Robin Williams protected Nathan Lane from Oprah’s questions about sexuality
Actor Nathan Lane has explained how Robin Williams once protected him from having to answer Oprah Winfrey’s questions about his sexuality. The duo had performed together in the 1996 film Birdcage, in which they play a gay couple.
When Williams and Lane appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show to promote the film, Lane was not ready to openly discuss his being gay. “I don’t think Oprah was trying to out me,” Lane said in an interview with Today. “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.’”
He then added detail on how Williams dealt with the situation with Oprah. “She was like, ‘How come you’re so good at that girlie stuff? Are you worried about being typecast?’ And then Robin sort of swoops in and diverts Oprah, goes off on a tangent and protects me because he was a saint,” he said.
Further giving his praise for the late actor, Lane added, “Robin was just the greatest person, just such a beautiful, sensitive soul and so kind and generous to me. And it was, you know, it was sort of prescient about gay marriage.”
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