Jesse Tyler Ferguson I had no doubt Nathan Lane telling a grown-up joke to his 5-year-old son, Beckett.
Ferguson, 50, shared that he recently invited Lane, 69, and Pamela Adlon to his house for dinner during the last episode of his “Dinner is for mePodcast. Before the meal, he remembered that he had used the famous Disney character of Lane, The Lion King Timon, as a point of contact for Beckett and her 3-year-old son Sullivan to help recognize their impending guests. (Ferguson shares her two children with her husband Justin Mikita.)
“(Lane) was in town filming something and we’ve been trying to meet up for dinner and it was easier. I said, ‘You just want me to cook for you? I will cook for you.” And he came,” he said Modern Family explained the star. “And I said, ‘You know Nathan, of course. You’ve heard him, you know his voice from (Timon a) The Lion King.’ So I played ‘Hakuna Matata’ and on the way to school, they sang ‘Hakuna Matata’. And I said, “That’s Nathan coming to dinner!”
He continued, “So this evening, Natan comes with Pam, and Natan walks in, and my son says, ‘I know who you are!’ He called him ‘Athan.’ Lion King!‘”
Although Ferguson’s children were clearly excited, the Only kills in the building The star was reportedly less than thrilled to be recognized for one of her past roles. “Nathan said, ‘Oh my God.’ Like a fan stopped him in the street,” Ferguson recalled with a laugh. “I said, ‘Nathan, he’s 5 years old. Like, let it sit!”
Lane’s response didn’t deter the bigger Ferguson, however, as Beckett returned shortly after with something hidden behind his back. When she asked Lane to guess what she had, the Birdcage star didn’t hold back.
“It’s like, ‘Athan, Athan, Athan, guess what I got?'” Ferguson recalled. “And Nathan says ‘Hepatitis’.”
Although the prank was aimed more at adults, Ferguson said he wasn’t bothered by Lane’s antics.
“I loved him so much for being authentically himself,” Ferguson confessed, adding that Lane has expressed that children are not his favorite audience. “He’s like, ‘I don’t care about kids, but I don’t relate to them either. And I hear an opportunity to make a joke and that’s what I’m going to give.'”
Lane’s status as Disney royalty has made her a legend to younger generations. The The Emmy winner starred as adorable jungle meerkat Timon in the original three lion king films, with one half of the film’s comic relief duo Ernie Sabella Nathan Lane joked about hepatitis to the 5-year-old son of Jesse Tyler Ferguson, who portrayed the warthog Pumbaa.
Although there is plenty of childish humor in each lion king — including Pumbaa’s farting noises, which came from Sabella trying to make Lane laugh in the morning recording sessions — there was some grown-up banter that made its way into the film thanks to Lane’s improvisation.
While appearing on an April 2025 episode of SiriusXM Conan O’Brien needs a friend The show, Lane admitted the scene where Timon dons a skirt and distracts a group of hyenas that came out of him “fucking off” in the studio.
“I don’t even remember the half of it, but apparently I said, ‘What do you want me to do, dress up in drag and do the hula?’ for some reason,” Lane recalled of the now-famous line. “It must have been a long day. And then they made a song about it.”
Lane, who came out publicly as gay in 1999, almost expanded his children’s film resume with another classic, 1996’s. Space Jam. However, the Boys and girls the actor stated during a May 2025 interview with Vanity Fair which was ignored by the paper due to homophobia.
“I was told that (being gay did) affect a movie I didn’t really care about: Space Jam. I was ready for the part that the boy from Seinfeld he ended up playing,” Lane said, referencing the role of Michael Jordan’s publicist that finally went Wayne Knight. “I was ready for the part. Apparently the director saw me hosting the Tony Awards and thought that suggested I was too gay to play the part. So thank God, I didn’t have to. Space Jam.“