‘BEEF’ creator Lee Sung Jin takes big swings with season two

Kacie Mei: I just watched the first four episodes yesterday so fast. As somebody who almost married for health insurance—
Lee Sung Jin: [Laughs]

KM: I want to thank you so much for your plot lines about health insurance woes, especially in California.
LSJ: I wrote episode four in a day after a harrowing experience at a local LA hospital for 10-plus hours, so to me, that episode is pretty much a documentary [Laughs].

KM: I really enjoyed that episode. And that one you directed, right?
LSJ: I did, yes. I directed two, three, four, and seven.

KM: I wanted to start off with your pitch for season one of BEEF—I saw that your early pitch to networks for the show included examples of potential beefs for upcoming seasons. Was the “beef” for this season included in that pitch deck way back when, or was it a more recent development?
LSJ: You know what, it wasn't included in the pitch deck. What was a little stressful for me was post-season one launch we were doing the awards run. Even as we were winning awards, we didn't get a season two pickup. So I was starting to sweat, being like, “Are our numbers low? What's going on?” I was pitching ideas left and right, pitches from the deck, and nothing was garnering that pickup.

Jinny Howe at Netflix wisely pulled me aside and said, “Look, I can tell you're just pitching to pitch, and we don't have to do a season two of BEEF. We can do another show together. Season one of BEEF was designed as a limited—you put a period at the end of that sentence. So you should only do a season two of BEEF if you find an idea that you're actually really passionate about.” That's a call-out that really made me take a hard look in the mirror.

And it wasn't until a real-life experience got thrust upon me by the universe that inspiration struck. It was an argument that I overheard in a couple's home in my neighborhood, and I'll speak very vaguely because I still live in said neighborhood.

So for me, what was interesting was not so much the incident, but actually everyone's reactions to it. A lot of my Gen Z peers that I told the story to would react, being like, “Oh my god, did you call 911? Are they okay?” Whereas my Gen X and Millennial peers were kind of like, “Eh, it's a fight. Big deal.” I found that dichotomy of reactions fascinating, and I thought there could be a show about love and marriage—shown through not just one couple, but different couples and different seasons of life.

KM: I'm so glad that you talked about the varying reactions from everybody because that's how I felt when I first watched it—I didn’t know how to feel about this beef because there were so many facets. I also felt like this season, if you watch it with a partner, it might break up some couples or make them think a little bit about their relationship.
LSJ: [Laughs] I think when we're making the show, we're not so much thinking about necessarily a particular segment of the audience but just trying to write something very honest and true that still has propulsion and pathos and comedy and all our favorite textures. But I think our hope is that everybody that watches sees a little bit of themselves in every character, or at the very least, someone they know in some of these characters. Everyone's worked really hard on this season and shared so much and been so vulnerable, not just to make something entertaining, but also to make something that hopefully hits a deeper nerve.

KM: I know Carrie Mulligan said that for her, “Season two taps into what impression you make while you are here, and particularly for Josh and Lindsay, the sense of achievement or what it is that defines you.” When writing this season, did it make you think about that for yourself?
LSJ: I think for me, I try to drown out the achievement part of it. Just more creatively, I think about my favorite bands and musicians actually, because when I look at debut albums relative to their sophomore albums, when a band repeats themselves in their sophomore album, I start to lose interest a little bit. But to me, when they take a big swing, like The Strokes’ Is This It  to Room on Fire. Or actually the greatest album jump of all time is Radiohead's second to third album, The Bends to OK Computer. I see bands taking huge risks going through great evolution while still retaining the DNA of what made us all fall in love with them in the first place. So that's kind of my north star for tackling this season. How do we make a sophomore album that feels like that?

KM: I think you put that so well. I know you try to drown out the noise, but I mean, season one, you won the Emmys, you won the Golden Globes, all the awards! I think this morning actually, I got an alert that said that you were working on a draft for the new X-Men movie. We just talked about this new season of BEEF. I was wondering how you feel about or how you would categorize this stage in your career?
LSJ: That's a great question. I haven't been asked that. One: I don't think I've had real time to process, to be honest. From season one to now, it's just kind of been nonstop. And in the process, I now have a 1-year-old daughter as well, and she's kind of everything to me, so I just haven't really had time to reflect. I'm hoping to get that time at some point, but I'm just very grateful to just even be afforded the opportunity to tell stories—to work with people I've wanted to work with my entire life. The peak of my career was, and it will probably be for some time, directing Youn-Yu Jung and Song Kang-Ho in a scene. They've never been in a scene together throughout their entire history of Korean cinema, and we're shooting at Amorepacific, which is a building you almost never get to shoot at.

And in the middle of shooting that scene, director Bong Joon Ho surprised us on set and he came to the monitor, and he elbowed me and he joked, "Are you sure you want to frame it like that?" And so I was like, jaw on the floor, and then he sat in video village, put his headphones on. And as we shot the scene, I looked over, and he was dying laughing. And so for me, that's the best reward is to see one of your heroes actually enjoying the thing that you're making. I'll remember that forever.

KM: That's pretty legendary. Do you know who invited him to set?
LSJ: Him and Song Kang-Ho have a very storied history. They've collaborated together so much, and several of the crew had worked with director Bong and director Park (Chan-Wook) before, so he was just stopping by to show support. And both him and director Park have become mentors in a lot of ways. I've had many dinners with them. And when I shot my music video for RM in Korea, director Park actually introduced me to his cinematographer who did No Other Choice and his production designer who did Handmaiden and Old Boy—you know, most of his movies. I got to work with director Park's HODs just because he's so gracious and because they're fans of the show, so I just owe so much to those two living legends and I'm just trying to walk the path that they've paid for all of us.