The film, directed by Larry Charles (“Borat”), clearly pays homage to John Waters and doesn’t even hide that it was shot entirely on a sound stage, or that its budget allowed for only two takes per scene. It’s just the right amount of scrappy for a future cult-classic that began as a two-man show in the basement of a Gristedes, titled “F—— Identical Twins.” Yang was a regular attendee of the live shows, which he credits for helping to coalesce New York’s queer comedy scene, because Sharp and Jackson would host “talk backs” at a gay bar around the corner where everyone could meet one another and make summer plans for Fire Island. When it came time to pick someone to play God as a gay man, Yang was an easy choice.
The Washington Post caught up with Yang, who’s just gone back to work on “Saturday Night Live,” which just returned for its 49th season. This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
Q: What was your reaction when you got the news that the writers strike was over? How did you celebrate?
A: I was in Berlin on a mini tour for some shows with Matt [Rogers, Yang’s co-host on the wildly popular podcast “Las Culturistas”]. I celebrated by going to a bar where you had to take your shoes off before you entered and lay on rugs, and that felt very on the nose.
Q: And then what? Did every project you’d been waiting on suddenly start up at once?
A: Things are slowly congealing, but SNL started pretty immediately, which was nice but also a jolt out of the inertia we’d been feeling.
Q: You must still be on an emotional journey, though, right? The writers guild got this great deal with the studios, and then last week everyone thought the actors guild would be able to strike a deal, too, but …
A: It’s a huge, poorly designed roller coaster, and I’m disappointed that the studios are pulling back their original deal points and thinking SAG will settle for even less than what was originally discussed in July. SNL works under the Network Code contract, which isn’t being struck, and we’re very lucky that SAG gave us their blessing to continue working for the benefit of our crews and writers, but there’s an incredibly strong sense of solidarity among everyone at SNL, who are all proud members of their respective unions.
Q: Had the SNL cast been keeping in touch before you started up again?
A: We were in communication, obviously not in any sort of show-sanctioned way. Our bodies are kind of, like, primed to this time of year being like, “[W]e’re ready to not sleep and work and work and work and have it be fun and collegiate and stay up until 4 a.m. writing and whatever,” but that wasn’t there.
Q: How did you, of all non-Italians, wind up playing Christopher Columbus on “Weekend Update”? I loved it.
A: Thank you! It felt like with the premiere we could retroactively work in Indigenous Peoples’ Day as a topical lead for Columbus to have a specific, casual attitude about everything, namely the statues of him. Everyone went in understanding that Columbus-as-punching-bag seemed well-trod enough that we gave ourselves permission to be goofy, maybe a little arch.
Q: And what was it like to have Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce show up? Did you or anyone else freak out?
A: Taylor and Travis being there was a total surprise to everyone, and it reminds you that SNL is one of those places where people can drop in on a live TV show and supercharge the night. Quite literally, a streaming service could never.
Q: Even the “Dicks: The Musical” premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival was tied up in the strikes. I saw you at the very on-theme pre-party at Hooters, which I heard was only possible because 36 hours earlier A24 had reached an interim agreement with SAG for you to be there. What were you doing when you got the call?
A: I was decorating my new place in New York, and so in a mad rush, I packed my bags, got on a flight that afternoon, and it just added such a nice texture to the whole festival for us, where it was just thrilling and by the seat of our pants. It was a straight line from the airport to Hooters, basically. It was incredible. I would not have had it any other way.
Q: At that premiere, you cradled a certain object for the entire Q&A. What inspired that?
A: So for those who weren’t there, A24 had this genius idea of, during the last number, to throw inflatable penises from the balconies down into the audience. And when we did our Q&A, someone had tried to volley one onto the stage and then one stayed. And I just thought, Well, I’m not going to let it sit on the floor, flaccid. I’m going to raise it up and put it on a pedestal, which is me.
