Amid the critical and commercial success of Beef, disturbing comments made by one of its actors in 2014 have resurfaced and derailed what had previously been a positive discussion of the show.
David Choe, the artist and multi-hyphenate who plays Isaac, cousin to Steven Yeun’s Danny (and Yeun’s friend in real life), jokingly referred to himself as “a successful rapist” on an episode of his DVDASA podcast. In that episode, he tells a story about forcing a massage therapist to perform oral sex on him.
While Choe called the remarks a joke and “a complete extension of my art” at the time, noting in an extended statement that it was “not a representation of my reality,”, the comments have received renewed attention following the success of Beef.
While Choe is mostly known as an artist (his paintings appear as title cards in nine Beef episodes), his larger pop culture presence includes works across multiple mediums of expression. In 2013, for example, he appeared in an episode of the late Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown series that focused on the Koreatown area of Los Angeles. And in 2020, he made a short appearance in an episode of The Mandalorian’s second season.
More recently, he released the interview-focused The Choe Show series via FX and Hulu. As an artist, Choe first drew mainstream attention more than a decade ago after it was revealed that Facebook stock options he had received as payments for mural work were worth a reported $200 million.
Below, we take a closer look at the controversy, from the original delivery of the comments to their performance art-focused explanation to the current pushback from Beef fans.
Content warning: This post contains content some may find objectionable.
