Nathan Lane Claims He Lost Space Jam Role Because Director Thought He Was 'Too Gay to Play the Part'

Nathan Lane claims he lost a Hollywood job opportunity because he was considered "too gay." 

The Mid-Century Modern actor, 69, said in a new interview with Vanity Fair that he wasn’t cast in 1996's Space Jam because director Joe Pytka thought he was “too gay to play the part.”

When asked if he had faced discrimination in the industry, Lane replied, “I don’t know what goes on behind closed doors, but I can’t help but think that it played a part. I was told it did impact a movie … Space Jam. I was up for the part that the guy from Seinfeld wound up playing.” (The role in question was Michael Jordan’s publicist Stan, ultimately played by Wayne Knight.)

“Apparently the director [Pytka] saw me hosting the Tony Awards and thought that suggested I was too gay to play the part,” recalled Lane. “So thank God, I didn’t have to do Space Jam. But I don’t know. I’ll never know what people say."

A rep for Pytka, 86, could not be reached by PEOPLE for comment.

In a 2016 interview with Entertainment Weekly, director Pytka said he considered several actors for the Stan role but did not name Lane. “Originally I wanted Michael J. Fox to play that character. The studio didn’t want him. Then I wanted Chevy Chase because I had worked with Chevy on some Doritos commercials, and they didn’t want to go for that kind of stuff,” he said at the time.

Lane appeared in his breakthrough Golden Globe-nominated role that same year in The Birdcage alongside Robin Williams.

“I thought perhaps because of the success of that, it’d lead to other films, but then it didn’t. It really didn’t,” Lane told Vanity Fair. “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.’ ”

Lane came out publicly in 1999 after the murder of 21-year-old gay student Matthew Shepard. He married theater producer Devin Elliott in 2015 after 18 years together. 

The three-time Tony winner said in the Vanity Fair interview that homophobia in the movie industry is “alive and well” and that “there weren’t a lot of opportunities” after coming out. 

In June 2024, Lane said while being honored at the Critics Choice Association Celebration of LGBTQ+ Cinema & Television that “I wished I had been braver” in being open about his sexuality as a younger actor.

He said in his acceptance speech at the time, “Like when Oprah Winfrey on her show asked me why I was so good at all that girly stuff in The Birdcage. If I could go back in time, the answer I wish I had given is: 'The reason I'm good at all that stuff is because I'm a wonderful actor, but if you're asking me if I'm gay, the answer is yes and proud of it.'"

Mid-Century Modern premieres on Hulu March 28.