Filmmaker and PBS producer Rick McKay was hired by director Mike Nichols, months before filming of "Birdcage" began, to go to Paris, London, San Francisco, and Atlanta to make a feature length documentary about drag queens. McKay did thorough research to find drag queens all over the world to interview and to film in performance. This finished documentary was used to train Lane and Williams.
Nichols required that Lane and Williams filmed at least one good take of each scene sticking to the script before he would allow them to improvise (something both of the actors are known for).
While Lane, like his character in the film, is openly gay, he hadn't come out at the time of the film's release.
"There's not a day in my life I'm not proud of being gay, but I just wasn't ready for that attention to be placed on it. I remember being on Oprah. Well, not on 'Oprah.' Near Oprah. She started saying, 'Now, Nathan, you got all those girlie moves going down in 'The Birdcage', where's all that coming from? You're so good at all that girlie stuff!'"
During that interview, Winfrey asked Lane if he was afraid that taking a gay role would typecast him for gay roles or make people question his sexuality for the rest of his career. Lane replied, “Not really…. I don’t have an image to uphold. I’m basically a character actor. I’m not a sex symbol. From role to role I’m usually pretty different, and the material was so incredible, I don’t know how you could turn it down because you would be worrying about your image. It’s a wonderful character and very nurturing….”
The celebrity magazine Us later asked Lane point-blank, “Are you gay?” and Lane responded, “I’m 40, single, and I work a lot in the musical theater. You do the math. What do you need — flashcards?”
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