In case you forgot, the beloved Saturday Night Live actor and writer abruptly left the long-running sketch comedy show late last month, with the Dec. 20 episode (hosted by Bowen’s Wicked co-star Ariana Grande) marking his final appearance — for now — on the program.
At the time, Bowen offered a fond farewell on Instagram. “i loved working at SNL, and most of all i loved the people,” he wrote. “i was there at a time when many things in the world started to seem futile, but working at 30 rock taught me the value in showing up anyway when people make it worthwhile.”
During a recent episode of his Las Culturistas podcast, Bowen got real with co-host Matt Rogers about the reason why he decided to part ways with SNL after nearly seven years — and his answer was suprisingly candid when it came to dealing with public perception of his work.
“The current entertainment ecosystem is so turbulent that people have completely valid reasons for staying longer, or in a lot of cases, don’t have the privilege of staying on as long as they would like to,” he ruminated while discussing his decision to leave. “I have this very beautiful thing where I get to say that I stayed on exactly as long as I wanted to.”
Bowen then revealed that he was initially “unsure” about whether he was going to return for SNL‘s currently ongoing 51st season — but he was ultimately “so glad” he did. He then addressed criticism surrounding his acting work on SNL, which seemingly factored in his ultimate departure.
“I feel like I was really bogged down the entire time I was there about the idea that there was no range in anything I did,” Bowen said — and what’s more, he expressed a measure of sympathy for the perspective. “I knew I was never gonna play the dad. I was never gonna play the generic thing in sketches. It’s a sketch show; Each thing is like four minutes long. It is short and collapsed by necessity, so therefore it plays on archetypes.”
“These archetypes are also in a relationship with generic things, and there is a genericism in whiteness and in being a canvas to build upon. I came in pre-stretched, pre-dyed. People had their over-determinations on what I was, which was: ‘Oh, that’s just the gay Asian guy on SNL.'”
“So anytime I would try to work outside of that, it got completely ignored or it still got collapsed to, ‘Oh, he’s being gay and Asian as always.’”
“You did so many things,” Matt offered. “I don’t think people necessarily know they’re being homophobic when they say that.” Bowen’s response was, at once, diplomatic and insightful.
“I think range is a myth — and it’s all about palatability, whether you’re getting taxed on it or you are subsidized.”