The first season of “Beef” established a distinct visual identity around the escalating feud between Danny Cho (Steven Yeun) and Amy Lau (Ali Wong). Season 2 presented a different challenge. Creator Lee Sung Jin introduced a new cast, expanded the story from Los Angeles to Korea and built much of the season around the exclusive Monte Vista Point Country Club. Cinematographer James Laxton, best known for his Oscar-nominated work on “Moonlight,” joined the series tasked with maintaining what visually connected the two seasons while finding a look specific to this new group of characters.
Season 2 centers on Ashley (Cailee Spaeny) and Austin (Charles Melton), a young couple working at Monte Vista who witness an explosive fight between club manager Josh (Oscar Isaac) and his wife Lindsay (Carey Mulligan). Their decision to use what they saw to their advantage eventually pulls the four characters into a much larger conflict involving the club’s new owner, Chairwoman Park (Youn Yuh-jung), and takes the story to Korea. “Beef” earned 16 Emmy nominations for its second season, the most of any limited or anthology series this year, including acting nominations for Isaac, Mulligan, Melton and Youn. Laxton is nominated for Outstanding Cinematography for the finale, “It Will Stay This Way And You Will Obey.”
Laxton was new to “Beef,” but much of the team responsible for establishing the series remained. Lee and executive producer Jake Schreier were joined by director Kitao Sakurai, while returning production designer Grace Yun worked closely with Laxton and costume designer Olga Mill to create a visual approach that connected each of the couples to a different season. Ashley and Austin represent spring, Josh and Lindsay fall, Chairwoman Park and Dr. Kim winter, while Monte Vista exists in an almost perpetual summer. The concept informed everything from costumes and color to the spaces Laxton was photographing.
Those environments are a major part of what distinguishes the season. Monte Vista is all manicured greens and carefully maintained luxury, while Ashley and Austin live in a modest starter home filled with objects that suggest two people still building a life together. Josh and Lindsay’s much larger home tells a different story. Its unfinished spaces and competing design choices reflect a marriage that has reached a very different stage. The move to Korea gives Laxton another visual environment to work within. Inside the Trochos medical facility, Yun’s production design strips away much of the color and texture of the California locations. Laxton’s lighting sometimes reduces the characters to little more than shapes behind the facility’s translucent dividers, an effect Yun and Laxton developed together.
The challenge for Laxton was making those new choices without losing what already made the series look and feel like “Beef.” “It had to be a blend,” said Laxton of his early conversations with Lee. He wanted to preserve elements of the first season’s approach while accounting for a story that no longer revolved around only two competing perspectives. “This is a foursome or a six-some in many ways,” he explained. That required different framing and shot structures, along with new lighting techniques and a new camera format, while still maintaining the show’s emphasis on perspective.
That restraint is especially apparent in one of Season 2’s most memorable and unexpectedly funny scenes. As Eunice stretches Austin’s hamstring, Laxton holds the two characters in profile and slowly pushes the camera toward them as the physical distance between them disappears. “It’s simple. It’s not in your face,” said Laxton. “It’s pretty subtle stuff with hopefully some precision built into it.” Compare that with the slow-motion action sequence inside the medical center later in the season, when the tension that has accumulated over several episodes finally breaks. Laxton described the moment as a pressure cooker whose lid could no longer stay on. The shift works because the camera has been relatively restrained for so much of what comes before it.
Laxton spoke with Awards Focus about joining an established series and finding the right balance between what to preserve and what to change. He also discussed photographing the brutal opening fight between Isaac and Mulligan, how subtle camera movement contributes to the tension of “Beef,” working alongside the Korean cast and crew, and the scenes he believes best represent his Emmy-nominated work.
Awards Focus: First, congratulations on the Emmy nomination. You’ve been nominated for Oscars and Emmys before, but what was your reaction when you heard about this one?
James Laxton: It’s an honor, obviously, and it feels amazing. You make these projects, you work on them, you put a lot of effort into them, and you never really know until it’s out whether people connect with it. Then you never really know where it’s reaching until you find these moments when awards come into play.
Obviously, I’m flattered. I feel lucky. There’s a lot of people behind me that did such a great job, so it’s a lot of feelings, but it’s great.
I received the news as I was trying to get my one-year-old to not hit my four-year-old with a shovel too hard. So it’s hard to sort some of these feelings because life is also happening otherwise, but it’s amazing, of course.