Q: You come from a Christian background, and you’ve talked about how your parents sent you to conversion therapy. Do you think that’s why Aaron and Josh thought of you for this unorthodox interpretation of God?
A: No. The [finale] song, “All Love Is Love,” was the closing number in the original stage show. I think they wanted someone who could embody that queer sort of frivolity and they knew it was pretty turnkey for me. They were like, “I think Bowen will get this if he plays God, and if it pays off in the end, we all sing ‘God is a f—–’ and then Bowen can play [the part that effete way] from the top of the movie all the way down to the end.” I think that’s why it happened the way it did. And I’m very grateful.
Q: Your version of God is a God who does cocaine. What are his other attributes?
A: Well, I think it’s all very in line with the way we’ve understood Old Testament God to be, which is messy, dramatic, floods the world, rains frogs on people, parts oceans. He creates a catwalk for people to cross. You know, this is a gay man, at least in terms of the multitude of things that God is. God is certainly a gay man at any given time. And what do a lot of hedonistic gay men do? They do these hard drugs. We had no qualms about portraying that on film.
Q: And he wears a mirror-ball policeman’s uniform, which felt very Village People.
A: It’s very Village People-coded. But someone told me that it’s like God is going to [Beyoncé’s] Renaissance World Tour — even though this was shot in pre-Renaissance tour — that Beyoncé might have taken inspiration from seeing God in her own private visions at night.
Q: I read somewhere that while you were filming the “All Love Is Love” number, which has nuns and cowboys coming to crash a gay wedding, Megan Mullally commented that you were all going to get arrested. And I’m wondering which parts you think you’re going to get arrested for.
A: We shot the final scene of the movie pretty early on. … And Megan Mullally takes pause and she approaches Josh and Aaron and she goes, “You guys are going to get death threats because of this.” And then she paused again and went, “We’re all going to get death threats!” I think for her, she was having some fun, facetious concern going, “Oh, what are we — how is this going to be received? Because I think people might see this movie, especially if A24 is distributing it.” For all we know, if it weren’t for them [A24], maybe two people would have seen it outside of our little circle.
Q: Did you say your parents won’t see it?
A: My parents will not see this. But I’m sure some Denver-area Chinese auntie will stop my parents at a Costco and be like, “Did you know that your son is playing God in this movie that’s that has twincest and all this stuff?” I’m sure they’ll get wind of it somehow.
Q: But you’re not going to tell them.
A: I will not tell them. I will not tell them. [When I went to the L.A. premiere] I told them I had to go to Los Angeles to support two friends. And that is not inaccurate.
Q: You were doing your L.A. premiere just as John Waters was getting honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and with an exhibit in the Academy Museum. Did that feel like kismet somehow?
A: It’s absolutely kismet. He’s one of my favorite filmmakers of all time. I have framed posters of “Female Trouble” and “Pink Flamingos,” and I have barf bags from the “Pink Flamingos” 50th-anniversary screening at Provincetown framed in my bathroom, which is where John Waters would want it. This movie might not exist without John Waters. So, we owe a huge spiritual debt to him.
Q: You’re such good friends with Josh and Aaron. Did you just show up on set because you wanted to be there?
A: Oh, yeah, I did set visits. And keep in mind, we were well into the covid era of movie production. I would show up to set, get tested, even though I wasn’t supposed to be there, and I got to watch Megan Thee Stallion’s choreo rehearsal for “Out Alpha the Alpha.” That just felt so, so special. I was like, I can’t believe I get to witness this.
Q: Any improvisations you’re proud of?
A: The little joke where God is pretty emphatic about his pronouns, He/Him, that was something that I pitched to Josh and Aaron. And there was a fun moment where Larry [Charles, the director] let us riff, and I made Nathan break. It was the dumbest, stupidest ad-lib, where I was brainstorming, as God, about what I’d name this story in a new addendum to the Bible, and I broke Nathan Lane. That felt like I could have perished at that very moment. Making Nathan Lane laugh on a take! I will never achieve something quite as good as that.