Kelly Marie Tran came out as queer in an interview with Vanity Fair published Friday.
“I haven’t said this publicly yet, but I’m a queer person,” the “Star Wars” and “Raya and the Last Dragon” actress told the outlet. She is next playing a lesbian in Andrew Ahn’s “The Wedding Banquet” alongside Lily Gladstone and Bowen Yang.
In the interview, Tran, who’s best known for her role as Rose Tico in the recent “Star Wars” sequels, said, “The thing that really excited me about [this movie] 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.”
In the film, which is a remake of Ang Lee’s 1993 comedy, Tran’s character Angela will marry gay best friend Chris (Bowen Yang) so he can get a green card and she can raise money for IVF with her girlfriend, Lee (Lily Gladstone).
Ahn, previously known for working with Yang on the Emmy-nominated “Fire Island,” told Vanity Fair that he wanted to honor the original “Banquet” while “trying to tell a story that felt reflective of the community as I’ve experienced it growing up.” He added, “The spirit is the same, and I think it’s even more queer.”
The original was set in New York, and the remake, which will be out in the spring, is set in Seattle. South Korean actor Han Gi-chan plays Yang’s partner in the movie.
Tran, who was the first non-white woman to have a leading role in a “Star Wars” movie, was so heavily targeted online by racist trolls that she eventually deleted her social media accounts in 2018.
“Their words seemed to confirm what growing up as a woman and a person of color already taught me: that I belonged in margins and spaces, valid only as a minor character in their lives and stories,” she told The New York Times of the harassment.
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