'Beef' Actress Ali Wong Explains Why the Netflix Role 'Scared' Her

Ali Wong may be a comedian by trade but that doesn't mean she's not afraid to tackle a dramatic role. Her latest drama, Beef, proved to be a scary prospect even for her though, she told Newsweek.

The Netflix show, which is helmed by Lee Sung Jin, follows Wong's Amy Lau and Steven Yeun's Danny Cho. The two characters are pushed to their limits when they are involved in a road rage incident with each other, and viewers will witness the extreme lengths they will go to in order to seek revenge.

Amy is a self-made entrepreneur who, on the surface, has everything society deems she could want in life: A loving husband, George (Joseph Lee), a home and a family. But in reality, the character struggles with a feeling of emptiness and rage that is only exacerbated by Danny's existence in her life.

'Beef' Actress Ali Wong Explains Why the Netflix Role 'Scared' Her

Amy proved to be quite a different role for Wong, whose previous acting projects include Big Mouth and Tuca and Bertie, and while that was a daunting prospect, it was also what made it appealing.

"I think the challenge of it was just really fulfilling," Wong told Newsweek. "So I'm looking back on the footage and the episodes and being like, 'wow, who is that person?' When I see myself, it's pretty mystifying and satisfying at the same time."

"I've [been] sent other dramatic roles before and looked at them honestly with myself, and I think 'I don't really connect to this. I don't think I could do this justice,'" the Paper Girls star added. "And then when Sonny [Lee Sung Jin's English name] approached me with the role of Amy in the show it scared me, for sure.

"But, I was like 'OK, I think you can do that.' I'm still really surprised with all of it and I'm really happy I did it. It was an incredible experience."

Though the role will see Wong and co-star Yeun channel some dark places in order to embody their rage-filled characters, Wong described being in that mindset as more difficult rather than relieving.

"I would not say cathartic, like I hear that word, and I'm like, 'no, not that one.' I mean, for sure challenging to play," she said. "To do the actual work and spend time with Sonny, and Steven, and [director] Jake Schreier, and the rest of the cast, that was certainly a beautiful, super fun experience.

"But when the camera started rolling and actually being this person... I wouldn't call it fun, but it was definitely challenging and super interesting."

'Beef' Was Inspired by a Real Road Rage Incident

Creator Lee also spoke to Newsweek about the Netflix drama, which was made in association with A24, and he explained that the idea for the show came to him in a moment of anger from his own life.

"The initial idea was unfortunately based on a road rage that happened to me," he told Newsweek. "It involved a white SUV, much like the show, but it didn't end even remotely close to any of the scenes of the show, thank God.

"But, going through that it felt interesting cause I just felt myself so trapped in my subjective reality and was projecting so many assumptions onto this other person, and I assume he was projecting a lot of things onto me, and that was the nugget."

He went on: "I had been catching up with the head of A24 television who really encouraged me to explore this story. He's like, 'you gotta do something with this' and so, through his encouragement, I started fleshing out the characters.

"I was already really good friends with Steven, and we catch up fairly regularly, and I started talking to him about the idea and he was in the second he heard it. Then we cast Ali and [...] then it came together pretty quickly."

"I don't condone road rage but, you know, sometimes you end up with a show!" Lee joked.

Although rage was the starting off point for the TV show, it wasn't the emotion that Lee wanted to be at the heart of it.

"I was just mostly chasing, myself and the writers room, what felt real and true to them, and we tried to balance the amount of rage versus sadness, versus existential dread and ego," he explained.

"We wanted to explore all these things and we didn't want it to feel like just pure revenge [and] hate the whole time, and so a lot of [it] was not even writing but spending a lot of time figuring out what the chore progressions of the season was, just making sure those chords felt correct."

"Once you have that foundation, then there's fun and adding so many specificities," he added. "Drawing from real life, from real people that we know of, the experiences that we've had, and then just building truth on top of that foundation.

"So that was a really bird's eye view of the writing process. But certainly rage, I thought, was a very good entry point for an audience.

"It's such a universal thing, and that's a very entertaining trojan horse to get us to start examining some deeper things I wanted to talk about."

Beef is available to watch on Netflix now.