Nathan Lane is remembering his time on set with the late Gene Hackman.

The Producers star recalled working on The Birdcage with the two-time Oscar winner, who died last month at age 95. “I think I told him every morning he was my favorite actor,” Lane said during an interview with Stephen Colbert on The Late Show. 

In Mike Nichols’ 1996 comedy film, Lane portrays one-half of a gay couple (alongside Robin Williams) who anxiously prepare to meet their son’s ultra-conservative future in-laws (Hackman and Dianne Wiest). The movie culminates with an extended dinner gathering where the two couples finally meet for the first time — and, surprisingly, they get along, as Lane’s character makes the last-minute decision to disguise himself as a woman so that the central couple appears straight.

“When we were shooting that scene, that dinner scene, we were all at a table for a whole week, so every morning, I would tell him he was my favorite actor, and I would say, ‘Tell me about The Conversation. Tell me about Scarecrow — you and [Al] Pacino,'” Lane recalled. “And he would go, ‘Scarecrow? You liked Scarecrow?’ He was like Spencer Tracy: you couldn’t catch him acting, he could do comedy or drama beautifully, and he was such a smart actor. It was the thrill of a lifetime to get to work with him.”

Lane said that Hackman perfectly matched his own improvisational swings on set. “He was brilliant at comedy, and I do remember we had a scene where he and I are dancing, and we’re singing ‘I Could Have Danced All Night,'” Lane said, referring to the song from My Fair Lady. “And then at the end, we’re leaving the scene. We’re going into dinner. And I ad-libbed, I said, ‘You know, I played Eliza in high school,’ and he said, ‘I bet you were wonderful.’ There’s kind of a slight flirtation going on there, which was hilarious.”

Lane concluded, “He was such, one of the greats of the screen, and I was just very fortunate to share that time with him.”

Hackman was found dead in his home in Santa Fe on Feb. 26 alongside his wife, classical pianist Betsy Arakawa. It was later determined that the French Connection star died around Feb. 17 from heart disease with Alzheimer’s disease as a significant contributory factor, while Arakawa died from hantavirus pulmonary syndrome. 

Hackman’s death prompted several tributes from former collaborators and admirers, including Clint Eastwood, Bill Murray, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Francis Ford Coppola. 

Morgan Freeman, who starred in Unforgiven with Hackman, paid tribute to his late costar during the In Memoriam segment at the 97th Oscars in March. “Gene always said, ‘I don’t ever think about legacy, I just hope that people remember me as someone who tried to do good work,'” Freeman recalled. “I think I speak for us all when I say, Gene, you’ll be remembered for that, and for so much more. Rest in peace, my friend.”

Elsewhere in the Late Show interview, Lane took several swipes at President Trump’s takeover of the Kennedy Center. “The new season that he’s preparing is very troubling. Like tomorrow night, they have a youth choir made up entirely of Elon Musk’s children,” Lane joked. “Because Hamilton canceled its engagement, they’re producing Lee Greenwood’s old rap musical tribute to Ronald Reagan starring Kanye West. It’s called Trickle-Down.”

He continued, “That’s followed by a new production of The Sound of Music told from the point of view of the Nazis. Trust me, you don’t wanna hear the list of their favorite things. And then, as if that wasn’t enough, he just canceled an appearance by the Gay Men’s Chorus, which upset a lot of people, especially all those conservative Republicans on Grindr.”

Watch Lane’s full conversation with Colbert above.