I know he’s gay.

’ Even our chef, who’s gay, was at a gay ski lodge, and some guy me up to him and said, ‘Rob Williams is gay.

NATHAN LANE RELLS HOW ROB WILLIAMS ‘PROTECTED’ HIM OM G OUT AS GAY ON OPRAH WEY’S SHOW

In Boulevard, Williams played Nolan Mack, a married man stuck a t wh wife Joy (Kathy Baker), who realiz he’s gay and seeks the pany of a male prostute as he stggl to e to terms wh his own sexualy. “[Boulevard]’s a very betiful and sad movie about this guy who falls love wh a gay prostute, basilly out. This week marks the 25th anniversary of "The Birdge, " the smash h directed by Mike Nichols wh a screenplay by Elae May, starrg Rob Williams, Nathan Lane, Gene Hackman, Dianne Wit, Hank Azaria, Dan Futterman and Calista years ago, gay marriage was not only illegal, was banned most stat.

THE LATE ROBIN WILLIAMS WAS A GAY ALLY

But on March 8, 1996, dienc flocked to see somethg unual movie theaters: a lighthearted movie where openly gay men were the hero and a fay wh gay parents was lovg, happy and film not only gave Lane, Flockhart and Azaria their first big Hollywood breaks,  may have helped make mastream the ia of a non-heterosexual plot of "The Birdge" is simple.

But wh a few years after "The Birdge" there was "In & Out, " "Will & Grace, " "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, " "The L Word, " "Queer as Folk, " "Brokeback Mounta, " "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and more, all brgg more gay people to mastream entertament. "When me out, the gay prs was very hard on , " said Lane, who had e out to iends and fay as gay his 20s but had not ma public at the time of the movie, even duckg Oprah's qutns about durg an for the most part "The Birdge" was well-received for s portrayals for a lovg gay fay. The Gay & Lbian Alliance Agast Defamatn (GLAAD) said, "We have seen so many films wh very one-dimensnal stereotypil characters.

Hank Azaria worried about his portrayal of Agador"I thk whenever you have straight or gay actors portrayg gays a humoro way, you are makg fun of what you also are treatg lovgly at the same time, " Azaria said an terview wh The Daily News. I certaly n unrstand gay or Lat people havg a problem wh what I did… but I felt was thentic s own way. 3 ln on s openg weekend, the hight-grossg openg of a movie wh openly gay lead characters until Sascha Baron Cohen's "Bno" 2009, and stayed at #1 for four total box office for "The Birdge" was over $185 ln worldwi, makg Mike Nichols' most fancially succsful movie.

NATHAN LANE RELLS HOW ROB WILLIAMS ‘PROTECTED’ HIM OM G OUT AS GAY ON OPRAH WEY’S SHOW

“I was not prepared at all for that, ” Lane said durg a chat on the “Today” show Sunday about beg open wh his homosexualy public. “And I certaly wasn’t ready to go om table-to-table and tell them all I was gay, ” the “Ln Kg” actor and New Jersey native ntued.

In “The Birdge, ” Williams — who died 2014 — and Lane played a gay uple whose son is about to be married.