Bowen Yang – Celebrity About

Embed from Getty Images

On the April 12 episode of Saturday Night Live, the cold open was a political parody of The White Lotus titled The White Potus. Overall, it was a funny take on the Trump administration’s melodrama. However, there was a skit midway through that featured Jon Hamm as RFK Jr. talking to Sarah Sherman, who was wearing fake buck teeth in a reference to Aimee Lou Wood’s character. After it aired, Aimee tweeted that she thought her portrayal in the sketch was “mean & unfunny.” Sarah sent Aimee flowers afterwards, which Aimee posted on her Instagram stories.

SNL star Bowen Yang co-stars in the recently-released romcom, The Wedding Banquet, alongside Kelly Marie Tran (Rose from Star Wars: The Last Jedi), Lily Gladstone, and South Korean actor Han Gi-chan. It’s a remake of the 1993 Ang Lee film about two gay couples who make a “secret arrangement.” While doing press for the movie, Extra caught up with Bowen and Kelly. They asked Bowen about Aimee’s reaction to the sketch. Ever the professional, Bowen responded by kindly acknowledging that Aimee had every right to not like the joke, calling her feelings “completely valid.”

“Bowen reacted to “The White Lotus” star Aimee Lou Wood criticizing a recent “SNL” parody of her character as “mean and unfunny.”

He commented, “However she reacted to that sketch is completely valid. You kind of forget the sort of human, emotional cost that it sort of extols on someone.”

“You need those reminders every now and then that parody can go too far sometimes, and that we as comedians can take account for that instead of banging our foot and saying that, like, we should be allowed to say whatever we want because that’s just the culture,” Bowen emphasized.

Yang expressed that the “SNL” cast are fans of “The White Lotus” and Aimee Lou, saying, “We just think that she should be so proud of the work that she put into this season.”

[From Extra]

I think that Aimee’s feelings were totally justified, so I love Bowen’s response here. He validated her feelings while acknowledging that, yeah, sometimes parody can cross a line from smart commentary or poking fun to being just plain mean. It’s easy to imagine other SNL castmates – past or present – doubling down and dismissing Aimee’s criticism. Good for Bowen for being able to see the good in other people. The world would be so much better off if we could also stop, listen, understand, and accept our differences.

Kelly also recently came out as queer! Turns out, before she accepted the role (as a lesbian), she wasn’t publicly out yet. However, by the end of filming and the start of doing press, she felt confident enough to come out.

When Kelly stepped onto the set, she wasn’t publicly out yet. Tran recalled, “We were shooting the Korean wedding and we had a reporter from Vanity Fair on set and I remember I’m fully decked out in this whole situation. It was, like, in the middle of the day, and then we had this little corner room where we were each doing interviews, and he asked me, quite simply, ‘What are you most excited about?’ and I was like, ‘I’m so excited to tell a queer story as a queer person,’ and then I was like, ‘Oh,’ and it was such a sweet moment because I’ve never had this experience before.”

Kelly Marie noted that producers checked in with her to make sure she was fine to share that part of her identity. She said, “I had a few months to really think about [it]. By the time we finished filming, I was so excited about being in a film where we’re celebrating that part of my identity, A lot of our identities. Why would I not share this?”

I love this for Kelly! The hard-core, douche-bro Star Wars fans were unforgivably awful to her, so I’m just so grateful that she’s finally feeling confident enough to be her true self. There was also a long period of time in which I genuinely thought that she would stop acting, too. I’m so glad Kelly has risen above it and figure out her true self. At the very least, we all deserve that.

Embed from Getty Images

I really have to thank Lady Gaga for timing the release of Mayhem to line up perfectly with my already-scheduled vacation. Thanks, Mother! I listened to the album all the way through, on repeat, for the duration of the flight, and the music set the scene for a blissful week away from the worst timeline we’re all living through. Having also listened to Gaga on the Las Culturistas podcast, it seems that was always her intention with Mayhem — to make people smile, and to let the acknowledgment of our own chaos serve as a pathway to healing. Right from the get-go, it’s abundantly clear that hosts Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers are stoked and perhaps more prepared for a guest than they’ve ever been before, being dedicated little monsters themselves. And the fangirling reached its emotional peak about an hour in when Bowen shared that the release of “Born This Way” helped him come out after he’d gone to conversion therapy. Naturally, Gaga was very moved by the revelation:

Bowen Yang has made it clear that he is indeed a little monster, the moniker that supporters of Grammy-winning artist Lady Gaga have claimed.

Yang had his chance to tell Gaga just how meaningful her music and her advocacy is for the LGBTQ community — which he is a part of — when she appeared on a recent episode of his and Matt Rogers’ podcast “Las Culturistas.”

During the episode, the “Wicked” and “Saturday Night Live” star spoke about how important one Lady Gaga song in particular has been to him in his own journey.

“I think I had come out of the closet again when ‘Born This Way’ came out, because I went to conversion therapy, (which) obviously did not work out,” Yang said.

He went on to recount the day the 2011 track was first released as a single, while he and Rogers were en route to a comedy festival in New York State.

“We were just blasting that song for 48 straight hours,” he added, before Rogers chimed in saying that Yang “felt emboldened to come out that weekend.”

Clearly moved, Lady Gaga said, “That’s really, really special.”

“You’re so important to a huge swath of people who only want the best things for you and for each other,” Yang gushed to Lady Gaga. “But also, those people need leadership and you’ve always been that leader culturally, artistically, in so many ways.”

Gaga, who released her seventh studio album “Mayhem” earlier this month, said she was appreciative of that sentiment but that it’s more important to her to just “do my part.”

“I believe that we will continue to show people that are filled with hatred and ignorance that they should be looking up to the queer community and following and learning about love, and learning about grace, learning about kindness,” Lady Gaga said.

“I really believe that,” she said, “and I’m not giving up.”

[From CNN]

I said it last week, and I’ll say again that I’ve found Mayhem to be a really emotional listen. All of us little monsters have been on this journey with Gaga, too (albeit from the cheap seats), and it’s cathartic to hear how she’s found a way to put all the pieces together into a creation that is uniquely her. During the podcast, Bowen and Matt are clearly ready to heap similar adoration on Gaga, but I was so impressed with how she took in the praise. She’d accept it graciously, if briefly, and always redirect to bring it back to her fans. When they ask her their signature question of when she knew she was part of the culture, she said she had few friends in high school, but the ones who did welcome her were gay, and she remembered that when the same community emerged as her biggest fans. She embraced them immediately, saying (I’m paraphrasing): “You were there for me then, I’m here for you now.” She also several times notes that she firmly believes her career and artistry are built on the stories fans and collaborators continually share with her, stories like Bowen’s.

If only she’d quit with that god-awful wig!! I could even take the bleached eyebrows, but the wig must be burned, along with most of her look for recording the pod: all black clothing, including leather gloves (they’re inside), a furry jacket, and a knit cap. It’s like she came dressed as Boris AND Natasha.

Photos credit: Backgrid, Avalon.red and via YouTube/SNL