The Director of ‘The Birdcage’ Had Some Regressive Notes for Robin Williams and Nathan Lane

1996’s The Birdcage famously starred Robin Williams and Nathan Lane as a nightclub-owning gay couple forced to entertain their son’s girlfriend’s parents: who happen to be a far-right Republican Senator and his wife, played by Gene Hackman and Dianne Wiest. 

It certainly seemed progressive for the ‘90s, but in retrospect, the film does have its issues. Which isn’t too surprising, considering that it’s nearly 30 years old. But some of those problems may be explained by director Mike Nichols’ approach to the material.

The great Nathan Lane recently guested on Mike’s Birbiglia’s Working It Out podcast, and revealed that Nichols wasn’t always terribly sensitive when it came to matters concerning the community his film was ostensibly celebrating. 

The script, penned by Nichols’ former comedy partner Elaine May, called for Lane, the only openly gay member of the film’s core cast, to use a homophobic slur in one scene while referencing Alexander the Great. “It was a punchline,” Lane recalled. “I finally went to Mike Nichols and said, ‘You know, this makes me a little uncomfortable.’”

Lane suggested some other, less-damaging alternative versions of the same line to Nichols, adding, “As the only real f— in the scene, I would rather not say f—.” Nichols claimed to understand Lane’s concerns in the moment, but still asked, “Dear boy, could you just do one as written?” So the actor complied. “Of course that’s what’s in the movie,” Lane remarked.

Lane was surprised that Nichols and May of all people would be so stubbornly regressive. “Mike Nichols and Elaine May, two of the most sophisticated, most brilliant minds,” Lane noted. “And yet I always felt like — because they came from another generation where that word was a punchline, and it was allowed, and it was okay… for some reason he wouldn't let go of it.”

Nichols had some other, similarly backward rules for the actors. “He wouldn’t let Robin refer to me as his ‘husband.’ I was referred to as his ‘wife,’” Lane told Birbiglia. “He wouldn’t let him call me ‘my partner.’ And maybe it was that, the notion of, ‘I want this to be a big mainstream hit, and I don’t want to offend anybody.’” But as Lane pointed out, the film, an adaptation of the classic French farce La Cage aux Folles, was supposed to be “a gay story.”

Still, Lane admitted that The Birdcage “was a tremendous experience,” and Nichols and May “were incredibly kind” to him. But Nichols insisting upon including that particular slur was just so unnecessary. “I was like, why are they hanging onto this? This word,” Lane stated. 

Robin Williams, on the other hand, Lane found to be “kind and generous and loving” and a very “sensitive soul.” So at least there’s that.