Paul reubens is gay

Paul Reubens is sharing his truth from beyond the grave. In a posthumous documentary, Pee-wee as Himself, which premiered Thursday, Jan. 23 at the Sundance Film Festival, the legendary. We Are Not Sure if Paul Reubens Was Gay or Not! Paul Reubens, best known for his role as Pee-wee Herman, kept his sexuality a secret, fueling conjecture about his sexual orientation. After his death, many fans have wondered with curiosity whether he might be gay, or was related to LGBTQ community.

While rumors had long swirled around Reubens—especially after a notorious incident at an adult theater in ’91—his comic creation was already embraced by the LGBTQ+ community well before that. In the documentary, Reubens admits to what’s underneath the silly surface: “Yes, there’s a gay subtext to Pee-wee’s Playhouse.” The art of drag is a vernacular in understanding Reubens’ work that. Paul Reubens, best known for playing the character Pee-wee Herman, comes out and discusses his sexual orientation in a posthumous, two-part documentary from HBO that just had its world premiere.

The late Paul Reubens made sure he got the final word when it came to his much-debated but never openly acknowledged sexuality. The beloved actor came out as a gay man in the posthumous documentary , 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 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 After being unexpectedly thrust into the spotlight, the star chose to put his professional ambitions ahead of his personal life.

Despite refusing to come out as gay 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 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.

To be able to get your message in at the last minute, at some point, is incredible.

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Pee-wee as Himself , a two-part documentary, will be released on HBO sometime later this year. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. Michael Ochs Archives via Getty Images.