Nathan Lane is opening up about the improvisation that led to an iconic moment in The Lion King
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The Broadway star, 70, shared that his improvised line even led to a song in the film
Lane played the meerkat Timon in the 1994 Disney hit, which went on to become the highest-grossing movie of 1994 at the domestic box office
Nathan Laneis opening up about the improvisation that led to one of the most iconic moments inThe Lion King.
During an appearance onThe Viewon Thursday, March 12, the 70-year-old actor— who is set to star in a new Broadway production of Arthur Miller'sDeath of a Salesmanon April 9— spoke about working with one of the talk show's longtime hostsWhoopi Goldbergon the 1994 Disney hit, in which he played Timon, the meerkat, and Goldberg played the hyena Shenzi.
"Did you ad-lib any of that?" fellow host Sara Haines asked during the episode. "Because I get Nathan Lane from that character. And I mean that in the best way."
"Oh, sure!" the Broadway star responded, sharing candidly that he doesn't "really remember" exactly what he improvised during the recording process, but that there definitely "was some improv going on."
"But apparently, this was an ad-lib that I did, I said, 'What do you want me to do? Dress in drag and do the hula?' And then they wrote a song around it," Lane revealed.
The writers were clearly thrilled with the added line, as they later created a short luau song for Timon, in which he wears a grass skirt and coconut bra while dancing to lure hyenas away.
"But you know, Ernie Sabella, who plays Pumbaa...we would record early in the mornings, and we were doingGuys and Dollsat the time on Broadway," Lane continued. "And to amuse me, he would make fart noises while doing his lines [demonstrates blowing into his hand to make a fart noise]. And I would laugh."
"Then they put it in the movie andthey made Pumbaa the first flatulent character in a Disney film," he joked.
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Speaking toEntertainment Weeklyin 2024, Lane and Sabella spoke about how their meerkat and warthog characters were created specifically for them during the audition process.
Lane told the outlet that the pair "improvised a bit and had a lot of fun" while auditioning for the three low-level villain roles, but figured they hadn't landed any part in the movie until Disney reached out and said they wanted to write new characters tailor-made for the duo.
"They said they were developing these new characters called Timon and Pumbaa, a meerkat and a warthog, for us," Lane said, "and that we would be the comic relief in this Shakespearean tale of lions."
The pair also spoke about the origins of the warthog's farting, which Sabella admitted was a way to entertain Lane "and to get the ball rolling" after a long weekend of Broadway performances.
"I just started making these sounds as he was reading his lines. He kept laughing, going, 'Don't do that, don't do that.' I said, 'I'll stop' — and then I kept doing it," he said. "That's the story of how Pumbaa became the first and only Disney character with flatulence."
The Lion King —which also starred Goldberg, Jeremy Irons,Matthew Broderick,James Earl Jones,Rowan Atkinsonand more — went on to become the highest-grossing movie of 1994 at thedomestic box officeand is still a beloved family film decades later.
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