Nathan Lee Graham is working alongside actors he admires, and as he put it: “It doesn’t get any better than that.”
Graham, 56, stars with Matt Bowers and Nathan Lane in the new Hulu comedy series Mid-Century Modern, premiering on Friday, March 28.
“I am a fan of Matt Bowers. I’m a fan of Nathan Lanes. I’m a fan of the great Linda Lavin,” Graham told Us Weekly exclusively at the show’s Los Angeles premiere on Tuesday, March 25. “When you get a chance to work with people that you’re a fan of, it’s like magic. And then the support goes both ways and they’re so generous. They’re so lovely. We’re having, actually, a really good time and I love them.”
Mid-Century Modern, developed by Will & Grace creators Max Mutchnick and David Cohan, revolves around three gay men of a certain age and the wealthiest man’s mother, all living together in Palm Springs. It’s drawn comparisons to a modern version of The Golden Girls, which ran on NBC from 1985 to 1992.
Graham is just fine with the comparisons to the popular sitcom. Though his character doesn’t hail from St. Olaf and he won’t be regaling his castmates with stories from old Sicily, he sees himself in each of the iconic characters.
“Listen, I’m every woman. It’s all in me,” he joked. “When I wake up, I’m Dorothy. When I go to the restroom maybe, and to get myself together, I’m Blanche. When I’m driving, I’m like, ‘Oh my God, where am I going?’ I’m Rose. And when I get home I’m tired as f—. I’m Sophia. So I’m all the women.”
More importantly, Graham also acknowledges that he is the only lead queer character of color on the show and he takes the responsibility seriously.
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“My grandmother said to me on her deathbed, ‘outlast them.’ And I think that’s a metaphor for everyone in the world,” he explained. “I think my activism comes in my doing right. My job is to show up, represent as a full-throated human being with lots of dimension. And if you see yourself in anything that I do or Matt does, or Nathan Lane or Linda Lavin, celebrate that. Become more of yourself. Lean in. Don’t lean back. Lean in because when you lean in, the fear just goes away. And so we’re all leaning in, we’re all celebrating, and we all want to love ourselves. That’s what I want people to get from the show.”
In addition to Graham, Lane, Bowers and Levin, Mid-Century Modern will bring on several major guest stars. Pamela Adlon, Vanessa Bayer, Kimberly Coles, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Judd Hirsch, Richard Kind, Stephanie Koenig, Billie Lourd, Esther Moon Wu, Jaime Moyer, Cheri Oteri, Rhea Perlman and Zane Phillips will all appear on the series.
With reporting by Mariel Turner.
