For as long as queer narratives have attracted prestige and awards buzz, straight actors have earned praise for playing LGBTQ+ characters. They're often complimented for being brave, risky, for putting their careers on the line in pursuit of some grand artistic merit. Even in 2020, once you move away from the festival circuit and regard more mainstream productions, it's hard to find actual queer actors portraying these roles. Ammonite and Supernova are just the latest examples of this trend. This isn't to say that cishet actors can't be great at playing queer roles, but we'd like some variety, especially in the context of Oscars.
Back in 1996, AMPAS had a good opportunity to honor a gay actor playing a gay role. Nathan Lane, who admittedly wasn't out yet, was in contention for a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his work in Mike Nichols' The Birdcage…
Adapted from a play by Jean Poiret and a 1979 Academy-Award nominated French classic, The Birdcage is a merry farce about two worlds colliding. Armand and Albert have been a couple for decades when we meet them, having raised a son together and started their own business in Miami. While Armand owns a gay nightclub, Albert acts in it as a popular drag queen. On stage, he's Starina, singing live while bedecked in leopard furs and much glitter, as fabulous as he's confident, dazzling. In contrast, off stage, Albert's a nervous wreck, plagued by insecurities and the suspicion that Armand is having an affair behind his back. At first, we may even think the drag queen's right.
After all, we do witness a mysterious young man visiting Armand alone in his and Albert's apartment. However, he's not a lover but the couple's beloved son Val, returning home to share some exciting news. The college student has gotten engaged to a teenager called Barbara, the young daughter of a conservative Republican Senator currently embroiled in a sex scandal. Because of the PR disaster, Barbara's mother decides a wedding would be just the thing to satiate the press and erase their family's connection to a recently deceased politician who died in bed with an underage prostitute. The problem is that they're unaware that Val's got two dads.
Trying desperately to enchant his fiancée's parents, the young man convinces his parents to pretend to be heterosexual for a night, going as far as to contact the absent birth mother who's never wanted to be a part of his life. Everything goes wrong and it all culminates in a catastrophic dinner party complete with pornographic china and a touch of female impersonation. Before such hilarity, though, The Birdcage treats its audience to a series of scenes where a son berates his dads, showing how much he's ashamed of them. Elaine May's witty script and the game cast make this comedy into a good-natured delight, but it's always hard to avoid some indignant fury at the character of the son. Every time Val appears, one feels like booing.
We're not here to hate on that odious ungrateful man baby, however. Our purpose today is to examine and celebrate Nathan Lane's inspiring turn as Albert.
From his first scene, the Broadway star's a force to be reckoned with, leaning into the camp exaggeration of his role with gusto. It's hard to make hysterical despondency funny without betraying your character's integrity, but Lane does it with ease. His diva-like antics are always anchored in genuine feeling while also being a bit of an act Albert puts on for his own amusement. Watching him and Robin Williams' Armand bickering in the dressing room, we get the gist of their dynamic, how often they've repeated the same arguments, and the tenderness lacing each bit of delicious shade.
Their chemistry together is one of the film's many highlights, instantly making us believe these people's long-lasting love, a relationship so stable and comfortable it can explode in performative antagonism without anyone getting too hurt. In other words, they're a believable old married couple, even without the wedding rings on their fingers. Furthermore, they make us see how much they adore their son, with little hints of adoration shining through the comedic antics. Now and then, Nichols and his actors orchestrate oasis of sweet quietude in the desert of screwball insanity, like the sight of a parent looking at their sleeping child with a soft smile.
For all the camp extravagance, Lane knows how to negotiate real, delicate emotion in between bouts of broad humor. Moreover, he makes Albert's personality seem real and not like a parody. One of his greatest strengths is how he differentiates between the character's drama queen tendencies and the caustic pain Val's behavior causes. That hurt isn't played for laughs, and while Albert's wacky solutions to the problem at hand may be funny, his honest bereavement never is. Before the dinner, when he's again rejected by the people he loves the most, Albert's reaction isn't a quippy one-liner, but a sharp "You hate me. You both hate me." It's heartbreaking to witness, and it's because of such bruised humanity living beneath layers of flamboyance that The Birdcage's craziest bits work so well.
When Albert tries to be overtly masculine and fails, the clownishness of the lark is a welcome respite from his anguished lamentation. When he explodes into the dinner party dressed in sensible heels and pearls, all the hurt that came before makes the moment hit with more power. It's also wonderful to see Lane have so much fun, letting us in on the idea that, after all the trouble his family put him through, Albert's enjoying being an agent of chaos even as he pretends to be a devoted housewife. It's smartly nuanced work that tends to look simplistic because of its humoristic verve, a broad performance that succeeds thanks to intelligent strokes of atonal feeling.
If The Birdcage were a dessert, Lane's the genius chef that knows to add necessary salt and acidic notes to better highlight the all-consuming sweetness.
The Birdcage won the SAG in 1996, becoming the only victor of that trophy which failed to secure a Best Picture nomination at the Oscars. Unfortunately for Lane, that bad luck would extend to his Best Supporting Actor bid. He may have gotten nods for the SAG and the Golden Globe, but AMPAS preferred five other men above him. The Academy's nominees were Cuba Gooding Jr. for Jerry Maguire, William H. Macy for Fargo, Edward Norton for Primal Fear, Armin Mueller-Stahl for Shine, and James Woods for Ghosts of Mississippi. Gooding Jr. won despite losing the Globe to Norton, while Lane is still without an Academy Award-nomination to this day.
The Birdcage is available to stream on DirecTV and Sling TV. You can also rent it from Google Play, Youtube, Apple iTunes, Amazon, and others.