Bowen Yang says making an ass of yourself on ‘SNL’ is worth it

Bowen Yang isn’t fazed by the absurdities that come with a career in comedy.

The Saturday Night Live star said in a new PEOPLE interview that he no longer bats an eye when it comes to making “an ass” of himself or appearing in some of the show’s more surreal sketches, like dueting with Lady Gaga about the overuse of the word “slay.” It all boils down to the collaborative nature of the work.

“I think one of the best parts about working at SNL is that… you’re not working on your own. You are helping someone else, a cast member, execute on their vision,” Yang said. “And so they’re coming up to you like, ‘You need to dress up as a drone,’ and, ‘You need to dress up as a Chinese spy balloon.’ And you’re like, ‘Okay, sure.’ ‘You need to [perform] with Lady Gaga,’ and you can’t think anything of it.”

He added, “You get shot out of a cannon in so many of these situations that it kind of breaks down all of your hesitancies around doing anything. I mean, every now and then, a lot of times it’ll be like egg on your face, you’ll make an ass out of yourself. But I never, ever weigh that against the wonderful things that I’ve gotten to do.”

Yang, 34, joined SNL as a writer in 2018 and was promoted to cast member in 2019, becoming the show’s first Chinese American cast member. Known for his offbeat impressions like the iceberg that sank the Titanic and viral hippo Moo Deng, he has earned four Emmy nominations for his work on the show.

Yang told PEOPLE that he has thought about his future beyond SNL, particularly in the wake of the show’s recent 50th-anniversary festivities. “I’m seeing what life after the show is like and how beautiful it is, and how so many people, no matter how long they were at the show, are just with their families and loving their lives and not letting the years take away any of that experience for them,” he said.

He also mused that the show evolves with its changing cast: “It’s this growing, living thing where new people come in and you do have to sort of make way for them and to grow and to keep elevating. And that inevitably requires me to sort of hang it up at some point, but I don’t know what the vision is yet.”

Sign up for Entertainment Weekly‘s free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.

In addition to his work on SNL, Yang has forayed into big-screen work, starring in Jon M. Chu’s adaptation of hit musical Wicked and, most recently, in Andrew Ahn’s remake of the queer cult classic The Wedding Banquet. As with SNL, Yang committed to doing whatever was required for the latter film. The role called for a brief nude scene that put his bare butt on full display — and he happily obliged for the sake of collaboration.

“It was something that for anyone other than Andrew Ahn, I would’ve been like, ‘Let’s talk about coverage,’ and ‘I’m not going to show nip,’ and ‘I’m not going to show butt,'” Yang told Entertainment Weekly of the memorable scene. “I would’ve gotten really granular about that. But there was just something about playing the comedy of that scene, which is such a shocking moment… There was no hesitation in the end because it just felt so integral.”