My mother will only part with her cable DVR — with its perk of being able to fast-forward through commercials — when she parts this earth. She does have a smart TV, though, but the only streaming app she’s connected to so far is Netflix. Cue the text I received from her Monday night: “Do you get Disney and/or Hulu? Can I piggyback on it/them? New Nathan Lane comedy from Will & Grace producers. Already dubbed the gay Golden Girls!” The show is Mid-Century Modern, it stars Nathan Lane, Matt Bomer, and Nathan Lee Graham as single gay friends living together in Palm Springs, and yes, the creators literally pitched it as “the gay Golden Girls.” All 10 episodes will be on Hulu this Friday; I’ll be on site at my mother’s the night before to set her up with my account so she can tune in (though I have yet to break it to her that she’ll have to suffer through ads, except she does read this blog… surprise!). Vanity Fair just interviewed Nathan Lane to hype the show:
He expected more film work to come after The Birdcage: Movies were just to pay the bills so I could keep doing theater. Then The Birdcage came along. I thought perhaps because of the success of that, it’d lead to other films, but then it didn’t. I really didn’t. I said to my agent, “I thought more would happen after The Birdcage.” He said, “Maybe if you weren’t so open about your lifestyle, it would have.” … Yeah—and he was an old queen telling me this. So I left him. Mike Nichols sent me to CAA.
He was up for Wayne Knight’s role in Space Jam? Apparently the director [Joe Pytka] saw me hosting the Tony Awards and thought that suggested I was too gay to play the part. So thank God, I didn’t have to do Space Jam. [Laughs] But I don’t know. I’ll never know what people say. Homophobia is alive and well still.
LOL: It started as the “gay Golden Girls,” then suddenly I was the only Golden Girl. Once they brought up Matt Bomer, I was like, “Oh, so what am I? His f–king grandfather?”
On the years between projects with Ryan Murphy: I had a great time, and then I didn’t hear from [Ryan] again. So I just thought, oh, well, I’m not going to become part of that repertory company. Then I heard that he wanted me to play Dominic Dunne, and we finally had a phone call. I said to him, “Ryan, I really want to become the new Sarah Paulson. I want to be your muse.”
The show sounds delightful: The fun thing about the show is that it’s a throwback to those shows we grew up on, and yet it’s sort of a contemporary version of that—it’s fresh and naughty and it’s nice that it’s about three older gay men navigating problems of the world, in their world. What happens now, it’s out of my hands, but I hope that people will like it. I think we’re going to need to laugh. We’re in a bad situation right now.
His assessment of Trump 2.0: I don’t see anybody stopping him. It’s nice to know that there are people protesting. I think some of the old white people—not a lot, but some of those people—who voted for him are regretting it. There’s a little bit of implosion going on, but it’s not stopping him. … I mean, there’s just no Republican Party anymore. It’s just this cult, and they’re terrified of him. They do whatever he says. It’s unbelievable ‘cause he’s a f–king moron. But shrewd in his way. You can’t help but be reminded of Germany in the ‘30s, that he’s convinced the majority of this country that he cares about them.
Wow, that’s a lot to digest. We almost had a world where Nathan Lane was in Space Jam!! But no really, I was impressed by Nathan in this piece, and these were only a few excerpts. He comes across as a consummate performer and professional, and a sharp and insightful person. I’m sorry to say that I’m not at all surprised he experienced rampant homophobia in Hollywood, even from other gay people. His talking about The Birdcage reminded me of how kind costar Robin Williams was, deftly deflecting questions to protect Nathan when he wasn’t ready to come out. It also reminded me that I’m due for a rewatch, only now we’ve lost director Mike Nichols, Robin Williams, and Gene Hackman. Those are all big losses! And along these sad lines, Mid-Century Modern also stars theater great Linda Lavin, who passed away during filming. She plays Nathan’s mother, and he paid a lovely tribute to her in this interview.
My mother and I are rooting for this show! We need the laughs and gay characters front and center now more than ever. Let’s make Nathan Lane the new Sarah Paulson, lol.
Photos credit: Getty, IMAGO/mpi099/Avalon, Janet Mayer/INSTARimages.com
