It’s been a ride for “Beef” creator, writer and director Lee Sung Jin and the cast — the series dominated the Emmy Awards with five wins, and nabbed two SAG Awards for stars Ali Wong and Steven Yeun.
While a second season has yet to be announced, Lee is making good use of his Notes app, inspired by his surroundings.
Lee spoke with Variety about his year and receiving Gold House’s Icon Award.
It’s been a year since “Beef” dropped on Netflix and became this phenomenon, what have the past 12 months been like for you?
The last 12 months have been quite a roller coaster. A lot of high highs — getting to go through the release and awards season with Steve and Ali and all our collaborators, it’s felt really special. They’re some of my best friends now, and to be able to experience that together was really wonderful. But juxtaposed that with lows, that sort of puts everything into context. As wonderful as what we do and the reception can be, what matters is the people you love, and the things you hold dear. There are definitely two sides to the coin of getting swept up in our show’s release for sure.
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You wore a lot of hats between producing, writing and directing, what was that whole experience like?
It’s a lot. There’s never enough time in the day for all of the things that need to get done, especially in TV. When you’re writing, directing and showrunning, every second of every day counts. You really can’t go through it all without an excellent team. If I didn’t have incredible [department heads], everyone at A24 and Netflix, I would have drowned because I felt so underwater. It was a group effort, and it makes me thankful and I realized how important it is when deciding who you collaborate with. It’s probably one of the most important decisions you can make when you’re in that position.
You’ve talked about this before, but when you pitched “Beef,” you envisioned it as an anthology; how do you see it playing out?
It’s probably too early to say, but we did pitch it as an anthology series. I didn’t really have future seasons mapped out. But I always thought a show called “Beef ” — where every season there are new characters there’s a new “beef ” — that would be fun. When you’re filming, there’s no Season 2 guaranteed. That’s why the story was so close-ended, because if there is no Season 2, this works as a limited series. And the hospital bed moment felt very final.
There are parts of me where I love Danny and Amy [played by Yeun and Wong] so much, I wish I could see them more. I’m always jotting down notes. There is “Beef ” everywhere. I learned a lot from Season 1, the main thing was to draw from the truth in your own life.
“Beef” is being honored as Gold House’s Gold Icon, what does that mean to you and the team?
Here’s a fun story, I’ve known [Gold House founder] Bing Chen for a long time. I remember getting dinner with him at M Street Kitchen in Santa Monica, and he was pitching me the idea for Gold House. He was so passionate about what this could mean for the community and to be able to support one another and champion the different voices within it. This was over 10 years ago, and it felt so ahead of its time. They’ve helped so many creatives and important voices through the years. I never would have thought that what I would do would be following in that tradition. It’s pretty cool to see how Bing and Gold House have become such an integral part of the culture.
This interview has been edited and condensed
