Matthew Kim & Seoyeon Jang

On April 16, Netflix's BEEF returns for its second season with a new cast and a new feud, this time set inside the manicured world of an elite country club. The story follows two couples, Josh (Oscar Isaac) and Lindsay (Carey Mulligan), and Austin (Charles Melton) and Ashley (Cailee Spaeny), as an act of blackmail sets off a chain reaction. Things grow more complicated with the arrival of the club's new owner, Chairwoman Park (Youn Yuh-jung), who threatens to throw the status quo off balance.

Then there are Eunice and Woosh, two other arrivals from Korea. Eunice, played by Seoyeon Jang, is Chairwoman Park’s personal assistant, and Woosh, played by Matthew Kim, becomes a tennis coach at the club. They may be supporting characters, but they offer one of the clearest views of the push and pull shaping the season.

At first, both seem accustomed to deferring to Chairwoman Park and the hierarchy around her, but they move through that world differently. While Woosh flirts with the women at the club to sell them skincare, Eunice carries herself with a more restrained seriousness. As the season unfolds, those differences take on more weight: when they find themselves at a moral crossroads, Woosh looks for leverage, while Eunice draws her line in the sand.

That is part of what makes the show feel familiar even at its most extreme. Most people will never find themselves in circumstances this dramatic, but many know what it means to be pushed by resentment, broken systems, or unchecked power into choices they may not have made otherwise. That, in turn, is part of what made Jang and Kim such interesting people to speak with, not just about Eunice and Woosh, but about the choices people make when they are pulled into circumstances they can't fully control.

Timid Magazine: Before we get into the characters, I have to ask: when you have beef with someone in real life, are you the type to confront it, let it simmer, or pretend everything’s fine?

Matthew Kim: Oh man, I think it depends on who it is, and it depends on how much I value the relationship. If I don't value it, I'll probably just let it be. But if I value it, I'll probably say something and try to squash it.

Seoyeon Jang: I don't think I really confront them straight away. I would sit back and analyze, and then if it gets repetitive, I may say something.

TM: What was your first reaction to joining Season 2, especially with the first season having made such a strong impression?

SJ: Oh gosh. When I first got the news, I was preparing for a different audition. I was in a practice studio learning my lines and then I got the call. So I was like, “Oh my God, put that down.” Definitely, there was a sense of pressure, but not that much, because I was just happy I got the job. I just wanted to do it justice.

MK: And just focus on the role, right? Yeah, it was similar for me when I got the role. It was a very big WTF moment because I'd never acted in my life. And that was kind of the start of me just kind of showing face to casting directors and whatnot. But after I sent the tape, Sonny [Lee Sung Jin] wanted to do a Zoom audition again where he would give me direction, I would do it, and then redo it with the direction he gave me. He would go black on his screen and then he would come back laughing and smiling. I was like, “This guy's just really nice, huh?” A really nice guy, wow.

SJ: I get scared when we shoot if he's not smiling because I know he has a specific reaction if he likes it. And I was like, “Tell me the truth.”

MK: Does he tell you the truth?

SJ: No, he's always like, “No, it was great,” but I'm like, “Really?”

MK: Yeah. If he laughs, it's good. Yeah. If he doesn't laugh, there's something missing, like a five to 10% that I could do better, I think.

TM: Were there any conversations with Sonny, or advice from each other or other cast members, that stayed with you?

SJ: I think I thrive more on compliments rather than—you know those people who do better if they're scolded?

MK: Oh yeah, you're not one of them?

SJ: No.

MK: Oh, you need compliments.

SJ: Yeah, I need to be loved.

MK: You're doing amazing right now.

SJ: [laughs] I don't know if they knew, but they were very positive and the overall environment was so friendly and just so happy and just so like “화이팅 [You can do it]!” So that really helped.

MK: There was absolutely no ego from anybody on set at all, and being that this is such a big Hollywood project, that was really surprising. It’s a huge blessing to have that be your first experience. One thing in particular I remember was Charles [Melton]. When I got on set, I was super nervous. And he said, “Nerves are good.” I was like, “Why?” He said, “It means you care.”

SJ: That’s very true.

MK: That's something I feel like I want to take with me throughout building an acting career now. Yeah, I just always want to be nervous now. If I'm not nervous, then something's wrong. It means I don't care.

TM: Was there a big adjustment for you? You've been in front of the camera in many different ways already, but acting in a television series is obviously a different kind of performance. What was that like?

MK: Yeah, I’ve said it in a couple of previous interviews too. With music, you have a lot of wrappings for the gift. Like if the song is the gift, there's performances, choreography, music videos, and all the stuff you do within music and all the visuals that you have to make. Whereas in acting, you don't have much. You're just on set playing a character and that character has to be who he or she is in his or her rawest form and most genuine form too, especially with the emotions. And that was a whole new world that I essentially fell in love with too. Yeah, it's really fun.

