Ben is an opaque character shrouded in mystery, always keeping the audience at arm’s length. Yeun admitted that there are things about Ben that only he knows, and that’s no accident. The way Yeun describes the script suggests a stripped-back mode of storytelling that puts faith in the actors to interpret their characters for themselves. “The script and the story are more actions and descriptors, as opposed to natural philosophies of how someone is,” Yeun said. “But that’s what’s fun about character-building, and that’s what was really fun about working with director Lee.”

Yeun’s place as an immigrant informs the character greatly, and the film takes advantage of that. The many details of Yeun’s layered performance might be lost on the anglophone viewer: Ben’s Korean is textbook accurate, creating an uncomfortable contrast with the colloquial language of Hae-mi and Jong-su. It’s Yeun’s Americanisms that make Ben such an unsettling character — in Jong-su’s eyes, Ben is otherworldly. 

It’s this aspect of Yeun’s performance that I was most interested in understanding. I told him about my own experiences as an immigrant: I’m British-Asian, but I have always felt like an outsider when I return to the Philippines — a place I have zero ties to apart from genetics. Yeun had a similar feeling about working in Korea. “When I was filming Okja, I was very much made aware of that double-consciousness aspect of things,” Yeun said. “You are a man with no country, ultimately, and I think that’s true of everybody. I know we want to lay claim to countries or borders, but those aren’t necessarily real things, we’ve just made them for ourselves.”

To Yeun, filming Burning in Korea was an isolating experience, because his identity, as a Korean but also an American, was impossible to ignore. Suddenly, he was more aware of the cultural disparities between him and everyone else. It was when he returned home that he realised he didn’t know what it means to be Korean — a fact which he admits he was “pretty bummed” about. “When I was shooting this film, I was very much immersed in feeling Korean and being Korean, and I am Korean — I was born there — but I’ve been gone for so long that I can’t really claim to know the real, true feeling of what it’s like to be there and be that person,” he said. He has a “never say never” mentality when it comes to working in Korean cinema again, but he also doesn’t believe he can do it. “I feel more natural in America,” he said. “I feel like my skill-set is more geared towards there.”

Despite all this, Yeun has reconciled with this feeling of loneliness, accepting that his unique cultural identity is what makes him who he is: “I found a sense of strength in it. Not me on my island — but my experience is my experience.” It may have triggered mixed feelings, but with Burning, Steven Yeun has solidified himself as an actor to watch. Regardless of what he does next — whether it’s in America or Korea — the world should be scrambling to see him.

Iana Murray (@suspiriana) is a writer and film critic based in Scotland. She is an editor at Much Ado About Cinema and her work has appeared in The Skinny, Culture Whisper, Girls on Tops and A24’s Notes.