Cherry Jones has good gaydar.
When the Tony-winning actress was growing up, she adored and felt inspired by Lily Tomlin.
“Even though she wasn’t out, we all knew she was gay,” Jones, 64, exclusively told Page Six at the New York premiere of “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” Tuesday.
Tomlin didn’t formally come out until she married her partner of 42 years, Jane Wagner, in 2013, though she once said “everybody in the industry was certainly aware” of her sexuality.
Jones included, as it turns out.
“When I was a teenager, she was sort of my guiding star because I didn’t know any other lesbians,” the Broadway legend told us of the “Grace and Frankie” star. “I don’t even really know how I knew she was gay except there was this little thing on that album that she did in the ’70s. She said something like, ‘What is it like to play a real-life heterosexual on TV?’ or something like that.”
Jones went on to date architect Mary O’Connor for 18 years and Sarah Paulson for five years before marrying filmmaker Sophie Huber in 2015.
The “Succession” star said unlike other members of the LGBTQIA+ community, being out has never hurt her career.
“I did mostly theater and, as you know, theater is rife with homosexuality,” she said with a laugh. “So it was never a problem in the theater. Had I been a 25-year-old femme fatale 30 years ago and starring in films, it might have been, but it was not my problem.”
The last few years have been extraordinarily productive for the decorated actress. She’s won Emmys for her turns in “Succession” and “The Handmaid’s Tale” and can be seen as late evangelist Tammy Faye Bakker’s mom in “The Eyes of Tammy Faye.”
“I didn’t even want to go into television and film until I was in my 40s, until I started to realize that there were actually more roles for 40-year-olds in television and film than there were in the theater,” she marveled. “You would think there would be more roles for older people in the theater, but it’s television and film now. I was born at the right time because at almost 65, I’m getting to work with such amazing young people!”