LOS ANGELES (AP) — Actor Steven Yeun is getting some of highest acclaim of his career, and awards buzz, for the South Korean film « Burning, »…
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Actor Steven Yeun is getting some of highest acclaim of his career, and awards buzz, for the South Korean film « Burning, » a lyrical and anxious adaptation of Haruki Murakami’s short story « Barn Burning. » But it almost didn’t happen, at least with Yeun.
Director Lee Chang-dong, a celebrated filmmaker who has not yet reached the Western name recognition of some of his countrymen like Park Chan-wook (« Oldboy ») or Bong Joon-ho (« Okja »), had cast a Korean actor in the role of Ben, a mysterious and disquieting outsider with Gatsby-like slickness who comes into the lives of two lonely young people. When scheduling conflicts and a delay in production left them without a Ben, someone suggested Yeun, the 34-year-old Korean-American actor who came to prominence playing Glenn on the popular AMC series « The Walking Dead, » and had mentioned wanting to work with Lee during his « Okja » press tour.
« I only saw Steven in the film ‘Okja,’ and while I thought he delivered a great performance, I didn’t think he was the right person to play Ben, » Lee said in an email.
But screenwriter Jungmi Oh thought otherwise and persuaded Lee to meet with Yeun, who had not only been a great admirer of Lee’s for years, but had also fortuitously started reading Nietzsche recently (« Just light fare, bathroom reading, » Yeun jokes.) Lee ended up being impressed with Yeun’s understanding of the character and decided to take a chance.
« He told me that he thinks emptiness is what’s at the core of this character and he was very familiar with that sense of emptiness because he was experiencing it himself.
