‘Beef’ Series Creator Lee Sung Jin Reflects on Show and ‘Roller Coaster’ Year: ‘It Felt Really Special’
08.05.2024 - 18:47
/ variety.com
Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor 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.
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.
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