Interview with Bobo Le of ‘The Wedding Banquet’

The Wedding Banquet is a rom com that juxtaposes found family against born family, centering Asian American identity and diaspora.  Actor Bobo Le makes their feature film debut as Kendall, bringing what they describe as "chaotic sibling energy" to a story that uniquely navigates the complexities of Asian American identity, queer relationships, and the power of chosen family. As audiences and critics alike continue to praise the film's nuanced portrayal of contemporary queer Asian American experiences, Le's performance stands out in its authenticity and infectious enthusiasm.

This modern reimagining of the 1993 classic follows two couples faced with separate big life decisions. Min (Han Gi-Chan) needs a green card, but his boyfriend Chris (Bowen Yang) doesn’t want to commit to marriage. Their roommates Lee (Lily Gladstone) and Angela (Kelly Marie Tran) are trying and failing to have a child with IVF, but the pricey treatments mean they may have to put having a baby on hold for another few years. That is until Min and Lee come up with a plan where Angela and Min get married so Min can stay in the country, and he uses his family’s funds to pay for another round of IVF for Lee. In the way that romantic comedies typically go, hijinks ensue, commitment looms, and the stage is set for a uniquely authentic and nuanced exploration of multiple facets of identity. 

For Bobo Le, it’s about choosing the happiness that works for you. “It’ll look different for everybody, and whether that includes your chosen family, balancing your identity and love, I hope that people walk away knowing that they are allowed to have their version of happiness,” Le says. 

Le plays Kendall, Chris’s confidant and cousin who he took in. Kendall was initially slated to be simply Chris’s friend, but director Andrew Ahn attributes the change to Le’s audition. "I think what Andrew liked is I brought this level of pureness and chaos," Le explains. “[Ahn] had asked me towards the end of my callback audition if I had any questions about the script and I was like, hmm yeah you know like, there’s a part where Kendall goes to the club and I was like, “I can dance!” And I pulled my phone out and I just put on a random song and I freestyle for Andrew, Joe, and Caroline, and they were just sitting at the back cackling…they loved it so much they decided to write it into the movie.”

A large part of Kendall’s charm is grounded in the character’s ability to serve as a foil to the film's more hesitant protagonists. While Chris struggles with commitment and Min conceals his queer identity from his family, Kendall approaches life with unbridled enthusiasm. This quality, Le notes, mirrors their own experience joining an exciting cast of veteran actors: "Me showing up to this set and being with Bowen Yang, Kelly Marie Tran, Lily Gladstone, Joan Chen — my idols — I was just so present, and everything was like 'Woah, I can't believe I'm here!'"

When it came to fleshing Kendall out as a character, Le was able to bring a lot of themself in the construction of the role, “I approach the character with how I approach a lot of things in life in that, this is Kendall’s first life, everything is so exciting…like ‘woah you’re getting married? Cool!’ Like everything is so fresh, and I think I really bring that.” 

Kendall’s enthusiasm exists in opposition to the antiquated world that the other family members come from as Angela’s mother, May Chen (Joan Chen), centers her daughter’s queer identity around herself, become a notable ally within the local queer community, but not always being a present mother towards her daughter. Meanwhile, Min’s grandmother (Youn Yuh-jung) doesn’t know about his queer identity at all and finds herself concerned with his personal life, coming to America to oversee her grandson’s wedding to Angela. These familial tensions drive the central characters to build their own communities within their found families, a dynamic that Le says she found familiarity with and attracted her to the script.

"A really big part of my personal life is my chosen family," Le shares. "When I read the script, I thought it was so beautiful exploring this theme. All these characters are going through big changes in their lives, and with those changes, they're still choosing to be in each other's lives and supporting each other through everything—whether it's having a baby, getting married, finding ways to stay in the country, or coming out to your grandma."

To Le, the importance of found family stems from the freedom to express one's authentic self. "I think it's so important to find our community because that's what makes us feel like our authentic self," they reflect. "Being Asian, I've always been afraid of speaking about my queerness."

While this tension exists between conservative Asian American culture and queer identity, alongside the ongoing struggle to gain representation in itself, The Wedding Banquet joins a growing canon of Asian American queer romantic comedies, including Ang Lee's 1993 film of the same name, Alice Wu's Saving Face (also starring Joan Chen), and Andrew Ahn's previous work Fire Island. 

The weight of this representation isn’t lost on Le: “It blows my mind that for many many years, we didn’t see these movies where we had Asian people in the forefront playing romantic leads or playing really any kinds of lead character… and now being apart of that I just feel so thankful that the opportunity is there, and that we’re able to tell these stories. It’s amazing that we get to see so many more stories being told and so many more-you know, a vast variety of different characters where we don’t just have an asian character come in and do a line or two, then disappear or die, you know? What a time to be alive, truly.”

While the movie has a particular cultural experience at its forefront, it certainly speaks to a broader feeling, and Le hopes that the audience will resonate with exactly that. “They go through the most human things, panic, love, feeling like they want to be seen for who they are, wanting to resolve their generational trauma. These are things that everybody experiences.” Its themes of love, acceptance, and finding one's path are universal. As Le puts it, "Your version of happiness matters, and whatever that looks like to you matters and is important. It'll look different for everybody, and whether that includes your chosen family, balancing your identity and love. I hope people walk away knowing they are allowed to have their version of happiness.”