Jan 25
After Pee-wee's Success, Paul Reubens Returned to the Closet
READ TIME: 4 MIN.
Watch a 1981 interview with Paul Reubens where he discusses how Pee-wee Herman came about.
"Despite never having come out of the closet while he was alive, he had a boyfriend named Guy before his Hollywood career skyrocketed," writes Page Six.
"When Reubens' Pee-wee Herman character started gaining traction, he decided to keep his sexual orientation private."
In his interviews with Wolf, Reubens said: ""[It was] self-hatred or self-preservation. It was conflicted about sexuality. But fame was way more complicated."
"I was out of the closet, and then I went back in the closet," he said in the doc. "I wasn't pursuing the Paul Reubens career, I was pursuing the Pee-wee Herman career."
Reubens recalled visiting Guy in the hospital when he was dying of AIDS.
"To talk about seeing someone at death's door. He probably died a couple hours after that," Reubens shared.
He said Guy inspired Pee-wee's trademark line, "Mmmm! Chocolatey!"
In the doc Reubens admitted that he had "many, many secret relationships" but that his career always came before his love life.
He added gthat "hid behind an alter-ego" and shared that he never told anyone that he was a "huge weed head" or that he was gay.
