One of the crucial memorable scenes in Lee Sung Jin’s “Beef” just isn’t of the escalating psychological warfare between Danny (Steven Yeun) and Amy (Ali Wong). It’s a refined, wordless scene (apart from lyrics) in Episode 3 the place Danny is moved to tears in a church, the explanations for this show identified solely to him and by no means revealed to the viewers.
Episode 3 is one in all six directed by Jake Schreier, who spoke paired with Yeun as a part of IndieWire’s Awards Highlight. A number of episodes included scenes within the church, so the “Beef” manufacturing staff filmed all of them throughout one week. When the time lastly got here for Yeun to weep brazenly within the congregation, he couldn’t.
“That’s the factor about Steven… he won’t provide you with a false second,” Schreier mentioned. “He wasn’t going to drive it.”
Although Yeun and Lee share Danny’s Korean roots, each appeared to Schreier for additional steerage on the character, to stability his ache with its interior and outer forces.
“Sunny was a spot I might go to love ‘Yeah…that’s shameful, proper?’” Yeun mentioned to Schreier. “Sunny and I, after we would speak, Danny could be left in judgment. After which whenever you and I’d speak, there was a grace that you just allowed Danny that additionally allowed me to recalibrate and simply belief within the technique of all of it.”
When Yeun couldn’t summon the tears for that pivotal scene, Schreier spoke to him off-camera after which filmed one other scene. After they got here again with the total musical efficiency, that shift in Yeun’s emotions towards the character broke by way of.
“What does it imply to offer actual grace?” Yeun mentioned. “Is it to remove the whole lot and go like ‘It’s all about you, we’re right here for you’ — as a result of in some way that didn’t result in the reality. Once we simply made it true and there was no judgment, when all people else began singing, then I simply began sobbing. That’s what this second is for Danny; it’s not a second of isolation, it’s a second of deep connection.”
One other scene each liked was Danny’s Episode 8 outburst, when he learns that Edwin (Justin H. Min) didn’t burn down Danny’s dwelling, however as a substitute simply purchased journal subscriptions in his title out of spite.
“What you probably did was not good!” Danny shouts. “It’s not good to try this!”
Yeun defined that Danny in that second has created a story for himself by which he’s the righteously indignant villain; when that seems to not be the forged, he has to divert the fashion it impressed, resulting in the enraged declaration.
“He’s nonetheless so prideful, that he can’t come all the best way down and go ‘Hey, man, I’m so sorry I did this, it’s not okay what I did,’” Yeun mentioned beginning to chuckle. “As a substitute he has to yell at him yet another time.”
Schreier added that nobody within the scene is mendacity, a rarity in “Beef.” “That was this lovely engine that Sunny usual that made the entire thing go,” he mentioned.
Danny’s anger is trustworthy, however like many different situations, it’s one thing he feels towards himself and directs at others.
Try Yeun and Schrier’s full Awards Highlight chat within the video above.
