Like many films, the new version of “The Wedding Banquet” hits differently in 2025 than when it was filmed a little over a year ago. The original 1993 movie was a breakout for an up-and-coming Ang Lee at the time. The storyline followed a Taiwanese immigrant who marries a Chinese woman to help her get a green card. When his parents show up, he has to hide his relationship with his American gay boyfriend. 32 years later, “Fire Island” auteur Andrew Ahn has collaborated with screenwriter James Schamus on a version that flips the narrative in several directions.
READ MORE: “‘Fire Island” Review: Joel Kim Booster and Andrew Ahn deliver an instant Queer Romcom Classic
Set in Seattle, Washington, Chris (Bowen Yang) and Lee (Han Gi-chan) have been living in the guest house of another couple, Angela (Kelly Marie Tran) and Lee (Lily Gladstone). Things get complicated when Lee’s grandmother, Ja-Young (“Minari” Oscar winner Youn Yuh-jung), wants the artist to return home to Korea to help run the lucrative family business. After Chris can’t commit to marrying Lee to keep him in the states, he decides to ask Angela to marry him in exchange for covering another expensive in vitro fertilization attempt for the Lesbian couple. When Ja-Young shows up out of the blue to throw a formal wedding for the Korean media, things get even more complicated (and, yes, hilarity ensues).
The movie focuses on the power of chosen family for LGBTQ+ couples. It feels like a beacon of positivity in an era where the rights the characters possess feel like they could be torn away at any moment. Gladstone, who bravely continues to speak her mind, admits the cast and crew were not intending to make a “heavily political film.”
“We wanted to make something that was true and beautiful and felt like a film that you want to see children raised in, that you want to be a part of yourself,” Gladstone says. “And I think the ebb and flow of whatever is going on, whoever sits in office, whatever that pendulum swing is, that’s an everlasting thing. Family and love is everlasting. So, when we made it, I guess we were in much better times and not really doing so with the intent of creating something that was going to end up being such, what turns out to be good medicine for people.”
The SAG Award winner also reminds us that, “I think the antidote to that is joy as resistance offering these spaces for people to recover. Why we go to the movies anyway, to just kind of like maybe detach from reality, maybe tune into reality, whatever it is.”
Yang adds, “It’s like how they accidentally invented penicillin. I feel we did that with the movie. We stumbled on it. We stumbled on the medicine on accident.”
Over the course of our converstion earlier this week, Gladstone revealed how Yang was a part of both her and her mother’s lives for years before they ever met each other, we discuss the swath of people who think Gladstone has hosted “Saturday Night Live” (spoiler: she hasn’t…yet), how Yang still can’t remember saying “yes” to star in the movie in the first place, and much more.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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The Playlist: I was lucky enough to be at the Sundance premiere and it made me cry. When you made this movie, however, the world was a very different place. What are your feelings about it coming out into the world in this era?
Lily Gladstone: We didn’t intend to make this some heavily political film. We wanted to make something that was true and beautiful and felt like a film that you want to see children raised in, that you want to be a part of yourself. And I think the ebb and flow of whatever is going on, whoever sits in office, whatever that pendulum swing is, that’s an everlasting thing. Family and love is everlasting. So, when we made it, I guess we were in much better times and not really doing so with the intent of creating something that was going to end up being such, what turns out to be good medicine for people. I think because a big part of the conversation, there’s this huge wave of first-time protesters, now there’s a huge wave of people who have a fire lit under them to get politically active. And that can be navigating that space. There’s every form of development, every developmental stage. There’s a lot of fear, there’s a lot of uncertainty. I mean, fatigue is a real thing when you’re, and that’s kind of by design, right? This kind of onslaught of attack after attack after attack and every community represented in the film is in a way under attack now. And I feel like the offense wants you to get fatigued. Do they want you to get worn down? They want you to be on the defensive to the point that you’re going to just exhaust yourself. You’re going to want to fight back. They want you to fight dirty the way that they do. And I think the antidote to that is joy as resistance, offering these spaces for people to recover. Why do we go to the movies anyway, to just kind of like maybe detach from reality, maybe tune into reality, whatever it is.
