Moments after they’d wrapped their final scene together on the set of Netflix’s Beef, Ali Wong took Young Mazino’s hands and looked him dead in the eyes. “You can have the career that you choose,” she told him. “It may be just formality to her, but to an actor like me, and working on this kind of a level after only doing guest stars on procedurals out of drama school, getting those kinds of words… she has no idea how that alleviates years worth of self-doubt and imposter syndrome.”
Mazino, 31, is refreshingly open about the years of struggle in his personal and professional life and made him wonder, for a time, if acting was less of a passion and more of a retreat. He dropped out of college after what he describes as an existential crisis and took the MegaBus to New York City on a whim. He put in time at Stella Adler Studio of Acting and went through the rigmarole, taking odd jobs during the day and running off mid-shift to auditions. “When you’re catering hors d’oeuvres at parties, there’s a feeling of: You are an extension of this plate of macaroni bites. And that’s a very dehumanizing thing.”
The grind eventually landed him background roles on boomer shows like Prodigal Son, Blue Bloods, and New Amsterdam. But his role on Beef, which uses the occasion of a road rage incident to unpack themes of generational repression and rage, has been something of a revelation. He plays Paul, the cooler, less-tortured younger brother to Danny (Steven Yeun), charming audiences—and eventually Wong’s Amy—with his unbothered, infectiously positive demeanor. It’s a true breakout role, no easy feat with Yeun and Wong putting up Emmy-worthy performances, but Mazino stands out—and he’s ready to keep the momentum going. “I’m seasoned as an actor, I’ve gotten my reps in,” he says,“but I need more challenges to really cultivate my craft and see what other hidden chambers I have within me.”
GQ spoke Mazino about existentialism, the ongoing resonance of Incubus’s “Drive,” and acting—or as he calls it, “this loving maternal creature that’s been looking out for me and led me through some really dark times.”
GQ: What has it been like for you having to hold onto the experience of Beef for all of these months up until now?
Young Mazino: It’s a strange feeling because of the gap in time between actually doing the work and then a whole year goes by with utter silence and then there’s the response, but it does feel very relieving and liberating to finally have the cat out of the bag. And the response so far has been quite unexpectedly amazing, and I have a lot of gratitude for being a part of something special.
You play Paul, the younger brother to Steven Yeun’s character Danny. How did Sonny [creator Lee Sung Jin] first present the character to you back in 2021?
From the breakdown and from the brief character description, I had a general idea of the psychology behind Paul. He’s bigger than his older brother but in other ways much smaller, like his [emotional intelligence], and he’s overshadowed by him. He likes to work out. Can’t hold a job. Never went to college. Immediately I was like, ‘I’d be perfect for this role.’ [Laughs] But it resonated a lot for me. What I didn’t realize was how involved he would end up getting and how he becomes a source of the catalyst that sparks the drama that ends up developing.
Evan Ross Katz
Source link
