BUSTLE published its special Queer Love Issue, featuring cover star Bowen Yang ahead of the release of his new rom-com, THE WEDDING BANQUET.
In the wide-ranging and in-depth profile, the SNL fan-favorite Yang opens up about everything from being on the husband search, to the dissociative breakdown he had while filming WICKED, and where his parents currently stand with his sexuality.
On how the tenderness on display in The Wedding Banquet has changed his perception on dating: “locked me into this notion, finally — not that I was ever a slut — of like, ‘I’ve got to be on the husband search…I can’t suffer these fools anymore.”
On his dissociative breakdown while filming Wicked: “I’m not here to talk about how fame is hard or something…but I’m saying we’ve never been more aware, as late millennials to older Gen Zers, of how to protect yourself because you know exactly how dangerous and noxious and horrible it is to be regarded in any capacity.”
On how he re-grounded himself: “I had to bottom out in a way…Please have that be the pull quote…It was just knowing that there are things you have to know about yourself. I think the thing about your 30s is that you have to start facing yourself. It’s such an eye rolly thing to say. But I think that’s what the White Lotus was about.”
On how things are today with his parents (after they sent him to a conversion camp when he was younger): “They don’t want to hear all the nitty-gritty shit, but they’re asking if I’m dating anybody. I never thought it would get to that point.”
On being back in NYC: “I’m such an asshole here…there’s just something in the air here.”
On his new washer-dryer: “I felt like I was at the f*ckin’ Ritz.”
On turning down being grand marshal of the Queer Liberation March: “It was a lot of my own personal inadequacy and my own inferiority complex…I was like, give it to the elders. I think the year before it was Miss Major…I’m not ever going to be on that kind of pedestal. Someone like her is, was, and always will be.”
On watching The Wedding Banquet for the first time while closeted at NYU: “It ends on this very uncertain tone…There’s a moment of affection, then it’s awkward. And that was something I had to be in bed with, because I was just like, ‘See, this is my life.’”
On representation in film today: “I still haven’t quite made up my mind on what the agreed-upon history of representation has been for Asian people and queer people…I don’t know if I necessarily like the current state of queer storytelling over the way it was 20 years ago. They’re all valid.”
On why representation isn’t his main motivation: “If that’s purely the motivating thing, then I don’t know — it literally is disembodying. Then it’s not about me. It’s like when you can’t fall asleep because you’re so out of your own symbiotic reality.”
On feeling like a true New Yorker: “As long as I can remember, it was always about going to the East Coast…I was romanticizing this idea of being here for so long, and now I’m like, ‘I’ve collected every New Yorker badge.’”
On how queer comedians used to be “siloed away”: “There’d be the one gay guy in improv, one gay guy in a sketch group. You’d have a lesbian stand-up you would run into once a year…There was no queer comedy exchange, no dial-up.”
On finding community in queer comedy with fellow comedians like Julio Torres, Patti Harrison, and Sydney Washington: “You had these people who had this shorthand with you, that you could drop your shoulders around…Like tapping into the same frequency.”
On working with Andrew Ahn on The Wedding Banquet: “I’ve had so many lucky moments and breaks in life…Knowing him, meeting him, and working with him ranks probably number one…He’s my favorite person, my favorite filmmaker.”
On if he’ll be staying in NYC: “I think I’m a lifer…It takes time to build that sh*t up anywhere you are, especially here, and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to give that up. I’m never going to abandon them.”
[Photo Credit: Katie McCurdy for Bustle Magazine]
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