Storytelling has a prescriptive power. Watching a story or engaging or being told a certain story can completely transform your being in that moment. So, this being a love letter to love, I think about my character Lee, and the wonderful affirmation Andrew gave me of allowing me to indigenize her to name her as Duwamish. The Duwamish were granted federal recognition after a long fight by the Carter administration, and then it was taken away by the Bush administration. So, for decades, generations, ever since the longhouses were burnt down, the treaties were signed in. Duwamish were forcibly removed from what’s now Seattle, named after the Duwamish chief, the leader who signed the Point Elliott Treaty. Seattle Duwamish remain regardless of what the federal government is saying about your right to exist or acknowledging your very existence, they remain. And I think that’s such a powerful guiding light in times when there’s a lot of attempts at erasure. One of my old students who was at our premiere has an X on their ID and was terrified that they weren’t going to be able to fly out of Salt Lake City Airport because that was the same week as that executive order being male or female. No X went into effect, and it’s like it had an immediate real impact. That’s part of colonization, part of fascism is erasure of identity. And I think the biggest antidote to that is just celebrating your existence, celebrating who you are, choosing your family.
Bowen Yang: I mean even putting that Duwamish storytelling in the movie, with an essential dosage of it and an essential point in the film, is hopeful to me in terms of, look at this attempt at extinguishing a whole swath of people and look how even in spite of that, people remain people. People want to stick their claim on something that they never, and I said this yesterday, they should never have had to reclaim in the first place. Yeah, Lily’s right. It’s like how they accidentally invented penicillin. I feel we did that with the movie. We stumbled on it. We stumbled on the medicine on accident.
The Playlist: I hope it’s penicillin for people because it is at times hilariously funny, then often heartbreaking and incredibly moving. And obviously, Bowen, you’ve known Andrew for a while. Did he let you know he was working on this? How did you first hear about it?
Bowen Yang: This is so insider. We did an exec dinner while we were shooting “Fire Island,” and he was just telling everybody that he was working on this updated version of “The Wedding Banquet” with James Schamus, and it kind of elicited a bunch of “oohs” and “ahs.” I was like, “Oh my God, I saw that in college. I was like one of my favorite Ang Lee films and very relevant for me in terms of my journey with my parents.” I was just thrilled to hear about it, thrilled to see it when it would eventually come out, not knowing that I would be involved in any way. I can’t tell if it’s an alarming thing or not that I don’t even remember really saying yes to the movie. It was just one day, I woke up and was like, “Oh, I guess I’m on my way to set.” He had set a draft a couple of years later, or about a year later, after we had wrapped “Fire Island,” and he was like, “I feel like you would be a great Chris.” And I like a lot of people who might be coming into this version, thought, oh, is the Winston? Who is he the analog to in the original? And just, oh, blown away at the total reconfiguration of this fun marriage plot story, comedy of errors, situation that still had something so contemporary to say that I was just, it was an easy yes, but I barely remembered the yes.
The Playlist: Does your agent remember the yes?
Lily Gladstone: Cast by implication?
Bowen Yang: Yes. Cast by Andrew.
The Playlist: Lily, how did it come your way?
Lily Gladstone: The script came with a letter, came with the whole package. I was already aware of Andrew as a filmmaker. I loved “Driveways” out of Sundance. I was on a Hong Chau kick at the time, and Andrew makes the kind of movies that I want to be in, just period. So, I was really excited. I was really touched that it was this re-imagining that kept kind of the core team intact. It was all done with Ang Lee’s blessing done with James Schamus, but written with Andrew. I feel like there’s this kind of inherent sort of skepticism about remakes that people have, and it’s like, “Do you want to involve yourself in it?” Whatever. But knowing that it was the same team, it’s like, “O.K., this is probably going to be a pretty tight ship that just updates it and continues the history of the significance of the original film.” I thought that was an opportunity, a wonderful gift to jump into a little bit of queer film history. And it’s always an honor when you’re invited in the house, I guess, of somebody else’s amazing work that they still put their own name on so many years later. Bowen was the only other actor attached at that time, when it came to me. And I mean, Bowen was a very beloved household name for my family for a number of years. At that point, I told this to Andrew in confidence. Luckily, Bowen was just delighted by it because it’s no pressure or anything.
