There’s a scene in Andrew Ahn’s The Wedding Banquet where queer characters played by Bowen Yang, Kelly Marie Tran, and Lily Gladstone frantically run through their home removing objects that would give away the fact that they’re gay.
“We gotta de-queer the house,” Yang’s Chris instructs Angela (Tran) and Lee (Gladstone) upon hearing that his boyfriend Min’s grandmother has flown in from Korea when she learns that her grandson plans to marry Angela. The trio hides lesbian literature, DVDs of The L Word, sapphic art, and a Lilith Fair poster as Chris explains that the Indigo Girls are surprisingly popular in Korea.
Lily Gladstone and Kelly Marie Tran in The Wedding Banquet Bleecker Street / Shiv Han Pictures
The Wedding Banquet is a retelling of Ang Lee’s seminal 1993 film of the same name for a new generation. In the new film, Angela and Lee are a couple in the throes of IVF treatments that haven’t worked, leaving them financially overextended and heartbroken. Meanwhile, Min (Han Gi-chan), an artist whose trust from his grandparents is reliant upon his working for the family corporation, and Chris, a perpetual student and bird enthusiast, have been together for five years. But Chris won’t commit to marrying Min. The de-gaying scene ensues when Min hatches a scheme to marry Angela: He’ll get his green card and pay for IVF for their friends Lee and Angela. Everybody wins.
De-queering some homes is easier than others. When asked what they’d remove first if they had to hide the gayest object in their space, the cast, including out stars Gladstone, Yang, and Tran, had some hilarious queer giveaways. “I got a rainbow doormat,” Gladstone (Fancy Dance and Under the Bridge) says. “You’re not even in the door yet.”
Yang says his entire nightstand has to go, including one special item that is hot political topic of the moment.
“I'm going to go there. I've got a nightstand drawer that's got too many suspicious things. You know what I mean?” the Saturday Night Live star teases. “Now it’s like a treasure trove. I've got all my poppers. They are going to be illegal soon,” he says, referring to the Trump administration’s war on poppers and other sex accessories.
“Sell those on eBay,” Yang jokes about starting an underground poppers business.
Han Gi-Chan and Bowen Yang in The Wedding Banquet Bleecker Street / Shiv Han Pictures
The Last Jedi and Rise of Skywalker star Tran says the gayest thing in her home is her art.
“I have so much queer art in my house that I don't think is, I wouldn't be like, That's queer art. I'm just like, That's art,” Tran shares. “But then, when other people come over, they're like, That's really gay. And I'm like, Huh. I guess it is. There's that interpretation for sure.”
A star in Korea, Han says he’d have to remove a poster of himself in the TV series Where Your Eyes Linger.
“I realized that the first gay thing in my house is me because there's a poster of a queer series I filmed in Korea, which was also my debut film ever as an actor. And my parents are proud of it. And they put it in the wall of the living room.”
The Wedding Banquet costars Joan Chen (The Last Emperor, Saving Face) as Angela’s glamorous PFLAG-loving mother and Oscar winner for Minari, Youn Yuh-jung, as Min’s grandmother.
The film is in theaters on April 18. See the cast interview above and the trailer below.
