Hayley Kiyoko: Girls Like Girls helped her embrace her Japanese heritage

At an intimate dinner last Thursday honoring Hayley Kiyoko and her new film Girls Like Girls, Kiyoko remarked, “This is the first event about me, which is exciting and uncomfortable.”

The dinner is part of a series hosted by Gold House in partnership with OpenTable that spotlights AANHPI individuals who are moving culture and treats them to a meal that pays tribute to their heritage.

Hayley Kiyoko poses with guests around a dinner table at a Gold House and OpenTable event celebrating Girls Like Girls in Los AngelesAndrew Ge @agecamera

Kiyoko — who was the Out100 Artist of the Year in 2022 and is the subject of a new Out digital cover — is a queer music artist, actor, author, and now film director who has turned Girls Like Girls into a multi-medium universe. The hit song, turned book, and now film is Kiyoko’s debut feature as writer-director, cementing her as a bonafide multihyphenate who’s advancing culture with her artistry and queerness.

Making the film was an opportunity for Kiyoko to connect with her Japanese culture, one that leans conservative relating to LGBTQ+ issues. Speaking to the room at Rokusho, a Japanese restaurant in Los Angeles, Kiyoko shares, “This Girls Like Girls universe has been about me really learning how to embrace my culture and my heritage because so much of my life has been hiding my sexuality.”

Another connection to her upbringing and heritage came when she got news of where her film would shoot. “When I got the call that the movie was greenlit, they told me that we were gonna shoot in Kelowna, Canada.” Kiyoko then revealed, “Kelowna is actually where my Japanese grandparents are buried. They lived there and I grew up visiting them.”

Often as queer people, revisiting places from our childhoods is complicated since they carry memories of when we had to hide our true selves. With Kiyoko’s pilgrimage back to her grandparents’ home, she got to write a new story, and with it, create new memories there.

“There’s a scene in the movie where the two leads,” both young women in a romantic relationship, “are in a Japanese restaurant and that restaurant is the only Japanese restaurant in the town where my grandma used to take us. It’s so full circle to get to celebrate this moment with you guys.”

Girls Like Girls arrives in theaters June 19. Watch Kiyoko share how the film helped her reconnect with her Japanese heritage in the video below.

Kiyoko recently spoke with Out about turning her beloved queer anthem into a feature film, describing Girls Like Girls as the culmination of a decade-long journey toward embracing her identity and telling unapologetically queer stories.

Read Out's digital cover story with Hayley Kiyoko here.

Pop artist and film director Hayley Kiyoko on our digital Pride\u00a0cover photo by Grace Scuitto