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Bowen Yang dishes on ‘Hot White Heist,’ coming out, and which co-star would make the best Traitor
The 'SNL' MVP on the return of his all-queer 'Hot White Heist' series and why 'Rent' was a catalyst for coming out.
Despite what recent Saturday Night Live sketches may tell you, Bowen Yang is definitely gay. Definitely.
And, not that he needed he needed to prove anything, but call it funny timing that this past week marked the debut of Hot White Heist 2, the second season of his Audible Original comedy series about an all-queer heist crew voiced entirely by a cast of LGBTQ+ stars. It’s as gay as they come!
Created, written, and directed by Adam Goldman (The Outs) and executive produced by the legendary Alan Cumming, Hot White Heist sees Yang’s Judy Fink lead a ragtag crew of thieves (“be gay, do crime,” as they say) fighting for their right to build an all-queer paradise. This time around, the all-star cast of season two includes Ian McKellen, Jane Lynch, Cynthia Nixon, Sara Ramirez (clock that And Just Like That…reunion?), Joel Kim Booster, Shannon Woodward, Raúl Esparza, and iconic queens like Trixie Mattel, Katya, Bianca Del Rio, and Yvie Oddly—to name a few.
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Yes, somehow when he’s not busy making out with Sydney Sweeney or singing fake ABBA Christmas songs on SNL, Yang found time to be the headlining star of a narrative podcast. And that’s on top of his other podcast, the beloved (and Queerties nominated) Las Culturistas with his best friend Matt Rogers, which has been going strong since 2016.
With Hot White Heist 2 now streaming on Audible (not to mention the long-awaited Wicked movie hitting theaters later this year), we leapt at the chance to sit down with the in-demand actor for our rapid-fire Q&A series, Dishin’ It. In our conversation, Yang opens up about how Rent was the catalyst for his coming out, what he looks for in a successful sequel, and why he couldn’t say no to another Hot White Heist.
This has always felt like a very Las Culturistas-coded question, but: Is there a piece of media—whether a movie, TV series, book, album, theater, video game, etc…—that you consider a big part of your own coming-out journey, or that has played an important role in your understanding of queerness? Why does it stand out to you?
This is so 2005, but I’m gonna say Rent the movie. Because this was right around when I met my people in high school. Freshman year I was a kind of a loose little blob floating around, and then I ended up in drama club—as you do—and [that’s when] the Rent film was coming out, and it was this huge thing.
I had heard the original Broadway cast recording, but I had no actual idea what the show was about until I saw the movie, and then the movie was just mind blowing—even though I think people will have their opinions about which is the optimal medium for that show and that story. But there was just something about the gravity of queerness and the joy of it being in the same container that I think was really amazing and an eye-opening. I had not seen it be happy like that—and Angel doing “Today For You,” I was like, “Whoa, this is so fun!”
By the end of sophomore year of high school, I came out, so I think that the catalyst was that movie.
So, we’re here to talk about the return of Hot White Heist—what excited you most about returning for season two? Anything story or theme-wise you can tease we can look forward to?
Something that’s kind of inherent in the heist genre is this idea that there will be more—like, if this group of people is capable of this, then what else are they capable of? And Adam [Goldman] took that notion, but also wanted to make sure it was the right thing and didn’t want to make it feel too repetitive or reiterative of the first season.
When he sent me the outlines for the episodes, I was like, “this is not at all what I was expecting!” It ends up being about what queerness is in the most granular, on the smallest unit. And that is something that is kind of threaded through the first season, but it was more just about queerness as a coalition, right? Queerness is all these different people have different, disparate experience coming together to achieve a common goal. Beautifu! That is the queer experience writ small—or large. Either way!
I think, for him to scale it down, thematically, is pretty interesting and is really not what anyone would expect. By the end of the season—no spoiler, but we literally go to space, you know? He kind of goes in both directions here, and I think that was the captivating thing that was like, “Yeah, let’s do it!” I mean, I didn’t have to be too convinced to come back to this.
Much like Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me and other greats before it, Hot White Heist season two is a sequel that knows its a sequel, and uses that to its advantage. Broadly speaking, what does it take to make a great sequel in your opinion? What’s an example of one of your favorite sequels?
