In 1997, the Screen Actors Guild award for best ensemble in a motion picture was expected to go to a “serious” nominee like The English Patient (which would go on to win the best picture Oscar), Sling Blade or Marvin’s Room (boasting a cast including Meryl Streep and Leonardo DiCaprio). But The Birdcage swooped in for a surprise win. 

Producer-director Mike Nichols and writer Elaine May had adapted the film from the French stage farce La Cage Aux Folles, moving the story of a gay couple who own a nightclub in Saint-Tropez to Miami, where Robin Williams and Nathan Lane, as Armand and Albert Goldman, become increasingly stressed out when Armand’s son, Val (Dan Futterman), comes to visit with his fiancée (Calista Flockhart) and her ultraconservative parents. The cast is rounded out by Hank Azaria as the Goldmans’ housekeeper, Christine Baranski as Val’s mother and Gene Hackman and Dianne Wiest as Republican Sen. Kevin Keeley and his wife, Louise. 

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The United Artists film, one of the first from a major studio to center on LGBT characters, flew to the top spot on the domestic box office chart after its opening weekend in March 1996 and was met with positive reviews. THR said it “delivers great performances … with many crowd-pleasing moments of hilarity,” and praised Lane in particular as “a triumph in the plum role of Albert, Arnold’s panicky, effeminate mate and star performer-in-drag on the stage of the Birdcage.” At the SAG Awards, Lane and Azaria were nominated individually in the supporting field, and Lane accepted the ensemble honor on behalf of the cast. In his speech, he thanked Robin Williams (who was not present) for his generosity and support: “I made a true friend, and this [trophy] is his more than anyone else’s.” Later, Lane admitted the win surprised him. “It was the year of the independent films, I didn’t think we had a chance,” he told THR at the time. “I was very glad to have a commercial success, finally!”

This story first appeared in a December stand-alone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.