Kelly Marie Tran on how The Wedding Banquet inspired her spur of the moment coming out (EXCLUSIVE)
Tran said of her decision to come out publicly: "I don't think it's something that I should be ashamed of"
By Gary Grimes
Actress Kelly Marie Tran, star of the Star Wars sequel trilogy, has reflected on her decision to publicly come out as queer last year.
Tran, who stated she was queer for the first time in a November 2024 interview with Vanity Fair, spoke exclusively to Attitude ahead of the premiere of her new film The Wedding Banquet at BFI Flare. The film sees Tran playing one half a lesbian couple whose girlfriend (played by Lily Gladstone) is attempting to get pregnant via IVF.
When asked if she had always intended to publicly come out in advance of the film’s release, Tran laughed: “No, absolutely not!”
She explained that she spoke to the publication on the same day as the cast were filming a pivotal scene in the film in which her character has a traditional Korean wedding.
“There was so much queer joy on this set, whether that was from the cast or the crew,” she said. “I’d never been on a set before that was very dominantly queer and there was so much joy in that,” she explained.
“That was the day of the wedding and it was so joyous…. [The journalist] asked me ‘What are you most excited about?’ And I sort of just like, naturally came out,” she revealed. “And then I was like, ‘Oh God, what have I done?'”
“I don’t think it’s something that I should be ashamed of”
This admission came much to the surprise of Tran’s cast mate Joan Chen, who reacted: “You had just come out on that day?!” to which Tran replied: “Yeah, at least publicly.”
“It just felt like the natural, right thing to do. I mean, I don’t think it’s something that I should be ashamed of, and especially in the context of doing something where we’re getting to celebrate that part of not just my identity, but so many of the crew and the cast’s identities.”
Gladstone revealed that at the end of filming Tran gave queer-coded gifts to the whole cast, which also includes SNL star Bowen Yang and South Korean actor Han Gi-chan.
“I loved her cast gift, it was a candle she made to smell like chestnuts and jujubes. The candles. said, ‘Don’t Fear Your Queer’,” Gladtone told us. “And on the bottom it said, ‘When you feel like throwing a whole ass Korean wedding instead of embracing who you truly are’.”
The Wedding Banquet will screen at the BFI again on 30 March, before being released in cinemas everywhere on 9 May. You can read our review of the film here.