Nathan Lane: Robin Williams stopped Oprah from dragging me out of the closet

nypost.com:

during an interview on the “Oprah Winfrey Show” when the Oscar winner then stepped in.“I was not prepared at all for that,” Lane said during a chat on the “Today” show Sunday about being open with his homosexuality in public.“And I certainly wasn’t ready to go from table-to-table and tell them all I was gay,” the “Lion King” actor and New Jersey native continued. “I just wanted to talk about finally [I] got a big part in a movie, and I didn’t want to make it about my sexuality.”In “The Birdcage,” Williams — who died in 2014 — and Lane played a gay couple whose son is about to be married.Tony winner Lane explained on the morning show how he knew that starring in a queer film would bring inquiries about his own sexuality — and it was “sort of unavoidable.”However, while he knew that Winfrey, 69, wasn’t trying to out him on purpose, he recalled what he mentioned to “Good Will Hunting” star Williams prior to the interview. “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,’” Lane said.

Williams attempted to ease his anxiety.“He said, ‘Oh, it’s all right, don’t worry about — we don’t have to talk about it. We won’t talk about it,’” Lane continued.The famed media mogul wound up asking questions that did leave an opening for the “Gilded Age” star to talk about coming out in the future.