“Beef” creator Lee Sung Jin and fellow executive producers Ali Wong and Steven Yeun have broken their silence on the resurfaced controversy surrounding show star David Choe, who joked in 2014 about being a “successful rapist.”
The trio called Choe’s massage story “undeniably hurtful and extremely disturbing” on Friday, but said he has “put in the work to get the mental health support he needed.”
“The story David Choe fabricated nine years ago is undeniably hurtful and extremely disturbing. We do not condone this story in any way, and we understand why this has been so upsetting and triggering,” they said in the statement released to media outlets.
“We’re aware David has apologized in the past for making up this horrific story, and we’ve seen him put in the work to get the mental health support he needed over the last decade to better himself and learn from his mistakes.”
Choe, who turned 47 on Friday, described a nonconsensual sexual encounter on a 2014 episode of his now-defunct podcast “DVDASA,” an acronym for Double Vag, Double Anal, Sensitive Artist. He recalled taking the hand of a massage therapist and putting it on his genitals without her consent and forcing her to provide oral sex.
“I just want to make it clear that I admit that that’s rapey behavior. But I am not a rapist,” he said on the episode.
He apologized at the time amid backlash, claiming the story was fabricated.
“If I am guilty of anything, it’s bad storytelling in the style of douche,” the street artist wrote on his now-defunct website. “Just like many of my paintings are often misinterpreted, the same goes with my show. The main objective of all of my podcasts is to challenge and provoke my friends and the co-stars on the show.”
Choe, who gained fame for painting Facebook’s offices with murals in exchange for company stock, added that it’s his “version of reality,” an art form that “sometimes offends people.”
“I’m sorry if anyone believed that the stories were fact. They were not!” he said in his 2014 statement.
Netflix viewers expressed disgust with Choe’s initial story and his response to the controversy when clips resurfaced this month, with some fans even threatening to boycott “Beef” entirely.
Produced by A24, “Beef” follows a pair (played by Yeun and Wong) whose lives get upended when a small traffic incident escalates to road rage.
The dramedy, which scored an impressive 98% on Rotten Tomatoes, features Choe as Yeun’s character’s cousin. The series premiered April 6.
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