Oscar winner Youn Yuh-jung is one of Korea’s most acclaimed actresses, with a career that spans nearly six decades, but it’s her role in Netflix’s Beef Season 2 that sees her deliver one of this year’s most captivating television performances.
Yuh-jung plays Chairwoman Park, the billionaire owner of Monte Vista Point Country Club and while the younger characters around her – Joshua (Oscar Isaac), Lindsay (Carey Mulligan), Austin (Charles Melton) and Ashley (Cailee Spaeny) – all self-destruct throughout the series, her character operates at a different pace.
Speaking with Beef creator, showrunner and writer Lee Sung Jin at Netflix’s FYSEE Unplugged, he noted that Yuh-jung was able to “accomplish so much through looks and actions” in certain scenes, which ultimately made his life “easier” because he didn’t have to write in dialogue where she could express it without words.
When pressed about what drew her to the role, she quipped that portraying a woman with a younger husband (played by Song Kang-ho) was an “interesting” proposition for her.
“It was different because no one would ask me to have a husband twenty years younger than me in Korea,” she said. “Korea is very conservative so no one [there] would have been brave enough to ask me for that kind of role.”
She continued: “In real life I cannot have a husband twenty years younger than me, so I thought with this role I could try.”
Crucial to the role, said Yuh-jung, was that it was one where her character’s personal view connected to the season’s larger critique of capitalism. She pointed to a scene where her character speaks about love and capitalism, and how modern society’s obsession with money has driven people to focus on wealth instead of emotional connection.
“That line really impressed me and trying to deliver that line like [Lee] wanted me to do it meant I felt like I had a big duty and a big mission,” she said.
Sung Jin admitted that the Chairwoman’s dramatic monologue delivered at the end of the season, was originally written in English but when he heard the Korean version of it and how “sad” it was, he ended up going with the Korean version for the show.
“You could’ve just picked something and done it on the day, and you’re so good, I would have been like, ‘We got it,’” said Sung Jin. “But here’s someone who, for fifty years has been at the highest level and she’s still here at 10pm, the day before we’re shooting this, caring about one little syllable. And that inspires me.”
Yuh-jung’s performance has seen her earn an Emmy nomination in the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie category this year. Check out the full conversation above.
