Steven Yeun has zombies to thank for his runaway career. For six seasons, Yeun plays on the mega-hit “The Walking Dead” the fan of fan Glenn Rhee, a pizza deliveryman who killed the zombie.
Correspondent Tracy Smith asked, “Did you have any idea what you were reading for the passage?”
“No. I was just trying to work, you know what I mean? Like, I was just trying to work,” he laughed.
For Yeun, Glenn represents someone who has not been seen on television before: “An Asian American character who is not explicitly defined by his race, or who has been talked about.”
Yet Glenn had limits. “He’s always a good guy,” Yeun said. “He has to do the right thing at all times. And it almost felt like he had to be useful to be able to have this Asian American character.”
“When you left ‘Walking Dead’ then, was it a good old role after a good old role?” Smith asks.
“Yeah. It’s not that there’s anything wrong with those things. But it’s that we can just be those things. And I think that’s the fight.”
But choosing his latest intricate role in a movie called “Minari” was relatively easy. “I read the script and was blown away,” he said. “I was in tears. It was very liberating to see the words of a life similar to a life on a page.”
“And that left you in tears?”
“Oh yeah. This thing still leaves me in many, many tears. I cry the whole process,” he laughed.
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Yeun plays Jacob, a Korean immigrant who moves his family from California to a farm in Arkansas in pursuit of his American dream.
Writer-director Lee Isaac Chung based the film (which was shot in 25 days in Oklahoma) on the story of his own family: “Jacob, he’s an interesting man. He once decided he was in America that he did not want to be with others.Korean Americans.And he wants to strike on his own to the wild west, to Arkansas.
“For me, the film is primarily about a family moving to a brand new place in a new situation they’ve never been in before, and they just have each other,” Chung said.
Yeun also saw his family’s own American dream in the movie: “My dad, he was an architect in Korea. He did well with himself. And he undertook a business trip to Minnesota, and he told me that he saw the land., and he was like, ‘I have to move here.’ And then my father had to start all over again. ‘
The Yeuns left South Korea when Steven was four and ended up in Michigan hoping their son would one day go to medical school.
Family photo
“I really broke my parents from a young age,” Yeun said. “I did not give them any false hope that I would become a doctor. I think it was just, let me take a bio class, and then I’ll show you the degree I get so you know it’s not for me. ‘
Yeun went to university to study psychology. But when he joined an improvisation group, everything changed: ‘It just clicked for me. And I was like ‘It’s fascinating’. “
“Why do you think it clicked?” asked Smith.
“Maybe it was freedom.”
After graduation, he earned a coveted spot at the Second City improv group in Chicago. His parents supported his career choice, up to a point: “My parents and my worried uncles and aunts told my cousin Mikey to call me to persuade me to do it. And then Mike called and he’s like ‘ “Hey man, look, my mom and dad told me I should call you to say you should stop doing this. But just do what you want. Just do it!”
So Yeun took a big leap. He leaves the West and goes to Hollywood.
Smith asks, “How scary was that?”
“It was not so scary if I were to be honest with you. I just woke up one day and said, ‘I have to go. “I told everyone I was moving. So I could not pull back. ‘
And at the young age of 26, Yeun won what was the decisive lottery – the part of ‘The Walking Dead’.
“How fast could you get a job after you were in LA?” Ask Smith.
“I auditioned a lot because I was so nervous. And six months after I got there – which is not a popular thing to say, I apologize …”
“Six months?”
“Yes.”
“And you apologize For that?”
“Yes. I’m sorry. My bad!”
“Did it happen too fast?”
“Yeah. I just know, it’s usually not the traditional journey,” laughs Yeun. “I’m very grateful.”
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Now the 37-year-old has made a bunch of Oscar predictions with his non-traditional journey. If they were right, he would be the first Asian American to be nominated for Best Actor. But to Steven Yeun, married father of two, the film itself is a gift.
“To understand my parents in such a profound and profound way that I do not think anyone else has ever experienced it this way – to play it in a movie, it’s crazy!” he said.
And he had to watch it with his parents at Sundance. “After the movie was over, I looked at my dad. And then he put his hand on my shoulder, and then I sat, you know, I answered. And then we just sobbed.”
Smith asked, “What do you think can make you talk about this?”
“It’s a reconnection. I think generations are missing each other at the moment. It’s the connection that makes me emotional. Because I do not know if I had it in a way I’d thought until now.”
To watch a trailer for ‘Minari’, click on the video player below:
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Story produced by Kay Lim and John D’Amelio. Editor: Steven Tyler.