Actor Nathan Lane, on publicity tour for a new TV series, discussed old films and old chances in an interview with Vanity Fair recently.
The actor—a Tony, Emmy, Screen Actors Guild, and Laurence Olivier award winner—talked about how all the awards in the world did not land him a role in the iconic movie Space Jam back in 1997.
Lane went on to explain why: he's gay.
Less openly so at the time, but he had just come off filming The Birdcage with Robin Williams, a reimagined Cage Aux Folles, wherein a young man finds himself trying to introduce his fiancée and her buttoned-up family to his fathers, who run a drag club.
Lane says that he auditioned for the part of Stan Podolak, Michael Jordan's assistant, but that it ultimately went to actor Wayne Knight, a Seinfeld star. The director, Lane says, could not see him in the role due to his sexual orientation.
"Apparently the director [Joe Pytka] saw me hosting the Tony Awards and thought that suggested I was too gay to play the part."
However, Lane probably dodged a big one, as at the time, no actor would even touch the movie. However, it still was galling to find out the reason.
“So thank God, I didn’t have to do ‘Space Jam...But I don’t know. I’ll never know what people say. Homophobia is alive and well, still.”
People were sad to hear the news, but were conflicted because Wayne Knight did such a memorable job as the character many assumed Lane was aiming to play.
Lane's longtime fans were saying just how good he is in his other roles, and could have been in Space Jam.
Lane's comments reminded people of the trainwreck of an interview that Oprah did at the time.
The talk show host was interviewing Lane and Robin Williams about their movie The Birdcage, and Oprah basically asked Lane if he was gay.
Williams then spun into action to distract from the rude question.
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While people realized that Lane was probably auditioning for the part that Wayne Knight eventually got, some people got a little joking in the comments.
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Alas, many people said, it was really a different time in the late '90s when this was all going down.
Finally, there was incredulity that, of all movies, Space Jam was the film that Lane was rejected from.
Lane is currently appearing in the Hulu comedy series Mid-Century Modern, premiering on March 28.
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