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By Billie Melissa
Contributing Entertainment Writer
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A sweet new film about love, chosen family, and being true to yourself hits movie theaters tomorrow, and it stars Lily Gladstone, Kelly Marie Tran, Han Gi-Chan, and Bowen Yang, a delightful ensemble that will have your sides aching from laughter one minute, and your chest hurting from sobbing the next.
Andrew Ahn's rendition of The Wedding Banquet (an adaptation of Ang Lee's 1993 film of the same name) sits at 86% on Rotten Tomatoes for a reason: it's charming, vibrant, and a gentle reminder that being true to yourself only enriches your life and the lives of those around you.
We sat down with the cast of The Wedding Banquet to hear what they had to say about working with Ahn, the scene that made them say yes to the project, and their favorite deleted scenes.
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I think it's so wonderful that in this film you get to see an ensemble where every character gets their moment to shine. I'd love to know for each of you which scene in the script immediately made you want to be part of the project.
Lily Gladstone: De-queering the house for me. Immediately. There was also one scene that got cut with Chris and Lee that I really loved, too. We were watching Real Housewives of Salt Lake City.
Bowen Yang: Yes, Chris teaches Lee the drama and the dynamics between the Salt Lake City Housewives. That was fun. For me, it was both weddings. Both weddings were so narratively important and so fun and so rich. One has a lion dance, one has jujubes and chestnuts. Very appealing.
Han Gi-Chan: I have two scenes. One scene, it was also the audition scene, which was the one about the green cards, saying "F**k the green cards" at the first breakup. The other one was where I proposed, again. Not to Bowen, but to Kelly. That was the scene that I felt immediately, "OK, this will be in the trailer." That was so fun. I didn't realize all of the humor moments in this movie, but I understood those two, and I really wanted to be a part of it.
Kelly Marie Tran: I think I was really excited about all of the dancing, like drunk scenes. Like the club scene. Some of that got cut out, but we had this whole Titanic dance that we filmed.
LG: We did the spin.
BY: We did the Jack and Rose–
LG: –The shoe flying off.
KMT: The shoe clobber.
BY: The Irish jig. All of that.
I'm now desperate to see the extended cut.
LG: I know. Release it.
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As funny as the film is, there are also some incredibly intimate moments. I'd love to know from you all what it is about Andrew as a director that allowed you to feel safe giving such beautiful vulnerable performances.
BY: I think his whole oeuvre so far is about these quiet introspective moments. From Spa Night to Driveways, I think there are all of these incredibly sensitive moments in film that I think he's able to transcend from language or from these things that would normally make me as an actor feel like, 'Oh, this feels unwieldy.' Andrew just has a way to make us all feel like we can accomplish the vision together as a cast.
HGC: Andrew is a very lovely person. He always used the word lovely. [Youn Yuh-jung], I think she didn't like it, but I loved Andrew saying 'Lovely.' That really made me very comfortable each scene. He was saying 'Oh, it was so lovely, but let's try this again.' YJ told me she wasn't happy with that, but I was happy because this was my first film in English,and with this lovely director. It is almost impossible to meet a wonderful director in my first film in English. That was crazy. He directed a very different specific direction for me so that we could get a lot of ingredients for the edit. That was, and he was, amazing.
KMT: I think Andrew does such a good job of creating an environment where everyone's free to try things and everyone's free to be vulnerable and silly and fail in front of each other. I think that's a really scary thing to do when you don't have really any time to get to know each other before you're in the scene, but to be working with – not just Andrew, but – I would say the same about these folks [gestures to her fellow cast members] it was just comfortable immediately, and I think we're really lucky to have had that.
LG: [Andrew] is one of the kindest people, period. He cries, you know, when the take is really working, then he cries. It's kind of, in a sick little actory way, it's fun to feel that you've manipulated somebody into crying, but Andrew's just so... 100% his heart is in it. So, none of that is sacrificed with what a sharp eye he has for the story he's telling and how well he steers the ship. He just says things so kindly. You could have done a horrible take, but then you like, you know, it's, uh... What's that one in Parks and Recreation? Where Rashida Jones didn't know that Chris had broken up with her because he said it so nicely? Like, Andrew can deliver a direction that way. It's like 'You just told me that it was a horrible take, and all my choices were wrong, but I feel really good about myself. I better go fix that.'
BY: Oh, it's when Rob Lowe's character breaks up with her?
LG: Yes!
BY: Yes! That's a great moment. No, that's Andrew. Andrew's the Rob Lowe of directors.
Bleecker Street releases The Wedding Banquet In Theaters Nationwide April 18
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