The Story Behind Bowen Yang's Britney Spears Performance in 'Fire Island' (Exclusive)
etonline.comBowen Yang perform a cover of Britney Spears’ “Sometimes” in the Hulu film . In true romcom fashion, the actor gets to bear all his emotions during a pivotal musical moment.While speaking to ET, writer and star Joel Kim Booster and director Andrew Ahn break down the epic moment. “It’s my favorite scene in the movie, for sure,” Booster says.As Howie, Yang takes the stage three quarters of the way through Booster’s queer, modern adaptation of to sing an unexpected version of the 1999 hit song while his friends, Luke (Matt Rogers) and Keegan (Tomás Matos), provide backup and add a little choreography to the scene.
The scene comes near the end of their trip to the gay mecca as the limits of Howie and Noah’s (Booster) friendship have been tested by their unexpected and complicated romantic feelings for Charlie (James Scully) and Will (Conrad Ricamora), respectively.
When it comes to the song selection, “it was Bowen’s choice,” Booster says, explaining that the scene itself “was always written into this script [and] that Bowen would sing karaoke in that moment.” He adds, “I asked Bowen for a list of songs he’d be comfortable singing and ‘Sometimes’ was sort of the top choice.
And we were able to get it.”“I was so glad to see that it was a song that I think most people wouldn’t think of as a piano karaoke song,” Ahn says of Yang’s choice, before revealing that there was “a lot of prep work” on everything from the karaoke arrangement to the vocals to get that scene just right for the film. “Adding Matt and Tomás [came] later,” Booster says, noting that the two “created that choreography without telling anybody.
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