TM: Eunice and Woosh spend a lot of time in the same orbit. What kind of impressions do you think they have of each other? Do you think they interact much, or mostly keep to themselves?

MK: What did you think about Woosh? I was a little jealous of Eunice.

SJ: Why?

MK: Because you're so close to Chairwoman Park. I'm like, “She's closer to the money.”

SJ: Oh, Eunice wasn't even thinking about Woosh in all honesty.

MK: Oh yeah, Eunice is busy.

SJ: I'm too busy surviving the day and so focused on the Chairwoman. I mean obviously we know of each other and we acknowledge each other, but I don't really think Woosh is of importance to Eunice because she has her own trials and tribulations.

MK: That's how it is. She's on my radar. But I'm not on hers because she's just too focused.

TM: Eunice has this very different relationship with Austin, though, which is obviously complicated. At times, she seems to be trying to sway him for her own purposes, but in the end she also starts to trust him. In your mind, how much of that was desperation, and how much was calculation?

SJ: A mixture of both, to be honest. I think Eunice was trying to be very strategic with her moves and in doing so she was at times trying to conceal her desperation. But as she becomes more desperate it does seep through.

TM: And Woosh’s relationship with Chairman Park is complicated too. Do you think he sees real affection in that relationship, or is he just always aware of its limits?

MK: I think he felt the affection. The connections, the family bonds, even though it wasn't directly blood related, there's history there. And there's a big significance to that. And I feel like in the show as well, that Chairman Park, I would have imagined, also felt that to a degree as well.

TM: Seoyeon, the show jumps forward eight years at the end. What do you imagine Eunice’s life looks like during that time?

SJ: Well, very different from where she was. I imagine after experiencing the whole turmoil of events she would maybe have had enough of this world and maybe she moved on. Eunice is definitely a very clever person, so she wouldn't have any problems in finding another job.

TM: Just piggybacking on that, we never really got to know about her background in the series, like where she came from, or how she came to work with Chairman Park. Did you build any of that as part of the process when you were discussing the character?

SJ: So some background information that Sonny told me before we started shooting was that he envisioned Eunice to be someone from maybe an international school, or even London where she studied, and so she had a very academic background and came from a very family-orientated upbringing, so all of her values aligned in such a way that morality came first.

TM: And for you, Matthew, this role wasn’t connected to your musical background. In the future, would you be interested in playing a character where music is part of the story, or would you prefer roles that let you explore something different?

MK:  Both. It'd be fun to play a musician as well. My dream role right now is to play a really cool villain in a really cool action movie. Yeah, I've been taking boxing lessons.

SJ: Yeah, he's really good. Didn't you win an award or something?

MK: I won my fifth amateur fight, yeah.

TM: Congratulations!

SJ: Impressive.

MK: Thank you.

TM: Beneath all the tension and mess in this season, what do you think it’s really saying about people?

SJ: What I felt was, ultimately, we are all the same. BEEF just really kind of magnifies it in such a dramatic way. But at the end of the day, we're all just people trying to make it, trying our best. We all just want to climb society's ladder. And we all just want to be loved, really.

MK: One big message that I love that was portrayed is the repercussions of excessive greed.The fastest way to happiness is being content with what you have and learning to appreciate what's there.

TM: I love that. So much of the season is about people being swept away in things they can't really fully control. How did that shape the way you understood your characters?

MK: Control, man. The more you want it, the more it goes away. We really don't have any control. There's so many things that are out of control in life. You can't control how another person lives, whether it's a co-worker or your boss or whoever, someone who has influence on your life. The only thing you can control is yourself. And even that of itself is really hard to do. I don't know if that answered the question, but I hate control so much. I hate trying to be in control. Sometimes you just gotta let it go and be like, “Hey, let life do its thing.”

SJ: Let life be. Yeah. I think, as Eunice, because she stands in a position where she's the closest to power but has none, a point comes when she has to put her foot down and say, “I'm going to take control of the situation.” And that's such a decisive moment in her life. And it's actually the first time Eunice has ever sort of spoken up in front of such great power. But that in itself was very, very empowering as a character.

TM: Love that. What would each of you want to say to the other's character?

SJ: Woosh, Woosh, Woosh. Hmm. It would be: Learn to be grateful for what you have.

MK: That's what you would say to Woosh? [laughs]

SJ: Yeah.

MK: I just went into character for a second and I feel like [Woosh] would just ask her to get drinks to try to get more information out of her on how to get more money out of Chairman Park.

SJ: Be grateful for what you have.

MK: [laughs] And that's probably what she would say back.

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The second season of BEEF premieres on Netflix on April 16, 2026.

Disclaimer: This interview was edited for length and clarity.