Bowen Yang says he and his 'SNL' castmates shared a 'special' moment after screening 'Wicked' early

"All of us were in shambles" after watching the film's final cut.

Wicked cast member Bowen Yang (Mina Kim/Reuters)

Speaking to People magazine in a recent interview, Saturday Night Live cast member Bowen Yang shared that he and his co-stars watched a final cut of Wicked together, leaving them 'in shambles."

He told the magazine that he first watched the finished movie with his SNL cohorts during a special screening earlier this year, the week that his Wicked co-star Ariana Grande hosted the show.

"All of us were in shambles by the end,” Yang said in the interview. "Sarah Sherman was sobbing, and she was like, ‘I didn't expect to love it this much.’ It will get you. It flattens every demographic. Everyone gets bowled over no matter what they're going into it with, and I've never been a part of something like that. I don't think I've seen a movie ... have this universal impact.”

He was unsure if he was going to attend the early showing at first. "I was so adamant about not going [to the screening], because I was like, I think I need to see this for the first time with other friends that aren't professionally involved, and I just need to have a pure experience," he told People.

He ultimately decided to go after remembering a special trip to New York City with his parents when he was 13 and the original Broadway show had just started its historic run. He says his family couldn't afford tickets for the show but he begged his parents to "to go to the Gershwin just so I could touch the glass and look inside the lobby." That same trip he and his family went to 30 Rock at NBC and did the studio tour, where he sat in the seats at Saturday Night LIve. This touching anecdote ultimately got him to attend and he says that sharing this moment with his "SNL family" was "so special."