All the Rage

In his new Netflix series Beef, Steven Yeun gets caught in an escalating feud after a road-rage incident. Total Film meets an actor with a much cooler head than his character, as he takes fame, awards nominations and joining the MCU in his stride.

- By Ann Lee

Steven Yeun might be caught up in the mother of all feuds in his new series, Beef, but don’t expect his own past to be littered with thwarted enemies. ‘I’m allergic to beefing – it’d break my heart,’ he reveals with a mellow smile, dark-rimmed glasses framing his face. It’s hard to imagine why anyone would ever have a problem with the Korean-American actor, who radiates an air of laid-back warmth as Total Film catches up with him over Zoom.

He’s poles apart from his character, Danny, in the Netflix and A24 comedy, a down-onhis-luck construction worker who becomes hell-bent on getting revenge after he’s involved in a heated road-rage incident with Amy (Ali Wong). ‘He’s a broken guy,’ says Yeun from Los Angeles. ‘He’s someone that doesn’t understand why people don’t understand him. He tries to move about in his personal truth, but the reflection he gets from the world is something that he doesn’t really want to see. So he’s at constant war with the world.’

And Danny just can’t catch a break. He’s stifled by his responsibilities; desperately trying to scrape some money together to get his parents’ lost motel back while looking after his bored younger brother, who cares more about getting rich quick with crypto than finding a real job. Meanwhile, his cousin is fresh out of prison and may not be the best influence.