I have this theory that SNL hasn’t produced a real movie star in over a decade, since the mid-2000s class that mostly departed the show in the early 2010s. That group includes Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader, and Andy Samberg, all of whom went on to greater fame outside of SNL (never mind Seth Meyers becoming the post-Conan king of late night). One thing that group had in common was being part of a smaller cast; in 2006, their collective second year on the show, there were only 11 cast members (thanks, budget cuts!).
Small casts on SNL are a blessing and a curse. A curse because there is a smaller pool of people to produce the same amount of show. In 2006, 11 people had to fill the same block as the current 17-person cast. That’s a lot of pressure, on top of the already competitive atmosphere of SNL. But the blessing is that it means cast members were almost guaranteed to get on air every week, even if they didn’t get a sketch they wrote to air. You need bodies to fill sketches, so audiences saw the same faces week to week. And THAT is why that mid-2000s class is the last one to produce movie stars—there was no such thing as an off week, everyone was on air almost constantly. They built name recognition and a relationship with the audience that followed them to other projects like Brooklyn 99, Bridesmaids, and Barry.
Now, with a bigger cast, a cast member is fighting not only to get their sketch produced, but they’re fighting just to get on air, period. As a result, SNL hasn’t produced a movie star in a while. There are famous cast members, yes, I’m not saying there aren’t. I’m saying when was the last time SNL spit out a talent who went on to become a household name BEYOND SNL. But we might be on the cusp of SNL’s first crossover star in years: Bowen Yang.
Thanks to extremely memorable bits like his “Weekend Update” appearances as the iceberg who sank the Titanic, Moo Deng, or a proud gay Oompa-Loompa, his tenure as disgraced congressman George Santos, or sketches like “SoulCycle” and “Straight Male Friend”, Bowen Yang has become one of the most easily recognizable SNL cast members in recent years. This in addition to his day job co-hosting the popular “Las Culturistas” podcast and a growing film career, appearing in movies like Wicked, Fire Island, and Bros.
Bowen’s latest film is The Wedding Banquet, Andrew Ahn’s remake of Ang Lee’s 1993 film of the same name. He stars alongside Kelly Marie Tran, Lily Gladstone, and Han Gi-chan as one half of a gay couple upholding a lie in the hopes of staying together. The film premiered at Sundance to strong reviews, and the trailer dropped yesterday, giving us our first look at Ahn’s update of Lee’s classic rom-com.
Bowen stars as Chris, whose partner, Min (Han Gi-chan), is on the brink of having to return to South Korea because his visa is about to expire. Their friends are partners Lee and Angela (Lily Gladstone and Kelly Marie Tran), who want to have a baby but can’t afford it. In a bid to solve everyone’s problems, Min decides that he and Angela should get married to get Min a green card, and he will provide the cash for Angela and Lee to have a child. The problem: Min’s family doesn’t know he’s gay, and they’ll cut him off if they find out. Joan Chen also stars as Angela’s mother, and Minari Oscar winner Youn Yuh-jung appears as Min’s grandmother; that’s a helluva cast.
The film looks charming and like a seamless update to Ang Lee’s film, with the main difference being, at least as is apparent in this trailer, that there is no Wei-Wei character, the woman only tangentially connected to the closeted character in the original. Instead, we have a solid friend group trying to help each other achieve their couple goals, which should change the trajectory of the dramatic climax of the film. It also looks strong enough to stand on its own, separate from Lee’s film. I bet a lot of people won’t even realize this is a remake.
The Wedding Banquet is due in mid-April, when spring is in the air and wedding season is just around the corner. Despite the advantageous scheduling, this is not the kind of film you expect to make $100 million. $40-50 million would be good for a film like this, especially given what a sh-t year it’s been at the box office so far (I mean $40-50 million globally, if this film makes $20 million in the current North American market, it would be amazing). And if it manages that kind of success, it’s certainly good for everyone, but especially Bowen Yang, who still has Wicked: For Good coming later this year (hoo raaay).
Bowen Yang is on the cusp of being a movie star, so how much longer do we think he stays on SNL?
