The Humanity of Actor Steven Yeun (‘Love Me’)

Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso

Lemonada Media

Society & Culture, Film Interviews, Tv & Film

4.8 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 2 February 2025

⏱️ 79 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

From The Walking Dead to Minari to Beef, Steven Yeun has become one of the most singular performers in Hollywood today. With his latest role in the sci-fi romance Love Me, we look back at our conversation with the leading man.

At the top, Yeun unpacks his acclaimed Netflix series Beef (5:09), a powerful church scene from the show (11:30), and his personal experience immigrating to the US from Seoul as a child (18:15). Then, we walk through Steven’s coming of age in Michigan (21:24), his memorable audition for The Second City Touring Company (25:29), and his pursuit of on-screen work in Los Angeles (33:40).

On the back-half, Steven reflects on his portrayal of Glenn on The Walking Dead (36:22), the films that followed, including Okja (48:10), Burning (50:02), and Sorry to Bother You (51:16), his transformative experience making and premiering Minari (55:42), and to close, a poem that guided him on set by the great Wendell Berry (1:08:19).

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Transcript

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0:48.8	Lemonada. This is Talk Easy. I'm Samfrogoso. Welcome to the show.
1:25.6	Today, I'm joined by actor Stephen Young.
1:29.5	Yon first broke out in the hit AMC series, The Walking Dead, where he played fan-favorite
1:35.5	character Glenn Rhee from 2010 to 2016.
1:39.9	In the years to follow, though, Stephen has made increasingly interesting choices,
1:44.8	collaborating with a wide variety of autours, like director Bong in Okja,
1:50.1	Boots Riley in Sorry to Bother You, and Director Lee in Minari,
1:54.4	for which he received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role,
1:59.6	making him the first Asian American to do so.
2:03.1	His latest work comes in a new Netflix original series called Beef.
2:08.0	Created by Lee Sung-jin, the show tracks the aftermath of a road rage incident between two strangers,
2:15.2	a despondent contractor played by Yun and a self-made entrepreneur played by Allie Wong.
2:22.2	Here's a clip from the trailer.
2:40.0	What is your problem? What? What? What? I have a very full life that I'd love to get back to. What are you doing?
2:45.0	Stop.
	...

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