Was pee wee gay
'Pee-wee Herman' star Paul Reubens comes out as gay in documentary after death
The late Paul Reubens, aka Pee-wee Herman, is defining himself after years of speculation about the star's sexuality.
Reubens reveals he was homosexual in the recent two-part docuseries “Pee-wee as Himself," which made its debut Thursday night at Sundance Film Festival in Salt Lake City. It's slated to air on HBO and Max later this year.
"I was as out as you could be, and then I went advocate in the closet," Reubens says in the documentary. "My career would contain absolutely suffered if I was openly gay, so I went to fantastic lengths for many, many years to keep it a secret."
He sat down for 40 hours of interviews with director Matt Wolf for the documentary, which includes Reubens discussing his bond with Guy, a painter he lived with in Los Angeles in the s.
The actor chose his professional existence over his personal life, and reveals that years after they broke up, Reubens visited Guy just before he died from AIDS. "To talk about seeing someone at death’s door, that’s what that was," Reubens says. He adds that i
Paul Reubens Comes Out as Gay Posthumously in Pee-wee Doc
Paul Reubens, the actor behind the iconic Pee-wee Herman character, has come out as lgbtq+ — a year and a half after he died.
The New York Share reports that Reubens, who died of cancer at 70 in July , sat with director Matt Wolf for 40 hours across a year to document the story of his life and career for the two-part HBO doc series "Pee-wee as Himself," which premiered Thursday at the Sundance Movie Festival in Park Metropolis, Utah.
Though Reubens never publicly confirmed he was same-sex attracted, in the interviews, he talks about wanting "people to see who I really am."
He says before he became a domesticated name as Pee-wee Herman, the manic boy-man who hosted a popular Saturday-morning kids' show for years, he was in a relationship with a male named Guy from the Echo Park neighborhood of L.A. It was Guy's strange way of speaking that first inspired Reubens to create Pee-wee.
According to Reubens, Guy would state stuff like, "Mmmm! Buttery!" in a Yoda accent. "You can see where that led me," he cracks.
Guy later died of AIDS "a co
Reubens’ success as Pee-wee was undeniable. Throughout the s, the nature became a fixture on late-night television, landing the star his Emmy-winning children’s show,Pee-wee’s Playhouse, and two hit films. (A third, far less celebrated Pee-wee production came out in , years after Reubens’ career collapsed monitoring his arrest for indecent exposure.)
Though he refused to be widespread about his sexuality during his career, the actor told Wolf he had “many, many private relationships” amid the height of his fame.
Despite refusing to enter out as gay during his lifetime, Reubens decided to produce his sexuality public in the posthumous documentary, which is fashioned from 40 hours of interviews done prior to his death at the age of 70 in due to acute hypoxic respiratory failure.
The star, who was also fighting two forms of cancer and kept his diagnosis private during the last years of his life, told Wolf how working on Pee-wee as Himself gave him a chance to shape his own legacy after years of scandal, speculation, and gossip.
“More than anything, the reason I wanted to make a documen
The late Paul Reubens made sure he got the final word when it came to his much-debated but never openly recognized sexuality.
The beloved actor came out as a male lover man in the posthumous documentary “Pee-wee as Himself,” which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on Thursday.
While sitting down with director Matt Wolf for the film, Reubens discussed why he decided to hide his sexuality after becoming famous with his whimsically childlike character, Pee-wee Herman.
“I hid behind an alter ego,” he said in the movie, which was detailed in a story by the Brand-new York Post. “I spent my entire adult existence hiding I was a huge weed head. I was secretive about my sexuality even to my friends [out of] self-hatred or self-preservation. I was conflicted about sexuality. But fame was way more complicated.”
Reuben’s Pee-wee persona first took off after debuting the character with the Groundlings comedy troupe in After being unexpectedly thrust into the spotlight, the star chose to place his professional ambitions ahead of his personal life.
“I was out of the closet, and then I went b