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Nathan Lane Recalls Robin Williams’ Advice About Coming Out After ‘The Birdcage’: “He Would Protect Me Whenever He Could”

Although it took nearly a decade for Nathan Lane to embrace his truth on a public scale, he had some great allies behind-the-scenes.

Nathan Lane accepts the Career Achievement Award during the Critics Choice Association’s inaugural Celebration of LGBTQ+ Cinema & Television on June 7, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. They played Miami drag queen Albert (Lane) and club owner Armand (Williams), a gay couple that has to pretend to be straight and hide their relationship when their son (Dan Futterman) visits with his fiancée (Calista Flockhart) and her conservative Republican parents (Gene Hackman and Dianne Wiest). The Producers star later came out to writer Bruce Vilanch in a 1999 cover story for The Advocate after he was motivated by Matthew Shepard, who was beaten and left for dead for being gay in 1998 when he was 21, bringing national attention to hate crime legislation.

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