Stephanie Hsu Says 'Joy Ride' Initially Included Queer Storyline

Someone could probably build an entire streaming library of movies that have had LGBTQ+ scenes or storylines cut anywhere between an early draft of the script to the final cut of the film – and it turns out Joy Ride is the latest theatrical release to suffer such a fate.

Joy Ride follows Audrey (Ashley Park), Lolo (Sherry Cola), and Deadeye (Sabrina Wu) as they travel to China for Audrey to close a work deal and meet her biological parents. Along the way, they encounter Audrey’s old roommate, actress Kat (Stephanie Hsu), and, of course, hijinks ensue.

Hsu describes the film as “insane and chaotic and raunchy,” all things that work well with its quick pacing and tight run time. But the fact that it wraps up in just 95 minutes likely contributed to the shedding of a queer storyline.

"There was so much electric magic happening between Stephanie and Sherry. It was a little gay. It was awesome," Wu told Collider.

“There’s a whole gay track between Sherry’s character and my character that kind of got edited,” added Hsu. “Sherry’s livid about it.”

The mention happened in the midst of both Hsu and Wu praising every aspect of working on the film, which currently has an impressive 92% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

As disappointing as it is to hear that there’s a version of the film that could have leaned more into the chemistry between Lolo and Kat, it’s at least nice to come away with the impression that its removal wasn’t to appease conservative critics, as is still too often the case.

Both Hsu and Wu expressed hope to Collider that the storyline could come back around in the future. “It needs to happen in a sequel or something,” Wu said.

Joy Ride was written by Cherry Chevapravatdumrong and Teresa Hsiao, and it was directed by Adele Lim. The film is currently in theaters.