Charles Melton and BEEF creator Lee Sung Jin were both experiencing career highs when they — somewhat surreptitiously — met. Lee, fresh off the release of the first season of his global smash anthology series BEEF, which would go on to win eight Emmy Awards, was set to attend a dinner honoring Melton for his performance in May December. Melton’s role in the melodrama earned him a Gotham Award and a Golden Globe nomination.

The creator, writer, director, showrunner, and executive producer remembers lobbying for face time with the actor. “I was like, ‘You got to seat me next to Charles because I’m going to pitch him Season 2,’” Lee says. He told Melton, already a fan of the anthology’s first season, that he was writing the next installment with Melton specifically in mind. “Honestly, it was kind of a pinch-me moment,” says the actor, who was instantly game. “I just trusted instinctively that it was going to be incredible.” The pinch-me moments continue, as Melton is now recognized for his first Emmy Award nominations, for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series and as an executive producer of the series. 

The second installment of BEEF centers on two couples struggling for validation as they work at a gilded Montecito country club. The younger Gen-Z couple, Austin (Melton) and Ashley (Cailee Spaeny), witness a violent incident between the millennial married couple, Josh (Oscar Isaac) and Lindsay (Carey Mulligan). To get ahead at work, Austin and Ashley attempt to use what they’ve seen as blackmail against Josh, the club’s manager. A chaotic feud ensues, as it tends to in the BEEF universe, straining the freshly engaged Ashley and Austin’s sense of themselves. “When we meet them, they are thrust into intersecting with our millennial couple, and, for the first time, their relationship is tested by the inciting incident,” says Lee. 

For Lee, part of BEEF’s DNA is its exploration of the Asian American diaspora, and he felt there was something new to look at in Season 2 with Austin. “One thing we didn’t get to explore in Season 1 was [a character] who’s half Korean. It felt like very ripe, fertile ground,” he says. “I thought that was a slice of the Korean experience I’d never seen before — especially as a tug-of-war for a character’s identity.”

A former college football star whose potential career was derailed by an injury, Austin works part-time at the Monte Vista Point Country Club to be near Ashley. He also has the occasional client in his fledgling personal training business. “He’s walking this fine line of his own codependency and trying to do the right thing as he’s seeing different layers of his partner,” Melton says. As Ashley climbs the ladder at the club and their honeymoon phase begins to darken, Austin struggles to find himself. “Part of Austin’s journey is discovering that his identity has been a mask. He’s a former football player, really good with people, loves working out, and is always doing the good thing even if it’s not the right thing for him — he’s always thinking about others. That’s a mask that’s pulled back throughout the season.” 

The actor, who first captivated audiences in six seasons of Riverdale, has been on an enviable run — he’s worked with visionary auteurs like Todd Haynes (May December), Alex Garland (Warfare), Nicolas Winding Refn (Her Private Hell), and Greg Kwedar (the upcoming Saturn Return). Melton counts Lee among these visionaries. “It’s a very surreal moment to be working with [someone] I believe to be one of the greatest artists and filmmakers, Lee Sung Jin.” 

His admiration for and trust in Lee led to a close collaboration — Melton was able to go deeper than he has before. “It’s the most naked I’ve felt doing a job, and I think that’s a good thing,” says the actor. Much of the season’s humor — and heartbreak — comes from Austin, as he grapples with what he can provide as a partner and what he needs in return. He discovers a new part of his Korean American identity as he spends more time with the country club’s new Korean owner, Chairwoman Park (Emmy nominee Youn Yuh-jung), and her assistant, Eunice (Seoyeon Jang).

Riding the line between the anthology’s comedic and tragic moments was a distinctive exercise for Melton. In the first episode of the season, Austin is working out at home when he notices there’s a bee dying on the floor. He rushes to save it, but it’s too late. “I find myself laughing at that scene [now], but it wasn’t like that during the process of filming [it]. You’re seeing Austin wanting to be of service and wanting to be of use and wanting to show up for Ashley — or just anything in life — and he can’t even save this bee,” he says. Lee says Melton’s thoughtfulness in the role brought something invaluably nuanced as they pushed the character beyond a naive, doting fiancé without any ambition. “What happened — and it’s a testament to [Charles] as an actor, just knowing Austin so well that [he] wanted to protect him — was that these moments aren’t played for humor. [He’s] just playing them real.”

Adds Melton, “What [Lee] does best is blend the genres of drama and comedy, where the context and the circumstance — that’s the humor. You’re seeing these people, who are so lived in, believe in — with a conviction — what’s happening in real time. As the audience, it’s so rich to watch.” It’s this emotional complexity that makes BEEF so singular, Melton thinks. “BEEF in general leans into the naked truth and the cringe and shows that reality. It’s very human.”

Shooting the final episodes of the season in Korea was both a homecoming — Melton spent five years of his childhood there — and a professional milestone. “Just being able to see my whole Korean family there and for them to come by set was very special to me,” he says. “It was just very special [to] lean into a kind of artistry, a kind of acting that I’ve always hoped to do.”