Netflix’s Emmy-winning “Beef,” which returns for Season 2 on April 16, depicts rage as a conglomeration of disappointment, emptiness, and the soul-crushing weight of performing a version of yourself that doesn’t quite fit. That’s why the show’s cast is perfectly positioned to explore what happens when polished exteriors crack and the mess underneath spills out.
Here’s the best acting advice from the cast of “Beef” Season 2, featuring Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, and Cailee Spaeny—as well as returning executive producer Steven Yeun, who starred on the show’s fiery first season.
Submit to the role.
“I always thought: I don’t know about relationships. I don’t know about the world. I don’t know how to be a citizen. I don’t know how to be. The one thing is, if I have a part, I know how to do that, and if I can figure that out, then everything else doesn’t matter. I felt that way for the longest time.” —Oscar Isaac
“I wasn’t able to do some of the things that artists do to really immerse [themselves in a role], to allow myself to become another person. [Doing those things] felt kind of embarrassing, but actually, it’s just the job…. It was by doing this without worrying what the end result would be that I really felt like I was making art for the first time, as opposed to only acting in something.” —Carey Mulligan
“I really leaned into whatever costume I was wearing. It would inform how I would hold my body and my movements.” —Cailee Spaeny
“I’m just in service of this singular character, of the truth and the honesty of this one person. If I can access [it] through that person, it will do the rest of the work for itself…. He is a singular person, just like I am a singular person. At some point, there’s just a submission to it.” —Steven Yeun
Stay hungry for work that speaks to you.
“There’s nothing embarrassing about trying really hard to do something right…. [Don’t be] afraid of looking like an idiot.” —Carey Mulligan
“I’d love to do anything that’s the exact opposite of what I’ve just done, whether it’s the tone or the character or the medium. Acting’s always like solving a puzzle to me. The second I feel like I’ve got the hang of it, something shifts. And that’s the chase that’s always living in me. That’s where the hunger comes from.” —Cailee Spaeny
“All the power to anybody that takes work, because getting work in this business is hard as hell. So you get work and you take it. There’s nothing wrong with that. But for me, I just couldn’t do it. I knew I couldn’t do a good job because I just didn’t believe in it.” —Steven Yeun
Think communally.
“I spent the whole day letting myself zero in, focus, and be in a bit of a meditative place. I listened to music. I looked at pictures of family members who had passed. I let myself evoke all these images and feelings.” —Oscar Isaac
“It was the kind of stuff that I never thought I would be able to do or would allow myself to do, because it felt so crazy. But after that week, we figured there was nothing to be nervous about. We just felt so bonded, because it’s incredibly emotional and vulnerable… sharing so much of yourself with someone else.” —Carey Mulligan
“We’re all human beings, and these are very, very, very core stories of who we are, all together, collectively. We just might express them in slightly different ways.” —Steven Yeun
