Nathan Lane remembers working with the late Gene Hackman on “The Birdcage” as “the thrill of a lifetime.” Sitting with Stephen Colbert on “The Late Show” Tuesday, the actor shared that one of the more memorable scenes between their characters in the 1996 Mike Nichols movie actually featured unscripted ad-libs that made it all the more memorable.
“I think I told him every morning that he was my favorite actor … He was like Spencer Tracy, you couldn’t catch him acting. He could do comedy or drama beautifully. And he was such a smart actor,” Lane told Colbert before recalling the scene where his character — who is in drag — and Hackman’s sing and dance to “I Could Have Danced All Night” from “My Fair Lady.”
“And then at the end, we’re leaving the scene, we’re going into dinner, and I ad-libbed, I said, ‘You know I played Eliza in high school?’ and he said, ‘I bet you were wonderful.’ There was kind of a slight flirtation going on there, which was hilarious. He was one of the greats of the screen and I was just very fortunate to get to share that time with him.”
Watch Lane’s full “Late Show” interview below:
In the film, Lane’s character dresses us up as his drag alter ego Starina when their son (Dan Futterman) is nervous about his potential in-laws, a conservative senator and his wife, meeting his two dads. Lane’s husband in the film is famously played by Robin Williams.
Lane has previously spoken highly of his experience filming with the late Williams, as well, and showed particular gratitude for the protection his co-star felt over his private life. In 2023, Lane remembered Williams stepping up during a promotional interview on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” that saw Winfrey’s questioning over his feminine “Birdcage” character become a little too prying.
Instead of leaving Lane to deal with the questions on his own, Lane said that Williams, who he remembered as a “beautiful, sensitive soul,” “sort of swoops in and diverts Oprah, goes off on a tangent and protects me because he was a saint.”
“I just wasn’t ready to do that,” Lane said of the responsibility that comes with sharing his sexuality as a celebrity. “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.”
The Tony and Emmy winner, who last played Dominick Dunne in Ryan Murphy’s Menendez series, costars with Matt Bomer, Nathan Lee Graham and Linda Lavin in the new Hulu sitcom “Mid-Century Modern.”
