There is spark that emanates from Young Mazino’s Paul all throughout Netflix’s Beef. As Steven Yeun and Ali Wong escalate their feud between one another, Paul is working a personal angle from the sidelines. He’s not distracted Wong’s Amy, but he is on the inside track. As Paul falls harder and harder for Amy, we see him naturally come into his own and reject the labels that others have thrust upon him. It’s a journey of self-discovery, and Mazino delivers one of the most relatable turns of the series.
Mazino has stated that he connected to the character description of Paul, but I wanted to know what it felt like to play something so close to one another. For some it’s difficult to get out of your own way, but Mazino felt he could bring something to the character because he felt a kinship with Paul.
“In some ways, it feels very revealing, but it’s also a meta experience,” Mazino says. “Paul, coming from Korean-American culture like myself, I know what his mindset is like. I feel like I am on a dopamine cycle, and I have had moments where I felt disillusioned. I’ve been there. It was vulnerable to portray that honesty, because it’s almost too close to me, in some ways. At the end of the day, I have to realize that I am not playing myself, and finding that delineation between my spirit and Paul’s. There’s true in both.”
People talk to Paul in a parental way. Because he is often the youngest in the room, his brother, and even Amy, talk to him as if he is a kid. Instead of leaning into Paul’s manbaby nature, Mazino fights against it and paints a portrait of a young man who wants to break free of everyone’s expectations.
“He’s in his late twenties, and if you passed some judgement on him, you could call him a man-child,” he says. “In episode eight or nine when it’s revealed that his college applications were thrown out and his entire life was grounded to a halt, he never left that spot. That kid he was, when you see him in the flashbacks, was kind of killed off after that whole thing. He got a reality check. Maybe he thought the world was a lot bigger and scarier, and he couldn’t handle it. Paul stayed in this boundary that Danny has set for him, and he keeps Paul there. When Paul does have that swag, that was his younger self that never bore fruit. Because I related to the character when I was younger, I really tried to bring as much complexity to Paul as I could. This is a very prototypical, Korean-American man who feels very lost but he is free because he is starting with a fresh slate as a first or second gen kid.”
When Paul and Amy start DMing on Instagram, she uses a fake picture, and Paul falls hard. When he discovers that Amy has been deceitful, I was surprised that Paul didn’t flip out. It’s a perfect example of how Beef defies our expectations, and Mazino reveals that Paul was immediately taken with not just Amy’s looks but her accomplishments.
“Amy represents more than a pretty woman, to Paul,” he says. “The way that she carries herself with authority, and that’s something that Paul gravitates towards. In those first two seconds, he’s coming to terms with his natural attraction to her, and the connection was real when they spoke on the phone. It’s an example of young love that Paul never had that chance to explore. He probably had one night stands from the club, but that’s superficial. When he says, ‘I feel like I’ve been DMing you my whole life,’ that’s something he believes. This affection he feels is something he considers an escape. I felt that too. She’s accomplished, and he switches gears. Him meeting her is the impetus for breaking out of his brother’s shadow.”
Paul reveals his affair to Amy’s husband, George, in a cruel way by literally knocking on their front door and walking away when the news has been delivered. It’s a moment of immaturity that hints at Paul’s age, but, most importantly, it shows how easily Paul can be influenced by Danny.
“There’s a scene where Danny reveals that this woman has been messing with the family for a minute,” Mazino says. “He asks, ‘You weren’t really into her ,were you,’ and Paul says no. Paul is hurt and angry, and that’s a moment where he is really taking the toxicity from his brother. You hurt me, I hurt you. You fuck with me, I will fuck you over, too. It’s a very base, very churlish way of dealing with your emotions. Those are the moments that I wanted to lean into Paul’s irrationality where he doesn’t know what he’s doing. He doesn’t know that he’s about to mess with a family dynamic and he doesn’t realize that he’s going to cause a daughter to grow up with, perhaps, separated parents. That’s all white noise to him. Paul is trying to mend his heart in any way that he can even if that means knocking on George’s front door.”
There is a lot of ambiguity about Paul’s whereabouts when Beef concludes its first season, but Mazino has ideas of what Paul could be up to. Will he walk away entirely since he knows the truth about his brother? Will he start a new life? No matter what course Paul takes, Mazino knows that Paul needs to do it on his own.
“I looked that as Paul’s final liberation from Danny,” Mazino reveals. “This whole time he is getting wrapped up in Danny’s mess, and there’s that beautiful scene in episode nine where Danny realizes that his brother won’t leave him unless he’s extracted. Danny screwed over Paul’s future. There is a moment where Steven lets out this guttural sigh as if he’s finally let go of what he’s been holding onto for so many years. It’s his chance to let Paul escape, and that’s such a complex scene. It’s a release of a burden and shame from Danny, and, to Paul, he discovers that his brother was not his fortress but his prison. The ending leaves a lot to be explored, but I truly believe that this was Paul’s awakening. He’s free now. The writers have created such an expansive life for every character. Paul is on his own right now. In some other universe, Paul is learning how to walk tall and look people in the eye or he’s full of vitriol and hate and revenge. Now he’s set loose.”
Beef is streaming now on Netflix.
