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After winning the U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Debut Feature at Sundance this year, “Bedford Park” has its international premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, ahead of a U.S. theatrical release by Sony Pictures
Classics.
Speaking with Variety, director Stephanie Ahn and lead actors Moon Choi (“Anarchist From Colony”) and Son Sukku (“Sense8,” “My Liberation Notes”) discussed the surprising journey of bringing Ahn’s semi-autobiographical script to cinemas.
“The movie is about my experience as a Korean American,” says Ahn. “It’s about the pull I’ve always felt towards my passion while being cemented in family and loyalty. It’s about the experience of having love expressed in a very different way in my Korean home and outside of home, in the United States.”
This tension is embodied by Audrey, a physical therapist with a repressed fighting spirit and slightly kinky sexual encounters. When she meets Eli, a Korean American adoptee, in not-so-ideal circumstances, their relationship blossoms into a romance that redefines them. The story unfolds in the New Jersey suburbs, where Audrey goes back to live with her parents.
“I auditioned for Audrey seven years ago,” remembers Moon Choi. “It’s rare but Stephanie arranged to send me the whole script ahead of the audition. I read it in one sitting.” This project has been the longest the actress has ever waited to film, as COVID, Hollywood strikes and lack of funding kept threatening production. “I grew old with Audrey,” adds Choi. “I was 31 when I was cast and filmed at 37. It changed my understanding of many scenes.”
Throughout, the script remained the project’s fixed point. It changed considerably over the years, shifting from a family drama into a love story. “I didn’t want a traditional love story. I wanted to make the feeling of them getting together feel inevitable — but not predictable,” says Ahn.
To achieve this idea, the movie constantly subverts expectations. It often brings the characters together in the same physical space, while their minds are adrift. This tension culminates in an emotional scene where Audrey and Eli are in the car, listening to the “Rocky” soundtrack. An ex-wrestler, Eli dances to the theme while Audrey smiles at his corny enthusiasm, before she truly listens and the music bring her to tears.
“We did eight or 10 takes because I wanted a single shot, but something wasn’t gelling with the first five or six takes,” says Ahn. “Originally, the scene ended with Eli saying something like ‘Everyone thinks it’s about boxing, but really, it’s a love story’ about ‘Rocky,‘ when I realized — it’s that line. Let’s take it out and not have an end goal. Let’s just have you guys go wherever you’re going when the song plays. And they nailed it.”
With the movie being all about the characters’ relationships, Ahn needed a powerful chemistry. But, while she cast Moon Choi early on, finding Eli proved to be a challenge. His part was originally written for a Caucasian American actor.
“When I was growing up, the current fascination with Korean culture was nonexistent,” says Ahn. “It’s still an anomaly to me that it’s such a big part of pop culture now. Maybe a part of me was still in that antiquated way of thinking that an American white person would bring more interest.”
A friend and colleague of Moon Choi, Son Sukku, was suggested to Ahn by the actress. And, ironically, it is his superstar fame in Korea that finally unlocked funding for the movie from Hyundai. “Bedford Park” marks their fifth collaboration.
“I think my 15-year old friendship with Moon did help to shape the unique relationship that they show in the movie,” notes Son Sukku when asked about having a role rewritten for him. “But I don’t think much has changed from the original character other than his ethnicity.” The actor also believes his ease to connect with self-hate, anger and a longing to connect with people when acting might have naturally made Eli less aggressive and careless than he imagined him before shooting.
“Thank God Sukku was interested in the role, and not just because we ultimately got funding one or two years after we cast him, but also because the character was so much richer after that,” says Ahn. “It’s funny, looking back I was so reluctant to the idea.” The director met the actor convinced she was going to say no, but she immediately saw the character in him. “You never know what can make your film better,” continues Ahn.
As an editor, Ahn knew to kill her darlings from experience on movies like “Winter’s Bone” (2010) and “My Old Lady” (2014), which brought her a unique advantage. “I really trusted the script by the time we were shooting and I can’t help but think like an editor,” she says. “While filming, I’ve kind of already constructed the edits in my head. Some people noted there are a lot of short scenes in the movie – which is probably the result of my work as an editor. The story isn’t told by a single scene but by the relationship between scenes for me.”
This structure allows the movie to touch upon many themes, like the kindness that bonds the leads, the intertwined love and violence present in family relationships, the messy journey to figure out who you are, without letting them cannibalize each other. Driving its core message home: “In the end, this movie is a love story of oneself,” says Choi.
“It’s the most poignant love story,” adds Ahn.
