Oscar Isaac tells EW that one particular scene from Steven Yeun's Emmy-winning performance in Beef season 1 made him sign on for season 2.
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"It was episode 3 when Steven's character goes to the church, and the singing starts happening, and he starts sobbing," Isaac says.
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"It was both so moving and so hilarious at the same time," he explains, praising creator Lee Sung Jin's balance of a "razor-tin tone" between hilarity and heartbreak.
We've known it since the time of the Greeks: beef only begets more beef. It's the same with the Netflix anthology series,Oscar IsaactellsEntertainment Weekly— that one acclaimedperformance fromBeefseason 1 begot his own in season 2.
Isaac recently dished on his role in the highly anticipated follow-up to the Emmys juggernaut of a debut season. With season 2 out in the world as of April 16, Isaac and his three core costars — Carey Mulligan, Charles Melton, and Cailee Spaeny — have all squarely entered the discussion of the year's best TV performances.
But Isaac is still hung up on a standout scene from season 1. When asked ahead of the season 2 premiere what made the film star make a somewhat rare detour onto the small screen, he answered without hesitation. "It was the first season. I remember I was really intrigued by the first couple episodes. But it was episode 3, when [Steven Yeun's] character goes to the church, and the singing starts happening, and he starts sobbing. It was both so moving and so hilarious at the same time."
The Golden Globe winner praisedBeefcreator and showrunner Lee Sung Jin's ability to craft a "razor-thin tone that I thought was really fascinating — between embracing the cringe of the moment, but also the compassion for that character and the situation. That was it."
The scene in question is powerful out of context. By episode 3, Yeun's disgruntled contractor, Danny Cho, is already well and caught in a powerful riptide toward exacting revenge on Ali Wong's small business owner, Amy Lau. The pair's paths first crossed, fated to intertwine in perpetuity, when Danny nearly backs into Amy's car in the parking lot of a home improvement store.
In the third episode, "I Am Inhabited by a Cry," a deflated Danny finds himself inside a Korean evangelical church service, which overwhelms his defenses and causes him to break down crying. But the scene takes on an extremely dark‚ and darkly comic, tone with the context of the preceding scene — Danny nearly setting Amy's car on fire, until he notices her small, defenseless daughter sitting inside.
Isaac was already bought in on season 2 based on the strength of this scene alone, "and then I started talking to Sunny about this season," he says.
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Using the familiar term favored by Lee's friends and family, Isaac described "these very long sessions" with the showrunner. "Sunny and I, it felt like a men's group of two, like a therapy session. We would talk about all sorts of subjects that kind of related, even sometimes very loosely, to the script. That felt like, 'Oh, this is a real investigation of something. This is not just showing up to deliver some idea.' That became really exciting."
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Isaac plays the overwhelmed country club manager Joshua Martin on season 2. The beef that kicks off the sophomore season occurs between four people rather than two, when Melton and Spaeny's young lovebirds, who work at his club, witness Isaac and Mulligan's long-married couple engaged in a scary fight.
Mulliganpreviously told EWthat she found the first season "unbelievably stressful, but also really beautiful and surprising." She shared a similar first encounter story with Lee, too. "I loved my conversation with him. But I wasn't expecting to be 90 minutes," she joked. "There was a sense of abandon to the show. It also wasn't a fixed idea. There was a very clear parameter of what the idea was for the show, and there were very strong themes, but it wasn't completely done. There was room to be part of something creative... and I knew that there was gonna be a real freedom in how to play the character."
Freedom is exactly the sticking point in many ofBeefseason 2's contentious and uncontainable beefs. By the finale, both Isaac and Mulligan have turned in scenes that rival Yeun's powerful turn in season 1.
Both seasons ofBeefare currently streaming on Netflix.
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