Scene from “The Birdcage” from 1996.
Photo: Getty Images, United Artists. All rights reserved.
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The range of anecdotes about Robin Williams’ kindness is enormous. Nathan Lane added an entry during a podcast last Sunday (March 26). The 67-year-old also spoke to presenter Willie Geist about his role in The Birdcage. The 1996 comedy marked his first major film role, playing drag artist Albert Goldmann, opposite his husband Armand Goldmann and portrayed by Robin Williams, owner of queer nightclub The Birdcage, where Albert performs. Lane won an American Comedy Award for his performance.
The film’s success eventually brought the two actors to The Oprah Winfrey Show, arguably the most important US talk program of the time. Lane reports that prior to the performance, he felt terrified that he would have to discuss his sexuality, which he was already openly living in front of friends and family members at the time, on television.
“I told Robin before that I’m not prepared, that I’m scared to go out there and talk to Oprah, I wasn’t ready to go out there and talk about being gay on national TV, me just wasn’t ready.”
Williams then calmed him down and promised that everything would work out. When the moderator then began to steer the conversation in a way that Lane could have been uncomfortable with, he took over the conversation and led it in a different direction: “He protected me. Because he was a saint.”
In 2014, Robin Williams committed suicide. It later became public that he was suffering from dementia. Lane is currently starring in the Broadway production of Pictures from Home. Throughout his career he has been both a film and musical actor.
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