It's easy to think Okja will be a sweet children's film. After all, it features one of the most charming animated creatures of recent times—the titular "superpig"—and a winning young Korean girl, Mija (An Seo-Hyun), who has taken care of Okja and grown up alongside her at the family farm.

Initially, I thought to myself: How nice! A relaxing project for Steven Yeun after his character Glenn's grisly demise in The Walking Dead last year. But I soon realized I was way wrong. Okja takes the Babe-style feel-good film premise and puts it through a meat processor. A huge multinational corporation led by Lucy Mirando (Tilda Swinton, mouth fixed in an insecure rictus) has actually bred these superpigs for size and flavor—so when they take Okja off to her doom, Mija follows—all the way to New York City.

Yeun plays an animal-rights activist, K, whose tech skills and Korean language help the Animal Liberation Front track down Okja and communicate with Mija. We spoke to him about roles for Asian actors in Hollywood, what's he'll do next, and why he loves following his wife on Instagram (apart from the obvious).

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I love that this film crosses between two cultures. As a Korean-American actor, did you respond to that element of K's character?

I had a wonderful experience filming this film. I love talking in subtle ways about why a character does what they do, and in this case K has a situational motivation to be accepted anywhere. K identifies as American, but nobody lets him be that. And when he comes back to what everybody says he looks like, nobody understands him. In that regard it's really exciting to play something like that, which you never get to see. We showed a little bit of what it's like to be exiled. Just to feel a part of [a bigger whole] is just a joy for him—and he's willing to do suspect things to get that, and then he seeks redemption. I didn't realize what I was getting into until I was in it, and I was like, This is my life.

Like many an Asian actor, you've played a character who is just called "Asian Guy."

I've been very fortunate to have been able to avoid certain roles that might peg me in certain ways. I got really fortunate to play a character like Glenn, who was a full character—the only part that needed to be Asian is that his face happened to look that way.

Moving forward, do I hope there's more roles for Asians? Yes, I certainly hope so. I hope we can show the world all of the variation that people that look like us have. It's cool that we're talking about this stuff and Asian-America and Asian-cross-Western culture in general. Sometimes, when we take it too far, it becomes our own hindrance, because we're being painted with the broadest stroke of who we actually are. For example, I imagine you're very different than I am, and I'm very different than somebody else. The Asian part of us is what unifies us in some degree, but it's also just a sliver of who we are.

I hope we're headed towards being able to see these roles applicable for anybody. That's what I'm seeing more of, instead of seeing more roles for different types of Asian people. Let's stop putting parameters around why a certain person needs to be a certain way—instead, let's just find the person that fits a role the best.

Steven Yeun, Paul Dano, and Devon Bostick in Netflix

I originally thought 'Okja' would be such a change from a violent, action-driven series like 'The Walking Dead,' but I realized that was not the case—it's not really, say, an animated movie for kids. What made you interested in the film?

For me it was an opportunity to work with director Bong [Joon Ho]. It was really fun to enact his vision. He's such an inspiration for me. He's one of my heroes in this business, and he's such a genius that to be included in one of his films is a huge honor. I would've played anything—I would've played a chair if he had been there. The action stuff here wasn't very extensive, but I think what we do in The Walking Dead as well is find the heart of what we're trying to get to.

One of K's roles is to interpret Mija's words for the Animal Liberation Front, and vice versa. Do you speak Korean?

I do, and in some sense I had to make the Korean I spoke in the movie a little bit worse than the Korean I speak in real life. That's kind of the pocket that K lives in—he's trying to connect to his seeming homeland, but he doesn't have the right tools to do that. He lives in this weird limbo universe.

I wanted to hear a little bit about how you filmed the scenes with Okja.

There was such wonderful production design around Okja. You can see the subtleties and the nuances they imbued into the characters, and the creatures are pretty next level. While we were shooting, we had puppeteers who had giant Okja suits on. It was amazing what the puppeteers were able to do with the creature even in broad moments—they were able to convey pretty strong emotion, and in that way you had something to connect to.

You're an animal lover, right? Do you have pets?

I have two dogs. Albert and Agnes. To me they're our connection to the center, to the mothership, to nature. It's cool to be able to bond with other living things.

You have a monster social-media following. Who are your favorite people on Instagram?

I love following my wife, because she can see the same exact thing on the daily and take a beautiful photo of it, while I just stare at it and don't do it. She's just better than me. I love following my friend Andy because he's just an idiot and I love him. I think [Takashi] Murakami is always good to follow. Whoever I follow, it's about whether we are on the same vibe, and whether it's something new and something I haven't seen.

What do you have coming up next?

I have some projects planned, but beyond that...Walking Dead was such an incredible experience for me. I got a great crash course in jumping into Hollywood. It was wonderful period of exploration for me. I continue to explore what I'm about, and moving forward, that's the only measure I can count on day-to-day that lets me make the right decisions—choosing things that mean something to me, that say what I want to say, or help express what I want to express. I don't know if there's anything specific beyond that.

Estelle Tang Senior Editor Estelle Tang is the former senior editor of ELLE.com.

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