Was pee wee gay
'Pee-wee Herman' star Paul Reubens comes out as homosexual 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 gay in the novel 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 back in the closet," Reubens says in the documentary. "My career would have absolutely suffered if I was openly gay, so I went to great 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 connection with Guy, a painter he lived with in Los Angeles in the 1970s.
The actor chose his professional life 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 in the 1980s, AIDS “scared the heck out of me.”
Paul Reubens dies at 70: The 'Pee-wee Herma
Reubens’ success as Pee-wee was undeniable. Throughout the 1980s, the character became a fixture on late-night television, landing the star his Emmy-winning children’s show,Pee-wee’s Playhouse, and two punch films. (A third, far less renowned Pee-wee film came out in 2016, years after Reubens’ career collapsed accompanying his 1991 arrest for indecent exposure.)
Though he refused to be public about his sexuality during his career, the actor told Wolf he had “many, many secret relationships” amid the height of his fame.
Despite refusing to appear out as lgbtq+ during his lifetime, Reubens decided to make his sexuality public in the posthumous documentary, which is crafted from 40 hours of interviews done prior to his death at the age of 70 in 2023 due to acute hypoxic respiratory failure.
The star, who was also fighting two forms of cancer and kept his diagnosis personal 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 documentary was for people to observe who I really am, and how painful and dreadful it was to
The late Paul Reubens made sure he got the last word when it came to his much-debated but never openly acknowledged sexuality.
The beloved actor came out as a gay man in the posthumous documentary “Pee-wee as Himself,” which premiered at the Sundance Movie Festival on Thursday.
While sitting down with director Matt Wolf for the production, Reubens discussed why he decided to hide his sexuality after becoming known 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 New York Post. “I spent my entire individual life hiding I was a gigantic 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 1981. After being unexpectedly thrust into the spotlight, the star chose to put his professional ambitions ahead of his personal life.
“I was out of the closet, and then I went back in the closet,” Reubens said, who recalled being in a relationship with a man who helped i
Paul Reubens Comes Out as Same-sex attracted Posthumously in Pee-wee Doc
Paul Reubens, the actor behind the iconic Pee-wee Herman character, has come out as gay — a year and a half after he died.
The New York Post reports that Reubens, who died of cancer at 70 in July 2023, 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 Film Festival in Park City, Utah.
Though Reubens never publicly confirmed he was gay, in the interviews, he talks about wanting "people to see who I really am."
He says before he became a household name as Pee-wee Herman, the manic boy-man who hosted a popular Saturday-morning kids' exhibit for years, he was in a relationship with a dude 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 say stuff fond of, "Mmmm! Buttery!" in a Yoda accent. "You can see where that led me," he cracks.
Guy later died of AIDS "a couple hours" after Reubens last visited him.
Back when he was a Groundlings comic