In a recent episode of Selection’s Actors on Actors, Ali Wong sat down with Jason Segel and talked about why she bought into appearing from comedy and her expertise engaged on Beef — together with filming the finale episode and what in regards to the sequence she’s most happy with.
Earlier than they bought into Beef, Jason, who additionally comes from a comedy background, requested Ali if she had all the time wished to “parlay” into appearing. “Not likely,” she replied. “I simply wished to inform jokes for a residing.”
Nonetheless, Ali defined that she had been working as a temp for a very long time and that she started appearing in sitcoms to be able to justify doing unpaid get up units at night time.
As the 2 started speaking about Beef and its escalating feud, Ali revealed that Beef’s script was nonetheless being written as they have been taking pictures, including that she didn’t even know in regards to the finale whereas filming.
Like Jason then described, the finale episode “so clearly crystallizes the theme that these two individuals are primarily the identical. There are even moments the place [Ali’s character Amy and Steven Yeun’s character Danny] swap voices and [are] like, ‘I’m you.’”
“And I completely did not perceive that that is what was occurring,” Ali mentioned of the voice swap. Whereas the sequence creator and finale director, Lee “Sunny” Sung-jin, had Ali memorize Steven’s traces along with her personal, he didn’t inform her why they have been doing so — solely to belief him.
“Have you ever ever filmed in a forest for per week?” Ali then requested Jason earlier than describing the expertise of filming the finale, calling it “wild.”
As a result of they filmed elements of the finale for Beef at 2 a.m., Ali and Steven needed to run round in the dead of night. Although Ali acknowledged it seems cool on digital camera, she mentioned that, in actuality, it was terrifying and uncomfortable. “I felt like Shelley Lengthy in Troop Beverly Hills,” she commented.
In contrast to Ali, Steven wasn’t fazed by the placement or timing. “Steven had been on The Strolling Lifeless for seven years within the suburbs of Atlanta at three within the morning, working away from the zombies,” Ali mentioned.
In reality, throughout rehearsals, Steven fell out of Danny’s truck (which had simply crashed over a hill) onto his shoulder and crawled by means of the filth 3 times. “I used to be like, ‘You actually like doing it?’” Ali informed Jason. “After which [Steven] checked out me and was like, ‘I adore it.’”
Referencing Jason’s newest work, Shrink, Ali then joked that she’d a lot reasonably play a personality like Harrison Ford’s Dr. Paul Rhoades — sitting for many scenes and cracking jokes.
Later of their dialog, Jason requested Ali what about Beef she’s most happy with, and he or she mentioned the forged — notably as a result of Beef has an all-Asian American forged. “I do suppose that when you have got an all-Asian American forged, which is uncommon, then the individuals get to be individuals,” she mentioned.
“As a result of, now, when individuals confer with individuals in our present, they use different descriptors to explain the traits of the particular person reasonably than their race,” Ali defined. “As a substitute of claiming, ‘Oh, the Asian husband,’ they’ll say, ‘Oh, the man who has the sick cardigans, who’s actually constructive and rides the bicycle.’”
