Bowen Yang’s career has risen since he joined the cast of Saturday Night Live, with the 34-year-old seeming racking higher profile roles as time goes on. Even before this 50th season of SNL (which is airing amid the 2024 TV schedule), his roles TV and movie roles were already taking shape, and he hosted (and continues to run) a commentary-driven culture podcast with best friend Matt Rogers called Las Culturistas. As Yang continues to become a household name, he revealed that he still struggles with the advice that SNL alum Tina Fey gave him in regard to fame.
The Nora From Queens alum joined the NPR podcast Wild Card to chat about a little of everything. When asked about what he’s learned to be careful of career-wise, Bowen Yang referred to the aforementioned Mean Girls writer’s words about the ups and downs of maintaining authenticity as a famous person. As the comedian explained, the comments haunt him:
Ugh. This is really something that I've dwelled on for the past, oh, two, three months? Tina Fey came on my podcast, and she — in a very playful, so brilliant way — was railing against me for sharing my real opinions on movies on the podcast and just my real opinions in general.
As someone who is a fan of the Fire Island star and a self-declared "Reader" (a specific type of fan of the podcast), I've seen his words get picked apart in real time. One of the most recent instances was when during the award-winning podcast, he called SNL "cringy," which he defined as working through comments and others' perceptions of the show. Aside from that, the actor received backlash over his portrayal of darling pygmy hippo Moo Deng, for an on air-segment that seemingly mocked singer Chappell Roan.
It's certainly been interesting to witness Bowen Yang navigate the pitfalls of celebrity as he continues to forge a successful career. Yang went on to further explain why public figures’ words have to change. In order to get his point across, he specifically referred to a quote that Tina Fey shared when she was on his podcast:
Basically, what Tina was saying was, this is a permanent record. It's like that thing of like, the internet is written in permanent marker. And the phrase that kind of went a little viral from that was her saying, 'Authenticity is dangerous and expensive.'
In my humble opinion, those words could also stand alongside some of Tina Fey's best line. They're haunting yet funny, and ring true for anyone with a public platform. Bowen Yang is on a similar SNL career trajectory as Fey, so it is wise for him to consider the sentiments on a serious level.
During his recent interview, Isn’t It Romantic alum also reflected on the advice in relationship to how important his authenticity is and how he traditionally shares his opinions:
And I really am still reckoning with that idea where I've always been an open book. I've always shared my thoughts pretty extemporaneously on things and haven't really regretted them too much. But now I think I'm reevaluating what it means or like, how worth it it is to be honest about everything. But then at the same time like, if you kind of start to self-censor a bit, then what does that do to your idea of yourself?
It’s apt for him to question this standard in relation to himself and to respect what partially made a name for himself in the first place. Hopefully, he doesn’t dwell too long, though, especially since he's recently had reason to celebrate. He's one of the many cast members of the long-awaited Wicked adaptation, which opens in theaters later this month. Here's to continued success and learning experiences for the comedian.
If you’d like to listen to Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers' Las Culturistas podcast, you can catch it on YouTube, or wherever you stream podcasts. Also, catch Saturday Night Live on the titular night at 11:30 p.m. ET, and stream episodes with a Peacock subscription.