I’m playing a video game right now that is not a sequel, but a remake of a game from the ’90s, and a big part of this new remake is that it comments on the fan discourse that’s kind of like polluted[the original.] It’s a remake that comments on the conversations about it and what it’s meant to people, right?
And that maybe doesn’t answer your question, so in terms of a sequel though, it doesn’t have to have an explicit awareness of like what the original thing was, but it has to have some knowledge of, “What do people think of this thing, and now how do we subvert but then blow out these [qualities]?” It’s like what I was saying about how Adam kind of scaled [Hot White Heist] down but then scaled it up, too.
With this, I think you do have to listen to the first season for any of it to make sense, right? And I think a lot of people are afraid to do that! But it’s not a huge buy-in, and it’s only six episodes—they fly by. I think with this sequel it is consciously not recreating, beat-for-beat, the things in the first installment.
[Editor’s note: For more thoughts on sequels—and Austin Powers—this interview inspired a conversation on the most recent episode of Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers’ podcast, Las Culturistas.]
Can you think of a good sequel off the type of your head?
Well, definitely The Spy Who Shagged Me was a formative one, in terms of my understanding of what a sequel is. But also Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again sort of feels like the platonic ideal of a sequel to me—yes, it’s hitting on the beats that worked the first time, but it also builds on and deepens your appreciation of this world and these characters. In the most ridiculous way.
Oh, yes! Totally! In a way it has this knowledge of, “Well, the first one was great and it tells this complete story—most people think it’s chaotic and frivolous, so why not dial those things up.” It a sequel-prequel that you don’t think will stick the landing, but somehow it does and it’s beautiful.
If you’re not won over by the entire cast singing “Super Trouper” at the end, then I don’t know what to tell you!
It’s so good! The fact that the sequel is just like, “let’s do it again, it doesn’t matter!” It has that self reference that also doesn’t give a f*ck about the reference. And I think there’s that same spirit in this, in Hot White Heist season 2.
So, the incomparable Alan Cumming returns as an executive producer—after directing the first season—and because we’re all obsessed with The Traitors, I have to ask: If the cast of this season played the game, who’d make the best Traitor of the bunch and why?
This is a great question. I mean, Joel Kim Booster would be phenomenal—he’d be playing 4D chess the entire time. In terms of a successful model of The Traitors that we’ve seen so far, a Cirie [Fields] adjacent person would be Shannon Woodward, I think, or Sara Ramirez. Trixie would be amazing, but Katya I would want to see as a Faithful—Katya as a Traitor seems a little incongruous.
I think I would be an amazing Faithful—I would not be smug about it like Peter. I would know exactly how to play it without putting a target on my back. There’s a strategy in Traitors UK where a Faithful, midway through the season, is like, “No, we have to shift—it’s not about knowing who the Traitors are, it’s about finding who the Faithfuls are and staying strong with that unit.
Oh, this is such a beautiful question because I would love to watch this season of the show. Raúl Esparza I think would elad all of the Faithfuls.
I would follow him anywhere!
I would follow him into literally any dark corner of—oh god, not me publicly thirsting after Raúl.
But Joel Kim Booster knows exactly how to bounce between strategies; he could hold two things at the same time, which is to execute on the murders and the games and the challenges, but then also do Faithful drag and thrive in his disguise. I think Joel would be a Cirie comp.
And, lastly, who is a queer or trans artist/performer/creator that you think is doing really cool work right now? Why are they someone we should all be paying attention to?
This is such an obvious answer, but right now it’s Cole Escola doing Oh, Mary! It’s running through May, and I hope there will be a future beyond it’s off-Broadway run—I hope! I don’t know anything, I really don’t, but it’s a no-brainer.
God, it’s brilliant. They’re a genius. This is the funniest theater I’ve ever seen. The cast is amazing: James Scully, Conrad Ricamora, Peter Smith—so many people. And it is the perfect way in for everybody—it’s a queer show by queer artists, but it is there’s a way in for everybody. It’s Lincoln, who everyone knows about, but it’s completely subversive. We all know how the story ends with Abraham Lincoln and yet there’s something completely surprising and satisfying about the way it all builds. On multiple level it’s surprising.
And Cole is just someone who is undeniable. Cole is an undeniable talent, a generational talent. And I’m so, so, so, so thrilled that people are seeing the show. Not that it needs my help, but I’m just happy that people are enthusiastic about a comedy play. I feel like that hasn’t happened in a while!
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