Paul reubens is gay
‘Pee-wee Herman’ Actor Paul Reubens Comes Out as Same-sex attracted in Posthumous Documentary
Pee-wee Herman actor Paul Reubens opened up about his sexuality in the new documentary Pee-wee as Himself.
In the new project, which premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival on Thursday, January 23, critics learned that the actor had a secret boyfriend named Guy from Echo Park, California.
“I was secretive about my sexuality even to my friends [out of] self-hatred or self-preservation,” Reubens shared in the documentary via the New York Post. “I was conflicted about sexuality. But fame was way more complicated.”
Sitting down with director Matt Wolf for 40 hours worth of interviews, Reubens spoke candidly about his personal life as adequately as his experience playing the iconic Pee-wee Herman character.
Although Reubens died in July 2023 at the age of 70 after a private cancer battle, he made his intentions about the documentary clear.
“More than anything, the reason I wanted to produce a documentary was for people to see who I really am and how painful and dreadful it was to be labeled something I wasn’t,” Reubens said in his last audio re
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 hit films. (A third, far less celebrated Pee-wee film came out in 2016, years after Reubens’ career collapsed following his 1991 arrest for indecent exposure.)
Though he refused to be general about his sexuality during his career, the performer told Wolf he had “many, many secret relationships” amid the height of his fame.
Despite refusing to come out as queer 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 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 produce a documentary was for people to see who I really am, and how painful and dreadful it was to
Paul Reubens Comes Out as Gay Posthumously in Pee-wee Doc
Paul Reubens, the actor behind the iconic Pee-wee Herman character, has reach out as same-sex attracted — a year and a half after he died.
The New York Announce 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 being and career for the two-part HBO doc series "Pee-wee as Himself," which premiered Thursday at the Sundance Movie Festival in Park City, Utah.
Though Reubens never publicly confirmed he was homosexual, in the interviews, he talks about wanting "people to see who I really am."
He says before he became a household entitle 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 man named Guy from the Echo Park neighborhood of L.A. It was Guy's strange way of speaking that first inspired Reubens to build 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 couple hours" after Reubens last visited him.
Back when he was a Groundlings comic,
The late Paul Reubens made sure he got the final word when it came to his much-debated but never openly established 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 Modern York Post. “I spent my entire adult experience 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 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
'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 queer in the unused 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 help in the closet," Reubens says in the documentary. "My career would hold absolutely suffered if I was openly gay, so I went to amazing 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 association with Guy, a painter he lived with in Los Angeles in the 1970s.
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 in the 1980s, AIDS “scared the heck out of me.”
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