AF: You were new to “Beef” for Season 2, and Season 1 had such a specific visual identity. When you first sat down with Sonny, what did you want to carry over and what did you want to establish for this new story?
Laxton: I love Season 1, so I’m a huge fan of what they did. Going into it, I knew, and this is something Sonny and I discussed in my very first interview, that it had to be a blend.
We wanted to take some elements of what Season 1 had, a certain language and structure that Sonny and Jake really feel is important for them. I wanted to make sure I wasn’t disrupting that while simultaneously bringing in not just what I could in general, but also knowing, as you talked about already, this is a foursome or a six-some in many ways.
There’s going to be different kinds of framing structures and different kinds of shot structures, and that’s the point of it. So it was about a balance between bringing what we felt made sense for the “Beef” language in general and then bringing some new things into it, some different lighting techniques, approaches in general, a new camera format and a few other things that made it feel unique to itself.
AF: Do we see more variety in the visual tone based on the different characters and couples, or is it driven more by the tension and progression of the story?
Laxton: It’s interesting. It’s hard to find the difference between either. I always feel like I’m trying to react first and foremost to the script. That’s my guiding light as I go through any production. What the script is trying to do will be my first thought.
But then, of course, when you’re on set and you’re with the cast and getting their perspective on the characters, things come up. So there’s a combination. The cast can influence tone, and there’s also the tone that wants to be there from a script perspective.
What’s fun about this show in general, and I thought this was true for Season 1 but maybe becomes more evident in Season 2, is the playfulness between tones. There’s such a great ability to laugh out loud in one moment and then feel unnerved underneath.
To me, that’s the strength of Sonny’s writing and the cast bringing so much to it. For me, Sonny and Jake, and how we designed our shot structure, it was about making sure we were emphasizing those things throughout. We were all on the same page and trying to make sure we’re playing with different brushes at the same time, to be able to laugh and be afraid.
AF: One of the most important scenes in the season is the early fight between Josh and Lindsay. What was important to get right visually so we understood these characters and their relationship?
Laxton: In that scene in the first episode, it’s a bit of an open-hearted, ugly fight, and it was important for us to really feel like you’re in there with them. You see the camera moving around with them throughout it. It’s close with them in proximity. We don’t pull out for wides very much in the edit.
In terms of its shot design and what we were trying to do on set, it was to make sure that you’re really feeling like you’re in it with them and you’re feeling the rawness and the backstabbing and all the different things that are going on in those fights.
We wanted you to feel like you were in there with them. That was the primary goal, and to feel the honesty of it as well, the flaws and the messiness that couples have fights with and are in. The camera wanted to be there for all of that, to not just bear witness to it, but to participate in it with the energy that they’re bringing to the scene.
AF: With such an accomplished cast, how aware are you in real time of how special these performances are? Does that ever affect what you’re doing behind the camera?
Laxton: I would say it’s very evident. The crew would often bring it up between takes and between setups.
After that fight scene, I remember discussing it with my camera operators and even, I think, the gaffer and key grip, just about what they were witnessing and how strong the performances they were watching were. So it was really evident to us on set how lucky we were to be working with these great actors.
I hope it doesn’t change what we were doing in terms of the creative choices we made from the outset. I don’t think that’s true. We hoped that what we were doing in pre-production and the creative choices we were making were always going to be in support of the cast and what we were trying to do in the story.
But I think it definitely affected the way the crew, and other cast members I imagine too, felt about the work that they were participating in and wanting to make sure they were going to do their best.
We’re not all Oscar Isaac. We’re not all Carey Mulligan. But we can do our best to meet where they’re at and up our game as well, to make sure we’re being present and we’re not going to miss the moment because we know they’re going to deliver such greatness.
AF: A significant part of the season was shot in Korea. What did that experience mean to you, both working with the Korean crew and filming actors held in such high esteem there?
Laxton: It meant a lot. I felt like I was in the presence of greatness for so much of that time. I can’t share how lucky I felt throughout that experience to be where I was with all of the great Korean cast.
I’ve been watching Korean cinema since maybe my mid-twenties and am such a huge fan of the great work that comes out of that country and, of course, the cast that we had participating in much of it.
I’ve been lucky enough to work with some pretty great American cast members as well in my past. There’s something different when you change the culture and you go to a new country and you’re involved with a filmmaking process that’s not one you’re specifically familiar with. I find my sensations become much more sensitive when I’m in those kinds of environments, and you’re just aware of so much that’s unique to where you’re at. That’s the beauty of filmmaking in general.
