The star spoke about the power of playing an LGBTQIA role in the new remake of The Wedding Banquet
BY ELLA GAUCI, IMAGE BY DISNEY+
Kelly Marie Tran, who rose to stardom playing Rose Tico in the Star Wars franchise, has publicly come out as queer.
Speaking in an interview with Vanity Fair, the star opened up about how excited she was to star in the queer rom-com The Wedding Banquet. Directed by Andrew Ahn, the remake of the 1993 film of the same name stars a number of queer icons like Lily Gladstone and Wicked’s Bowen Yang.
Talking about the queer remake of the film, Tran opened up about her own identity: “I haven’t said this publicly yet, but I’m a queer person. 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. I’ve never been in a queer space before. I’ve never truly felt this accepted before.”
This updated remake of The Wedding Banquet centres on Tran (Angela) and Gladstone’s (Lee) characters navigating IVF, with support from their friends Chris (Bowen Yang) and Min (Han Gi-chan), a couple living in their guest house. Struggling to pay for IVF, Angela decides to fake marry Min in a traditional Korean ceremony so she can raise funds for the procedure, all while ensuring that Min can secure his green card.
Continuing to speak about how she connected to the film, Tran said: “I came out to my mom in a very specific experience. The scenes that I have with Joan Chen in this movie are very similar to the experience that I had.”
The Wedding Banquet will be released in 2025.
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