Bowen Yang: It’s beautiful.
Lily Gladstone: My mom lost a baby before she had me. So there was something there that I just intrinsically felt a real tenderness with Lee. Just this long journey to motherhood. That was kind of always a presence in my life because of the son my mom lost late in her pregnancy. His name was August, because he’s not here is kind of the reason I am. She got pregnant with me not long after, so arranged baby, as they say. My mom never really got over the heartbreak of losing her son. So, he was kind of just this presence in our household. We spoke about him. I had a sense of who his personality was. We would talk about him through every stage of my own development. August was always somehow there. Then one day we’re watching “Saturday Night Live” together, and Bowen comes on screen and mom was like, “That’s him! That’s him! That’s August!” She just recognized him immediately as this boy that we love and never met. And then it’s Bowen Yang. Go figure.
Bowen Yang: I joked the other day that I was probably dressed in like a Kim Jong Un, my boy.
The Playlist: You were doing JD Vance and somehow…
Bowen Yang: God, could you imagine? Imagine.
Lily Gladstone: But wait, I wanted to give my mom that gift of having her flesh and blood child and her star baby on screen together.
Bowen Yang: Beautiful.
The Playlist: And by the way, I might embarrass myself here, but Lily, didn’t you host “SNL”? Am I crazy?
Lily Gladstone: No!
Bowen Yang: No, but Gregory, you and I have the same vision because I see it so clearly.
The Playlist: I swear in the “Killers of the Flower Moon” press over those months. I swear you hosted…
Lily Gladstone: The Mandela effect that just kind of catches on. I’m totally happy with that.
Bowen Yang: Oh my gosh. There’s just a timeline split of people who could have sworn Lily hosted. No, but it’s going to happen.
Lily Gladstone: Exactly.
The Playlist: It should absolutely happen. This is like the first comedy you’ve done, right?
Lily Gladstone: That people have seen. [Laughs.] One I have that I think is on Peacock right now called “Quantum Cowboys.” That has a lot of elements. But I mean, my origins as an actress was children’s theater. I was always the character actress who was getting the more expressive, fun roles. And when I moved into ballet, I was usually a big rat head in “Nutcracker” or something, just a cartoony person. So, it kind of took a lot of people who’ve known me for a long time by surprise that, “Wow, you ended up being a dramatic minimalist sort of a hyperrealism actor.” And I’m like, “Yeah, I know. I don’t lie.” My dad always told me I could never lie growing up because I think a thought, it’s right there, you can see it. So, it felt like in a lot of ways just to return to something really natural and comfortable for me. I think the mark of all of my favorite actors have some wonderful balanced ensemble pieces, and I was really craving being part of an ensemble. A lot of the characters that I’ve broken through playing kind of are these showcase characters, somewhat separate from the rest of the plot. They kind of just have this element of detachment and dare I say, they’re a little bit raised on a pedestal, which I hate. I want to be on the ground in it with my fellow actors because that’s what I love. I love being part of a story that’s so vibrant and beautiful and balanced. And I was just really thankful to have the opportunity to do that with this wonderful group of people.
Bowen Yang: And it’s our blessing because she’s just so generous as someone in that company.
Lily Gladstone: Thank you.
The Playlist: I knew that Kelly had comedic chops. I knew she could do both the drama and the comedic aspects, but I’d never seen Han Gi-chan, who plays Min, before. He was hilarious. What was your reaction working with him on set?
Bowen Yang: I mean, he just is one of those rare actors who can entwine the endearing with the humor, with the comedy. It’s a really hard balance because a lot of comedy can be played for embarrassment or it can be played for a self own or something in that respect. And there’s just something about Gi-chan that was…I find him to be such a phenomenal actor, and Lily has commented on this. The humor that he’s able to tap into is born out of commitment. And so I think those things pair so well together because he’s such a committed performer that he can find this sort of bottom of emotion and just sort of elevate that into the comedy. And so the moments of exasperation that Min as a character has are so true, so honest, but so funny.
“The Wedding Banquet” opens in theaters Friday.
