WARNING: This post contains spoilers forBeefseason 1.
It’s been a wild ride for Amy and Danny.
The feud reaches dizzying heights (acts of retribution includecatfishing, vandalism, framed arson, etc.
Ali Wong and Steven Yeun in ‘Beef’.Andrew Cooper/Netflix
), culminating in a fatal hostage situation before delirious clarity is reached in the wilderness.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: A lot of people will be surprised to learn Steven can sing, and quite well.
Tell me more about the decision to incorporate that musical church aspect into the show.
Steven Yeun on ‘Beef’.Andrew Cooper/Netflix
We never could quite find the right thing to focus on that.
And once you start thinking about Danny, it just makes sense that he grew up in the church.
And it was beautiful.
Ali Wong on ‘Beef’.Andrew Cooper/Netflix
I was like, yep, that’s it.
And it felt real to the people who were in it.
It was very special to watch.
I stumbled across some of Steven’s fan-uploaded covers from years past.
They’re great.He’s singing Alicia Keys.
LEE:He has covers?
I’m looking it up right now.
SCHREIER:It is a live performance, what’s in the show.
He sang, we had a recorded performance ahead of time, and he did it.
LEE:[Laughs]Oh my God, I can’t believe this.
Hecovers “Shelter” by Ray LaMontagne.
He’s getting texts about this when this interview is done.
An unexpected turning point for Amy and Danny is that hostage situation led by Isaac.
How did you arrive at this storyline?
It came out of left field.
LEE:It did come out of left field.
When I wrote the outline, there were way more deaths.
Everyone was like, “Sonny, you okay?”
Even Jake called me.
And they’re right.
So I walked it back and then really thought about character.
For our characters, what is the most important thing going on?
For Danny, it’s his brother, and for Amy, it’s George.
And so having those two north stars really settled the episode into what it really is about emotionally.
And our characters are so flawed that it’s not a Michael Mann version of a hostage situation.
Well, now I have to ask who was originally killed off.
LEE:I’d rather not say, but just think of a name and they’re probably dead.
Amy and Danny’s feud reaches dizzying heights throughout the series.
It was a great idea but ultimately didn’t fit within the episodes.
With the finale, how much of the lines were ad-libbed?
There are so many funny one-liners.
LEE: There wasn’t much ad-libbing in the finale.
There wasn’t much in the show in general …
I’d say if anyone riffed the most, it was David Choe.
Isaac got to have a lot of improv.
SCHREIER:There were great times where there certainly was freedom within what Sonny wrote.
Steven’s line, “You got to get away from me, man.
You got to get away from me.”
That line is in the script.
It’s not exactly in that form.
The way Steven says, “What you did was not nice!”
LEE:No one expected that.
That’s the brilliance of Steven.
it’s possible for you to write, “What you did was not nice!”
but no one on set is expecting him to scream it in that manner.
I know Ali pitched the ending.
What did that pitch conversation look like?
LEE:It was less glamorous than one would imagine.
I had thrown out some other ideas, and you could tell, it was very lukewarm reactions.
And we were all like, “Oh, wow, that’s really beautiful.”
It all felt right.
I’m assuming, then, that there were no other alternative endings?
Having that endpoint locked was such a huge help.
And Jake was on set.
I’m very happy with how it turned out.
This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
All 10 episodes ofBeefare streaming on Netflix.
