Paul Reubens, better known as his on-screen persona “Pee-wee Herman,” came out posthumously in a recently released documentary.The documentary, Pee-wee as Himself, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 23. It features Reubens — who died in July 2023 at age 70 — reflecting on his life and rumors about his sexuality. Reubens discusses why he hid his sexuality after becoming famous in the 1980s for his portrayal of Pee-wee, a character Reubens developed as part of the Groundlings, a noted improvisational comedy troupe.“I hid behind an alter ego,” Reubens says in the film, as first reported by The New York Post.
“I spent my entire adult life hiding [that] 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.”Pee-wee became nationally beloved as the title character in the Emmy Award-winning Saturday morning children’s television show, Pee-wee’s Playhouse, which ran from 1986 to 1990. As a result, Reubens decided to closet himself professionally.“I was out of the closet, and then I went back in the closet,” Reubens says in the documentary, which is crafted from 40 hours of interviews done before his death. “I wasn’t pursuing the Paul Reubens career.
I was pursuing the Pee-wee Herman career.”Reubens recalls how he had “many, many secret relationships” at the height of his career. One of those relationships was with a man from Los Angeles named Guy, who reportedly inspired some of Pee-wee Herman’s most iconic catchphrases. Guy later died of AIDS.The comedian also laments how his career came to a halt after his 1991 arrest for indecent exposure at an adult movie theater in Florida.
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