Late Pee-wee Herman actor discusses sexuality for first time, painful scandals in final interview

PARK CITY, Utah — Better known for his broad smile and silly voices, Pee-wee Herman actor Paul Reubens becomes rawly emotional in the documentary “Pee-wee as Himself,” which premiered Thursday night at the Sundance Film Festival.The revealing two-part movie, which will eventually air on HBO, features the final interviews with Reubens, who died of cancer in July 2023 at age 70. Director Matt Wolf sat with the funny actor for 40 hours over the course of a year to reflect on his life as a closeted gay man, his showbiz career and agonizing sex scandals. The moving doc also includes the last audio recording Reubens made on the day before his death.“More than anything, the reason I wanted to make 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,” he says in a weak voice.“To be labeled a pariah; to have people be scared of you, or untrusting.”The movie also gave ailing Reubens a chance to tell his side of things.

Early in the film, the actor, who had kept his cancer diagnosis quiet, says, “Death is just so final … To be able to get your message in at the last minute, at some point, is incredible.”Born in Peekskill, New York, Reubens never publicly came out of the closet.But the doc reveals that well before Pee-wee became a worldwide sensation, the actor had a boyfriend named Guy from Echo Park in Los Angeles, whose humorous vocal tics were a vital inspiration for the comedian’s defining character. Guy had a bit where he’d say things such as, “Mmmm! Buttery!” in a Yoda-like brogue.“You can see where that led me,” Reubens says. Reubens debuted Pee-wee Herman while performing with comedy troupe the Groundlings in 1981, and when his Pee-wee stage show exploded in LA, the actor chose to conceal his private life entirely.“I was out of the closet, and then I went back in the closet,” he says in the movie.

“I wasn’t pursuing the Paul Reubens career; I was pursui...