Kelly Marie Tran has publicly come out as queer during an inside look into The Wedding Banquet, Andrew Ahn’s upcoming “queer rom-com classic” remake of the 1993 film.
“I haven’t said this publicly yet, but I’m a queer person,” said Tran during an interview with Vanity Fair.
She revealed her LGBTQ identity to her co-stars during a production meeting in her newfound “queer space.”
“The thing that really excited me about it was I got to play a person that I felt like I knew. I don’t feel like I’m acting at all in this movie….I’m here doing this amazing movie with these amazing people.”
Tran stars as Angela, a woman navigating the challenges of conceiving a baby through costly IVF treatments alongside her partner Lee, played by Killers of the Flower Moon actress Lily Gladstone. Their best friends Chris, portrayed by SNL’s Bowen Yang, and his partner Min, played by Han Gi-chan, stay in their guest house.
Under family expectations to go back to Korea and take over the family business, Min devises a plan with Angela: marry and hold a traditional Korean ceremony to obtain a green card and funding for IVF treatments.
“I’ve never been in a queer space before. I’ve never truly felt this accepted before,” said Tran.
The Wedding Banquet continues to boast a star-studded cast with Minari Academy Award winner Yuh-Jung Youn as Min’s grandmother and Joan Chen as Angela’s mother.
Reflecting on her own experiences of coming out to her mother, Tran sees it mirrored on the screen alongside Chen, “I came out to my mom in a very specific experience,” Tran says. “The scenes that I have with Joan Chen in this movie are very similar to the experience that I had.”
Back then, the original Wedding Banquet represented an authentic, radical depiction of gay joy and pain; decades later, it remains powerfully relevant. Although queer Asian films have gained traction in international cinema, queer Asian American films remain scarce.
Dino-Ray Ramos from The Diaspora Times says, “In addition to Fire Island, Spa Night, The Half of It, The Wedding Banquet, and Saving Face, there haven’t been many queer Asian American films that were prominent in the cultural zeitgeist.”
Tran, Anh, Yang, and others continue to advocate for diversifying Asian American representation and experiences in Hollywood. For Anh, “I was really focused on trying to tell a story that felt reflective of the community as I’ve experienced it growing up,” to which Tran adds, “The spirit is the same, and I think it’s even more queer.”
Tran has long been a proponent of LGBTQ+ inclusion, believing her character in Disney’s Raya and the Last Dragon is queer. To Vanity Fair back in 2021, Tran said, “I think if you’re a person watching this movie and you see representation in a way that feels really real and authentic to you, then it is real and authentic.”
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