‘The Wedding Banquet’ 2025 trailer: Bowen Yang stars in new movie
A gay man (Han Gi-Chan) and his lesbian friend (Kelly Marie Tran) hatch a plan for a green card marriage in this remake of Ang Lee’s 1993 movie.
NEW YORK – For Lily Gladstone, making “The Wedding Banquet” was an act of self-care.
The Oscar-nominated actress has wowed critics with her dramatic turns in “Killers of the Flower Moon” and Hulu’s “Under the Bridge.” But her new romantic comedy (in theaters April 18) was a chance for Gladstone, 38, to revel in queer joy, playing a community organizer named Lee who’s trying to have a baby with her partner, Angela (Kelly Marie Tran).
“I had the instinct this was going to be a really high-quality-of-life picture, beyond just being a great film,” says Gladstone, sipping green juice in a Midtown hotel on a recent rainy afternoon.
Shooting in Vancouver last summer, the cast connected over weekend hikes, reality TV and “Mamma Mia!,” as performed by a local Korean choir. It was a meaningful bonding experience for Tran, 36, a “Star Wars” alum who came out publicly as queer last fall.
“It was so wonderful to be in an environment where we were all celebrating this particular part of our identity,” Tran says. “It was a really special feeling, to be part of this chosen family we created while making a film about chosen family.”
We’ve got room on the couch! Sign up for USA TODAY’s Watch Party newsletter for more TV & film news.
Among many other things, “Wedding Banquet” explores the tension between Angela and her mom, May (Joan Chen), who initially spurns her daughter after coming out but later tries to course-correct as an exceedingly public LGBTQ advocate.
Tran and Gladstone, who uses she/they pronouns, open up about the heartfelt movie.
Question: Growing up, what was a formative piece of queer media for you?
Kelly Marie Tran: “Rent.” (Laughs.) I’m such a musical theater kid and “Rent” was huge for me. There’s a wealth of queer representation in that, between the different couples and every single reference in “La Vie Bohème.”
Lily Gladstone: If you revisit any film through the right lens with enough self-awareness, anything could be representation. Retroactively, I loved the elves in “Lord of the Rings” because they’re so androgynous. I was also really inspired by a 1970 film called “Little Big Man.” It’s one of the first times you see a Two-Spirit character onscreen, in a culture where gender fluidity and queerness are acknowledged and upheld.
The first time I got to work with fluidity as an actor was in “Certain Women,” although I didn’t realize how much I identified with it because it was such a natural part of me. It’s not something that was front and center about that narrative – it was just allowed to exist within a character who didn’t have a full grasp on it themselves.
Reading this script, was there a storyline that you felt you hadn’t seen depicted with such nuance before?
Tran: The relationship between May and Angela is one that I completely relate to. Not just the repressed resentment that Angela feels, but even after Angela confronts her mother, they never really resolve what happened. May just starts showing up in a different way, and that to me is so Asian. In my family as well, there are these deep-seated resentments that never get resolved and you just talk around things.
Was there a particular moment when the two of you clicked?
Gladstone: We just found this ease with each other very quickly. I walked into this film with admiration and protectiveness of Kelly because of the journey she went on, breaking down a huge door for representation. I was raised on “Star Wars,” and she helped carve out a space for so many other people in that (franchise). Having come off my own little pop of too much exposure and attention (with “Flower Moon”), I was very impressed by and protective of Kelly.
Tran: You’ve never said that thing to me about the protectiveness, but I felt it the whole time. You’re the most down-to-earth human being, and on top of that, such a generous actor.
Kelly, how did this movie help you come into your own queerness?
Tran: There’s less justification now. I don’t feel like I have to explain myself, or justify parts of my identity, or the way that I’m thinking – there’s just more acceptance and openness. That was really exciting for me. Oftentimes, I have previously found myself in spaces where not only did I feel like I had to justify my queerness, but also my Asianness. Here, none of that existed. I was like, “Oh, I can breathe,” so that was really special.
Lily, you come from a theater background. Was comedy always a natural register for you to play in?
Gladstone: Anybody from my community who saw me being a hammy, performative kid thought I was going to end up on “Saturday Night Live,” or with my own show like “Roseanne,” before she was so problematic. Let’s say Fran Drescher in “The Nanny.” (Laughs.) My default as a kid was the class clown who played these big, outlandish characters onstage. Comedy has always been where I’ve wanted to go, so it took everybody by surprise that I ended up being such an effective dramatic actor. But all my closest friends who have seen the film say this feels the most like hanging out with me.
In one of the film’s funniest scenes, Lee and Angela have to “de-queer” their house before Min (Han Gi-Chan) and his grandmother (Youn Yuh-Jung) arrive. What would you personally have to hide?
Gladstone: I’ve got some suggestive candles that would need to be put away. I have beaded vagina earrings, too.
Tran: I have a vagina magnet I got at a queer art fair, which is just a vagina with teeth. (Laughs.) I feel like if we were shooting that scene in my home, we’d be taking all the stuff down.
Leave a Reply