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While on Variety's Actors on Actors, Ali Wong spoke with Jason Segel about the reason she got into acting, and what it was like filming and being on the set of Beef. Both of them are comedic actors, but they both don't want to be defined by the roles in comedy.
Segel asked, “When you started with stand-up, did you want to parlay it into acting?”
“Not really,” Ali Wong said. “I just wanted to tell jokes for a living. I started acting in sitcoms because it was a great way for me to justify doing sets for free at night.”
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The actress also discussed her time on Beef, the Netflix comedy series about two characters who get set on dealing revenge to the other. Wong admitted proudly she knows she can't do everything: “When you’re like, ‘I used to think I could do anything,' I’m very proud of the fact that I can’t do everything. The things that I can do, I know the minute that I read it if I connect to it or not.”
Segel then asked her how many scripts she got for Beef. She said: “Sonny [showrunner Lee Sung Jin] called me one day. He always had Steven Yeun in mind. And then, he was like, ‘I thought the other person in the road rage incident would be a white male — like a Stanley Tucci-type. Maybe it’d be much more interesting if it was you.'”
When she accepted the role, she talked about shooting the show: “There were times when we would shoot 10 pages in one day. I have to work really hard to memorize the words and then once I do, I try to be present, listen and say the words.”
