Bowen Yang, Lily Gladstone, Han Gi-chan and Kelly Marie Tran discuss the power and unexpected radicalism of their latest film, 'The Wedding Banquet'.
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00:00What does it sort of mean to you to have a movie like this coming out now in this political climate?
00:05I am kind of blown away that we have a billboard on Sunset.
00:10We're by the Lincoln Center.
00:12Our faces are two floors of a dang building.
00:16And it's such a pretty poster.
00:18I know, it's a really pretty poster.
00:20Yeah, it's not lost on any of us.
00:22I don't think that it is kind of rare.
00:25It has, I don't know, it doesn't have too many asterisks on it.
00:29Like, we had a great time making it.
00:31We have a great time promoting it.
00:33We hope that audiences like it.
00:35And I think there is something sort of miraculous about all of those things lining up,
00:40especially at a time when it feels just hostile to be anything other than something that feels hegemonic in American culture.
00:49And I think it's weird.
00:53Like, a lot of the press, I thought it hasn't occurred to me specifically, speaking for myself.
00:58I'm like, I need to remind myself that this is important for a lot of different reasons.
01:03So, we hope there's just a different entry point for people who want either levity or something that feels very politically important to watch right now.
01:13Yeah, it was made with such love and such an acceptance and acknowledgement of reality.
01:18And you're brought into a family that, you know, in some ways it does feel like a bit of a queer utopia, this household that we would come into.
01:25But creating those spaces on film, you know, art and storytelling has this transcendent power in the real world.
01:34We get a model of what we want the world to look like, the world that we want to generate and create ourselves.
01:39We knew that this was going to be a resonant film and an important one.
01:45We didn't anticipate it was going to become suddenly radical again.
01:49You know, it felt like when we made it just an acceptance of a culture that had changed since the original.
01:55And then now suddenly love is a radical choice again.
01:59I don't know much about like this community here, but I could say that it's not always late to say the right things.
02:08And this movie, by seeing this movie, we can feel it's just about like personal stories and choosing their own family is a very special moment to each person's lives.
02:24And you could feel that in this movie. You should watch it.
02:28I wrapped it, okay?
02:30Perfect. Perfect. Perfect.
02:33What was the most fun day to shoot on set?
02:36Every day. For me. For me. Every day. Like, I didn't feel like working.
02:41I felt like it's like I was always hanging out with like every scene.
02:46I was like hanging out with Chris. I'm hanging out with you, dear guys.
02:49And I thought for me, especially I thought English and acting could be a difficult one for me.
02:56But I was just happy every scene.
02:59Well, I could say, except with Harmony scene, which would, you know.
03:04My mother. Yeah.
03:05YJ. And it's kind of like a, I actually had a real kind of a pressure in my heart.
03:12Because she's actual legend in Korea and in the global. So, except for that scene.
03:18Terrified.
03:20Yes.
03:22And Bowen, you previously were in Fire Island. What was it like filming this versus filming that?
03:29Well, this was so lovely in terms of it being this intergenerational comedy.
03:34I feel like Fire Island was so rewarding. I love everybody involved in that film.
03:41What I think all of the Fire Island cast will not miss is us doing push-ups in between takes.
03:46Just to like, because we had to be shirtless. And I'm like, thank God.
03:49I mean, I did have to be shirtless once in this movie. Spoiler alert.
03:52But otherwise, I was like, oh, thank goodness I don't have to be around like, you know, these actors who we all were guilty of just like that vanity aspect.
04:03And that's just gay male culture that I'm going to set aside over here.
04:07That does not touch any aspect of this movie.
04:10But anyway, I loved, I've loved both of those films.
04:13I really loved the scene in this where everybody's trying to like get rid of all of the gay paraphernalia from the house.
04:21What are we supposed to do exactly?
04:23We're going to dequeer the house.
04:24You.
04:25What?
04:26You look gay.
04:28What's the one thing in your home that you're like, oh, I'd have to hide this for sure?
04:33My doormat is a rainbow. So before you even go in the house, that's got to flip over and just, oh, it's an oblong shape.
04:41Oblong shape.
04:44Which can also be queer.
04:46Oblong is a queer shape.
04:48Oblong is a queer shape.
04:50My whole closet, all my clothes are pretty, pretty queer.
04:57That's a dead, that's a tell. That's a giveaway.
05:00There was a like bath bomb I presented to this cast.
05:05I'm still picking glitter off my skin.
05:08Yeah.
05:09That was a, that was a unicorn bomb with a rainbow corn, right?
05:13And pink glitter.
05:14Yes.
05:15Like the bathtub, it's translucent pink undulating glitter.
05:19And for me, I, I would say the queer thing in my house was myself because the poster I have in this home is my first debut film and which is queer, queer film in Korea, which I was debuted for as an actor. And we have this poster in our living room and maybe I should take out, take myself out in the first place.
05:44I have a bunch of queer art in my house, but I don't consider it queer art. I just like, I, it's just art, right? But then I have people come over and they're like, that's really gay. And I'm like, okay.
05:56Yeah.
05:57And still hard of like comparing, is it gay or not? I'm still good.
06:00Yeah.
06:01Well that, I feel like that's also part of that scene when we're dequeering stuff and there's like that moment of like, that's not, she's not going to get that.
06:07Right.
06:08Right.
06:09Yeah.
06:10Right.
06:14Right.
06:15He, and settled.
06:16Okay.
06:17He's, he's, as we saw Dann-