Steven Yeun on Okja’s booing controversy at Cannes

STEVEN Yeun was beloved as fan favourite Glenn on The Walking Dead. But his new project may be just as controversial as his death was on the zombie show.

BELOVED as fan favourite Glenn from The Walking Dead, Steven Yeun had a dream run on the high-rating global hit.

But all things must come to an end and for Yeun’s character, that ending was gruesome and brutal.

Moving on from a show you called home for seven years is made a little easier when your next big role is working with one of highest regarded directors in the business in a film that could be seen by as many as 100 million people around the world.

That director is Bong Joon-ho and that film is Okja.

South Korean director Bong’s films — The Host, Mother, Memories of Murder — have travelled well beyond his native country while his first English-language movie, Snowpiercer, was a critical and commercial hit.

The Netflix-produced Okja is the film that should catapult Bong beyond the realm of cult icon. The charming and accessible story about a girl and her giant pet pig stars Tilda Swinton, Ahn Seo-hyun, Paul Dano, Jake Gyllenhaal and, of course, Yeun.

It screened in competition for the Palme d’Or at Cannes last month, but not without controversy.

The protests and drama surrounding Okja (and Netflix’s other forthcoming release, The Meyerowitz Stories) at Cannes may very well have helped more than hindered.

The films came under fire from the French theatre owners association for their inclusion in the prestigious film festival despite Netflix’s release strategy of bypassing cinemas and going directly to a viewer’s lounge room. The furore meant Cannes has changed its rules so that films without a theatrical release in France (which has a three-year lockout period post-release for streaming sites) will not be eligible from next year.

It was booed at the beginning of its Cannes screening but when the end credits rolled, it was met with a four-minute standing ovation. Vindication.

Steven Yeun in Okja with Paul Dano and Devon Bostick.

Yeun, who was at Cannes, told news.com.au: “Whenever something new enters, you always get a bit of backlash, or you run up against a wall. And right now, that wall is technology is changing and people’s appetites are changing.

“You look at the film industry as it is right now and you’re looking at mostly really low-budget indies that never get to see the light of day beyond their festival showing, or $200 million to $400 million projects we’ve seen many times over.

“So now we’re missing that golden window of the great thrillers we had in the 90s, or those family films or rom-coms — those beautiful films that really let people understand each other more.

“Nobody wants to see the theatre go away because that’s a beautiful experience and there is something to be said about the communal experience. But if going to the theatre is just going to see robots for the 15th time, then something’s got to change. I hope we get to a place where can choose if they’re going to watch it at the theatre or at home. But during the transition, there will be growing pains.

“What’s great about Netflix is this movie could’ve gone to the box office and not be seen. Movies that go to Cannes don’t typically destroy box office, whereas someone is going to be able to stumble onto Okja from anywhere.”

As Glenn in the hugely popular The Walking Dead. Picture: Gene Page/AMC

Yeun’s role in Okja came about after a meeting with Bong two years before Okja started filming. He said he had coffee with Bong and he “geeked out” on the director. It’s a strategy that must’ve worked because two years later, Yeun got an email from Bong with the message every actor wants to hear, “I wrote a part for you”.

Yeun said Bong’s singular vision is what drove Okja. “Each production is like being steered through a storm and if you have a captain you trust intrinsically, you’ll do whatever it takes to get to that place, and he’s one of those directors, no doubt, you’ll follow along.

“There were definite surprises, like some of his techniques in terms of how he works but those were all things that, in the end, I learnt a lot from.”

Yeun said Bong storyboards, frame-by-frame, shot-by-shot, every aspect of the movie before filming and rather than be restrictive, he found it a “freeing” experience that allowed him to not overanalyse or second-guess his performance choices.

Yeun said the brilliance of Okja lies in how Bong has created this tale that could mean anything to anyone. Bong has often being credited as spinning films that are genre-defying but Yeun argued that it’s more that Bong’s work reflects life, which has every genre or no genre.

“He’s not trying to buck trends or purposefully make his film genreless. He’s kind of showing you life and life has every genre in it. So in that regard, you can walk away from watching Okja and take what you want from it. It could be a corporate greed message, it could be about food, it could be a love story or an animal rights story. It could be about what’s like to be displaced as an immigrant. It could literally be anything.

“I feel like that’s the beauty of his work.”

Okja is available to stream on Netflix from Wednesday, June 28 at 5pm AEST.

Continue to conversation on Twitter with @wenleima.

Steven Yeun from The Walking Dead and Okja in Sydney. Picture: Chris Pavlich

Originally published as Steven Yeun on Okja’s booing controversy at Cannes