Before #MeToo, Nathan Lane stood up to Harvey Weinstein in the wildest way

Let’s face it, Nathan Lane is a national treasure. The Broadway legend, A24 darling and sometime-emcee has been warming our tiny gay hearts for actual decades. But even when he’s not breathing incredible queer characters to life or giving voice to some of our favorite cartoon icons, the man is still serving. He’s what we call a 100% bonafide mensch, someone who stays true to himself and stands up for what’s right, no matter what.

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So it should come as no surprise to learn that years before serial sexual assaulter Harvey Weinstein was brought up on charges, Lane was making it known just what a monster the man truly was. A recent tweet reminded us of Lane’s adorable speech at the 2001 Oscars, where he introduced the nominees for Best Animated Feature to a crowd of CG characters.

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“Gosh,” Lane says, “up until now I thought Monsters Incorporated was a documentary about the Weinstein Brothers!”

Lane certainly wasn’t the only person in Hollywood aware of the disgusting “open secret” of Harvey Weinstein’s abuse of women. But he was one of the few people unafraid to speak out about it.

Another tweet deepened the story, explaining that the year before, at a 2000 event thrown by Weinstein, Lane’s emcee gig put him directly under the former mogul’s fire after Lane made a disparaging joke about Rudy Giuliani.

But Lane, of course, got the last laugh. Although Lane, by 2000, had already starred in some classics (many of them queer) his film career wasn’t what he’d wanted it to be, especially after making such a smash on Broadway in the 90s. “You can’t hurt me,” he said after Weinstein physically attacked him at the event. “I don’t have a film career.”

Those words will forever live in infamy in the minds of adoring Nathan Lane fans. I mean, just when we thought we couldn’t possibly love him more!

He’s everything.

He walks in beauty like the night.

Cheers to a true American hero.

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