E. Alex Jung

“On the set of Minari, she was an old Korean lady.” E. Alex Jung interviews Oscar nominee Youn Yuh-jung.

“Nothing made sense this year — unless you were on the internet.”

“What I am evidence of is: You can dismiss a Black person. If you’re a young Black girl and you get raped, in the film business, no one’s going to fucking care. You can tell whoever the fuck you want, and they’ll call it an affair. Until people start taking this seriously, I can’t fully heal.”

“How a young talent from East London went from open-mic nights to making the most sublimely unsettling show of the year.”

Bong Joon-ho’s work reflects anxieties he feels every day—about the climate crisis, the widening income gap. “My films generally seem to have three components: fear, anxiety, and a kekeke sense of humor,” he says, using the Korean equivalent of “ha-ha.” “Humor comes from anxiety, too,” he adds. “At least when we laugh, there’s a feeling that we’re overcoming some kind of horror.” In his view, our world is already a dystopia, and all tragedy and comedy flows from this fact.

“It was only because Helmut Newton happened to find me and happened to love scars that all of a sudden everybody wanted me for their fashion shows… It took another person who had power to look at me another way, to give me permission, that that was even available to me.”

Vulture staff writer E. Alex Jung profiles Sandra Oh, the first actress of Asian descent to be nominated for an Emmy award in the lead drama category.