Minari Interviews with Steven Yeun, Yeri Han And More

Cinema Blend

“Minari” stars Steven Yeun (Jacob), Yeri Han (Monica), Yuh-jung Youn (Soonja), Alan Kim (David) along with writer/director Lee Isaac Chung discuss their Golden Globe-nominated film with CinemaBlend senior video producer Jeff McCobb.

Transcript

00:00Isaac really showed me what back to do really was let's give them one to do before i didn't even know what

00:08back to do was and if i i didn't even know it existed

00:30Isaac i i was uh i was wondering pretty broad question but what exactly uh is

00:40Menotti symbolic for to you in the film um you know to me uh that's a great question because

00:48um you know i don't really explain it in the film and it's because it symbolizes something i just

00:54don't know how to express uh myself and i feel like it's very inexpressible um and it's a feeling

01:02i have with my grandma with my family with all these different things in life that i hope for

01:08um and uh and i see it growing it's something i want to see grow and that that's kind of how

01:14the film ends and i i can't really tell you what it is it's it's it's a strange thing

01:24of all you don't see Minari growing up uh growing on a well organized field you know it's the

01:30grandmother just carelessly throws out the seeds and it lays down roots in wherever it landed

01:36for the sake of this family and just as Sunja says in the film you can eat Minari wherever

01:43and whenever so i think it kind of represents how Sunja feels and what um you know Isaac

01:51want to uh wanted for this family which is for them to thrive anywhere they land um even if the

01:59environment is a little rough just like Minari. That's beautiful because everyone has their own

02:04interpretation of it and it's cool when the filmmaker doesn't even have a concrete answer

02:08it's like you know uh open to interpretation uh Stephen i uh you're a brilliant comedic actor uh

02:16even uh Glenn in a lot of ways was the comedic relief for the first couple seasons you know

02:21it'll be the fall that kills us i'm a glass half full kind of guy um and then uh now you've worked

02:28with Bong Joon-ho and given the attention that this film is getting is that where you saw your

02:34career trajectory going and what does it mean to have cemented your place in korean american film

02:40like this um i i can never guess what's happening i uh i um i've had the question like what's next

02:51and like what do you how do you choose and i heard this one quote about that Michelle Pfeiffer said

02:57it's like you just hold off long enough until you can't stand it and then you freak out and

03:02then choose the best one of what's available and um and i was like that's so real that's so real

03:09um that's kind of what's been happening just so fortunate and um you know i i could never see uh

03:22myself having been a part of these things back then um i oftentimes don't even know what i'm

03:27capable of engaging in until it happens and then i freak out and i take it on and i come over it

03:33and um i'm just really lucky that i get to experience these things and and for this yeah

03:38i feel even more fortunate that i get to be part of something that i think is um perhaps something

03:46that i wanted to say and i think Isaac when we talk about it like something that our generation

03:51really wanted to say for some time there's something about the liberation of understanding

03:56your parents as human beings that helps you to see yourself a little bit clearer and um

04:03there's something really cool about that in this film

04:17i was wondering given the fact that this is um a film about the korean experience and so vividly

04:24about the american experience um how much of it how much of the script uh did you feel was

04:30representative of your own personal life experiences i'm in this business such a long

04:36time so when i get script of course and then i just see the script and it if it touched me or

04:46if it moves me i decide to just do this role so to me it's just doing my job so i'm not thinking

04:56about representing you know something or something i'm not like i'm not the director

05:04so i've never lived in the states and i've never been an immigrant but while talking with Isaac i

05:09realized that we had a pretty similar childhoods and i have six aunts and i was able to reflect

05:17how they lived their lives in those times and i realized that i still carried a lot of memories

05:22of them through performing monica and also my mother had us when we when she was very young

05:30and raised us when she was young and i was able to really sympathize and understand with her

05:38and i realized that she was quite similar to monica

05:47Alan, you would never make your grandma drink tea, right?

06:01no i was not so guilty you should that's terrible Alan when you this is your first feature film

06:08when you took on the role did you have any idea what a sensation it would become and how much

06:14popularity it would it would get no i was i was just expecting it to just be well a movie

06:24but this is really good yeah that's that yet to put it short is is very

06:31very beautiful congratulations guys i appreciate it thanks so much so much jed

06:35oh you pretty boy pretty boy i'm not pretty i'm good looking

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