I had a great time and really felt like it was a privilege to be involved with that experience.
I will also say that the Korean crew made my life incredibly easy. They were such professionals. In terms of what it was like filming in Seoul, it was amazing on many levels. The talent, the professionalism, the ability to deliver. All the while, I don’t speak Korean and not all of us spoke English, although many of them did, of course. They just made my life incredibly easy, so I felt very lucky on both of those points.
AF: I want to ask about two scenes involving the Korean cast. First, Eunice’s now infamous hamstring stretch. How did you decide how to frame that moment, and did you know she could actually stretch that far?
Laxton: I had no idea that anybody could stretch that far, to be perfectly honest. I think we were all really impressed and didn’t understand. I thought maybe there would need to be some sort of stunt double leg coming in or some sort of camera trickery. I can attest to you, it was impressive to say the least.
That was a fun scene. It’s a simple one in many respects because all it is is a real profile two-shot that, in a very particular sizing and pace, slowly pushes in as these two characters become closer and closer to one another.
That kind of visual language for me is a great example of what I think “Beef” is all about. It’s simple. It’s not in your face. It’s pretty subtle stuff with hopefully some precision built into it that meets performance with camera language in a way that feels synergized.
I love that kind of filmmaking. It feels like it’s simple and effective. That’s always been my goal.
AF: In contrast, the slow-motion action sequence at the medical center in Korea feels like a departure from that simpler visual language. What inspired that sequence, and how did you put it together?
Laxton: You’re right to mention there’s a deviation there a little bit, but one thing I like about that scene is that it isn’t just some sort of style. There is some style to it, but it is hopefully more narrative and story-driven than it otherwise could be.
I’m really proud of where we ended up placing the camera within all these beats and moving through spaces to be in the right spot to see this reaction from Cailee or see that reaction from Charles. There’s a beautiful choreography between stunts and camera and the cast, of course, and the way the design functions with Grace’s production design.
To me, there’s a really great synergy there between all the different disciplines working really well together.
It came from trying to find a way to deal with a story that has been slowly building tension for quite a lot of episodes and a long time. For me, that moment is this little moment where the pressure cooker couldn’t hold on anymore. The pot lid couldn’t hold on anymore. It’s off, and there’s a wild energy to it. There’s a chaos that’s controlled with all these different performances.
In terms of what it feels like to witness it, what we were aiming to give the audience was a little bit of wildness where they could breathe again as the story continues. You almost couldn’t take any more of what’s going to happen next, and then there’s this moment of release.
That’s how it felt in terms of conversations about how that scene wanted to play and what its function was going to be.
AF: You’ve mentioned simplicity and tension, which are both signatures of “Beef.” From a cinematography perspective, what are you doing to create tension without relying on obvious visual gimmicks?
Laxton: I think it’s about camera movement and a balance between pace and sizing of things. Starting on a two-shot that wraps around to the side of Charles’ face at the right moment to emphasize that we’re switching subjective characters here.
Yes, this is about the scene that you’re hearing in the background, but you’re also really in Charles’ mind as well. It’s about moving subjective space and finding, from A to B, how fast to move, where to move and how to move.
Camera movement has a lot to do with how, in this show specifically, we’re delivering tension for sure.
AF: For Emmy voters who might only may watch a few scenes, which scene would you point them toward as the best example of your work this season?
Laxton: There are lots to say, but I think I’m most proud of the scenes in the cell between the couples, between Charles and Cailee’s characters and Oscar and Carey’s.
Those scenes, to me, have a lot of the language of how the shot structure works in Episodes 1, 2 and 7 that sort of summarizes itself in those sequences. They’re the simplest things. They’re not flashy stuff, but they’re really precise work.
I really like the meaning behind them, how they unravel editorially, the pacing of the push-ins and how we’re using silhouette and lighting to emphasize story structure. Those scenes for me are some of my favorites, for sure.
AF: Looking back on the season, is there something you learned or a new technique you’ll carry into future projects?
Laxton: Episode 4 in the hospital is probably the most genre material and approaches that I’ve done before. I definitely learned a lot of tension-building exercises and lighting approaches. In that episode especially, I took a lot from it, for sure.
AF: It was an honor talking to you, James. Congratulations on the nomination and on all the recognition for the season.
Laxton: Thank you very, very much.