Looking back on gay indie ‘The Skeleton Twins’ & the iconic lip-sync that almost didn’t happen
The Skeleton Twins, an underrated indie dramedy from gay filmmaker Craig Johnson that proved SNL stars Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig were more than just sketch-comedy scene-stealers.It also gave us one the most delightful scenes ever committed to film: The one where Hader and Wiig lip-sync to Starship’s ’80s power ballad, “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now.”If you haven’t see the musical moment before, do yourself a favor and watch it right now.
But, even if you have, we have a feeling you’re overdue for a re-watch:Subscribe to our newsletter for your front-row seat to all things entertainment with a sprinkle of everything else queer.To our surprise, the show-stopping lip sync scene almost didn’t happen—and it was nearly going to be a different song, too!
This was one of the many revelations uncovered when Hader, Wiig, and Johnson reunited recently at the 2024 Vulture Festival in Los Angeles.But first, let’s back things up a bit: The Skeleton Twins is about a pair of adult twins, Milo (Hader) and Maggie (Wiig), who have grown apart and found themselves disappointed in where their lives have led.Milo is a lonely gay man who is now comfortably out, but feels like he’s failed to live up to the grand expectations others had for him.
Maggie, meanwhile, can’t bring herself to tell her sweet husband Lance (Luke Wilson) she doesn’t want kids, while carrying out an affair with her hot scuba instructor (Boyd Holbrook).After a near-tragedy, the siblings reunite in their upstate New York hometown, and immediately revert back to their childhood dynamic, with old feelings bubbling up to the surface.
